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Ethiopian Church Burnings Incited by Extremists, Meles Says

March 14, 2011 at 4:55 PM Leave a comment

By William Davison

March 14 (Bloomberg) — Church burnings in southwestern Ethiopia that left at least one person dead were incited by an extremist Islamic group, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

Evangelical churches in Assendabo, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa, and other towns in the Jimma region were torched earlier this month. At least 46 of the churches belonged to the Kale Heywot faith and 23 more to other groups, according to Kale Heywot Church General Secretary Tesfaye Abadura. A Kale Heywot bible school and office have been destroyed and as many as 7,000 people have been displaced, Tesfaye said in a phone interview on March 12.

Those responsible for inciting the attacks are believed to be preachers from the Islamist Kawarja group, Meles told reporters in Addis Ababa on March 12.

“We believe there are elements of the Kawarja sect and other extremists who have been preaching religious intolerance in the area,” Meles said. “In previous times, we have cracked down on Kawarja because they were involved in violence. Since then they have changed their tactics and they have been able to camouflage their activities through legal channels.”

The attacks began when Christians were arrested after an unidentified Muslim individual accusing them of flushing a Koran down a church toilet, Tesfaye said.

“After that Muslims came together and burned the churches, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’,” he said.

Seid Asmare, spokesman for the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, said he couldn’t immediately comment because he was in a meeting when called on his mobile phone today.

Incidents of religious strife in Ethiopia are rare, though there have been fatal sectarian clashes in the southwest in recent years. Ethiopia’s population includes 34 percent Muslims and 63 percent Christians, according to the CIA World Factbook.

A report on the church burnings by the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia will be delivered on March 16, Zerihun Degu, general secretary of the council, said by phone today.

–Editors: Paul Richardson, Karl Maier.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

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