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1. (C) Arab Wahabi missionaries, mainly from Saudi Arabia,
continue to make inroads into the Ethiopian Muslim community,
but are meeting increasing resistance in doing so. Islam has
existed in Ethiopia since the time of the Prophet Muhammad
and the mainly Sufi Muslim community has enjoyed traditions,
customs, and cultural practices that have endured for
centuries. Yet this indigenous Muslim culture has come under
attack since 9/11 by Wahabi missionaries engaging in what
amounts to &cultural imperialism8 against Ethiopian Islam.
Prior to 9/11, there was little Wahabi proselytizing in
Ethiopia. As a result, Ethiopia's delicate Muslim/Christian
balance and historic attitudes between the faith communities
regarding tolerance and mutual respect are being challenged,
thereby undermining U.S. interests in the region. Sufi
Muslim leaders want support from the U.S. to counter this
pressure. END SUMMARY.
WAHABIS CHALLENGE ETHIOPIAN MUSLIMS
2. (C) In the Harar, Bale, and Dessie regions of Ethiopia,
Arab Wahabi missionaries (and their Ethiopian disciples) are
directly challenging the traditions and practices of the
indigenous Muslim community. As expressed to PAO by members
of the IASC, Wahabi missionaries are able to use their money
and &legitimacy8 as native speakers of the language of the
Koran and their closeness to the holy cities of Mecca and
Medina, to undermine Ethiopian Muslim customs and traditions
and teach interpretations of the Koran that promote a far
less tolerant view of other Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Because of the financial support these missionaries have, it
is very difficult for Ethiopian Muslim leaders to counter
their influence and many imams are not educated well enough
to argue against these foreign interlocutors. As a result,
indigenous Ethiopian Muslim culture is under assault and the
Ethiopian Muslim community needs U.S. support to counter
extremist influence that may well generate and promote
conflicts with the Ethiopian Christian community as well as
intra-Muslim conflicts as we have already seen happen in some
areas.
3. (C) Ethiopians are sensitive to this issue and readily
understand the nature of this conflict when it is put in
&cultural imperialism8 terms. &Cultural imperialism8 and
&globalization8 are terms that resonate with Africans
across the continent. Ethiopian Muslims, in particular, can
easily see that Arab cultural imperialism under the guise of
Wahabi missionaries threatens their centuries-old faith
traditions and sends a message of inferiority to the Muslim
faithful. That message of inferiority is that African Muslim
traditions (particularly Sufi) are &unislamic,8 that
Africans who have been practicing Islam for more than a
thousand years have &strayed form the Truth,8 and that they
need to purge their culture and traditions of practices and
rituals that do not conform to their Arab/Saudi/Wahabi ideal.
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In the context of Harar, the ubiquitous quest to define Islam could be explained through the historical perspective of a conflict between two religious scholars who can be described justifiably as transnational actors. Both were born in Harar in the 1910s and are now the agents and symbolic representatives of different schools of thoughts: Hadj Yù suf aAbd al-Ra˙ man, a businessman who represents the Wahhabitic ideology of Saudi Arabia, and Shaykh aAbdallà h, a traditional scholar who presides over a counter movement, the Ó abashiyya, which was initiated in Lebanon.
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