PM Abiy Ahmed talk with Ethiopian Muslim community
PM Abiy Ahmed held a meeting yesterday with rival groups within the Ethiopian Muslim community with the intention to initiate effort to reconcile the groups.
And it looks like he had a remarkable achievement in the getting the groups to talk to each other with the objective to resolve their dispute unlike the case by the administration of his predecessor which was rather trying to use one group against the other.
A committee is formed, apparently recommended by the prime minister himself, to resolve the dispute between Ethiopian Islamic Affair Council and Committee for the solution of Ethiopian Muslim Affairs.
The prime minister’s office officially disclosed that government arbitrated the two groups standing on the principle of neutrality. A report by state media says that initially the prime minister met the two groups separately and then they held a meeting together. The result was that they reached to a point where they agreed to leave their acrimonies behind, apologizing to each other, as in the tradition of Ethiopian culture, and pledge to resolve their differences.
Notable from the agreement is that essentially no third party will be involved in the effort to resolve their differences.
The committee that is formed to search for solutions for the disputes between them will be drawn from both groups.
It is composed of nine members; three from both groups and three members from elders and religious scholars.
Accordingly, from The Committee for the Solution of Ethiopian Muslim Affairs, Ustaz Abubakr Ahmed, Ustaz Ahmedin Jebel and Ustaz Kamil Shemsu are selected to be in the committee.
On the part of Ethiopians Islamic Affair Council (Mejlis) Mufti Haji Umar, Haji Mohammed Amin (president of the Mejlis) and Haji Kedir are chosen to be part of the assigned body.
Dr. Idris Mohammed, Dr. Mohammed Habib and Sheik Mohammed Jemal Agonafer, representing elders and religious scholars, are also included in the committee.
Committee for the solution of Ethiopian Muslims Affair was elected by members of the Ethiopian Muslim community to look for a solution for what they say was government intervention their religious affairs(You may want to read this). The government reaction, back then, was to incriminate them by travelling to the extent of preparing a sham documentary film entitled “Jehadawi Harekat”, throw them to jail and torture them. It was only after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office that they were released from prison.
