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Muslims Renegotiating Marginality in Contemporary E thiopia
Author(s) -
Feyissa Dereje,
Lawrence Bruce B.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the muslim world
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.106
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1478-1913
pISSN - 0027-4909
DOI - 10.1111/muwo.12056
Subject(s) - contest , politics , political science , political economy , pluralism (philosophy) , agency (philosophy) , power (physics) , immigration , state (computer science) , sociology , economic history , law , economics , social science , philosophy , physics , epistemology , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science
Ethiopian M uslims have only had access to public space and opportunity for religious self‐definition and collective influence since 1991. During little more than two decades, how have they advanced subjective agency within the political constraints of the current government, the E thiopian P eople's R evolutionary D emocratic F ront or EPRDF ? This article addresses that question by backgrounding the history of I slamic expansion into E thiopia, tracing M uslim engagement with C hristian political elites over several hundred years, till the latter part of the 21st century. After the deposition of H aile S elasse in 1974, the DERG assumed power and in the name of a socialist agenda, suppressed all religions from 1975–1991. DERG socialism has been replaced by EPRDF pluralism, yet the structural constraints of the latter have weakened the efforts of E thiopian M uslims to find their rightful place in the public square. Abetted and assisted by overseas immigrant communities, in both W estern E urope and N orth A merica, E thiopian M uslims continue to contest securitization and marginalization by the state, even as they struggle with regional, national and transnational issues that impact all M uslim identity politics in the second decade of the 21st century.