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ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM IN THE HORN OF AFIRC

1.ETHNO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS IN EASTERN AFRICA TIO-DAY:-

The Horn of Africa, the Red Sea remains as strategic as ever mainly because of the importance of the Red Sea route connected to the Western and particularly American controlled oil pipes from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf regions. Soviet American rivalry for the Control of the Red Sea route either directly or through proxies may be over. But regional and local powers may not always be as submissive as they are required to Western and Arab petrol-dollar interests. At the moment the greatest threat to such interests is perceived to be, as indicated above, Islamic Fundamentalism, which fuels national anti-Western nationalism and militancy. And that is why the Red Sea and Eastern African regions have once again assumed a special importance in Western strategic calculations taking sides and arming anti -fundamentalist and pro-Western local insurgencies.

The well known conflict between the Muslim north of Sudan led by the government in Khartoum and the southern Sudan rebellion led by SPLA and its splinter groups, has now been further exacerbated by the introduction of Islamic Fundamentalism in the Sudan, the support to Iraq by the government of the Sudan during the Gulf War, and its recent alliance with Iran which had led Washington to black-list the Sudan as one of the terrorist States accused of arming terrorists in Egypt as well as exporting Islamic Fundamentalism to the Horn ( Ethiopia, Somalia) . Sudan denies all allegations of supporting or training terrorists. Then we have the clan war and warlords of Somalia, in some ways linked to Islamic fundamentalism and to alleged arms shipments not only from Iran and the Sudan, but also from Saudi Arabia. From the we have experienced in the last year or two the resurgence of ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia and Kenya.

2. OLD AND NEW ARMS IN THE HORN: - In the Cold War context, and on the basis of a defense and military assistance agreement Arms to Ethiopia had been coming from the United States of America between 1953 and 1970 while arms to Somalia in armed conflict with Ethiopia on the Ogaden issue, had been arriving since Independence in 1960, from the Soviet union, for the first twenty years or so: Then Italy becomes the most important arms supplier to Somalia, particularly in the years preceding the Ogaden war , and during the Ogaden War of 1978-79. Then with the Soviet Union installed in Ethiopia of Colonel Mengistu (who obtains a Soviet arms supply estimated at over 4 billion dollars until his fall in 1991), the United States replaces it as the arms supplier to Somalia. In the last years of Said Barre with the declared and alleged reason of balancing off Israeli arms to Ethiopia (following Soviet, Cuban and East German military advisers), the Arab countries, mainly Iraq of Saddam Hussein (then United States ally in the war against Iran) as well as Libya were also said to have supplied the regime of Said Barre with arms including helicopter gunship, tanks: There were, therefore abundant arms (including thousands and thousands of still unearthed mines) in both Ethiopia and Somalia following the departure of the dictators of both countries. And these arms, particularly from Ethiopia have found their way into neighboring Kenya and Somalia itself, following the disbanding and dissolution of the 500, 000 strong army of the Derg thousands of whom had sold or been forcibly dispossessed of their arms before deciding to give up their hands or live in exile, mainly in Kenya, Uganda, and the Sudan. And then these arms (mainly Soviet, but also American, Italian, etc.) Were on sale in open markets in Somalia and Kenya. It was therefore, mainly these arms the Somali War lords and the �technical� of Mogadishu are using in their clan wars! It is, however, not clear, if the arms which were being sold in open "gun markets in north eastern Mogadishu where the American forces confiscated on one occasion alone five truck loads of arms and several thousands of rounds of ammunition, were newly imported or old stocks.

New Arms: But there are also continuous reports of large shipments of new arms arriving in Eastern African countries destined to the states as well as to sub-state insurgent groups. The West, and particularly the United States accuse Iran as being the principal source of arms reaching, either directly or through the Sudan, Islamic fundamentalists or sympathizers in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea:

Somalia: One of the principal objectives of United States �Restore Hope� "humanitarian intervention" in Somalia has been said to eradicate Somali forces (including Aided) favorable to Islamic Fundamentalism! The centre of Somali Islamic fundamentalists (called Wahabiti) is said to be Laugh ( close to Bale ) in the interior close to the Ethio-Kenyan border, and their principal port of supply was reported to be Mecca port south of Mogadishu and Bosasso in the Northeast facing Aden. Arms shipments were reported reaching the Somali coast from Saudi Arabia and Iran through these ports. Thus, the disarming and disbanding by the American forces of the small Islamic Fundamentalist army in Mecca port had received some publicity in February 1993. (In the Italian newspaper Messaggero. In Busasso itself there was a small battle between Integra lists - alleged to be followers of Aided, and Darod opponents supportive of the United States of America. It is interesting to note that , while in Bossaso, a Somali Darod SSDF activist had seen, a vice minister of the pro-American Ethiopian regime in power in Addis Ababa sent to encourage them and promise arms to the Darod in their war against the integralists in Bossaso. Indeed Bossaso also acted as the route of arms supply to Oromo insurgents ( fighting in Harar and Bale, ) against the government in Addis Ababa. We know , on the other hand that America has always been supportive of Oromo ( OLF) claims to Self determination carving out Ethiopian territory and had expressed displeasure at the chasing away of the OLF from power- sharing in Addis Ababa. It is also interesting to note that the Darod opponents of the Integra lists pin point not only at Iran and Sudan but particularly at Saudi Arabia as the supplier of arms to the Integra lists. In a very identical manner in the second half of 1991, and early 1992, there were reports of trucks full of arms arriving with arms in Borena on the Ethio-Somali-Kenya border destined to Islamic Oromo fighters engaged in clashes against other ethnic groups in Borena, and particularly against the Christian Amhara in Arsi region further north. And if indeed Saudi Arabia has been the supplier of these arms, given U.S.-Saudi alliance, and Saudi role as American proxy arms supplier to Third World insurgents, we get a complicated picture of the sponsorship.

3.WHO IS ARMING ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM?

The Iran-Sudan Connection versus The CIA-Saudi-Connection

Before the Gulf war several informed reports had repeatedly come out with the news of huge Iraqi military involvement in the Sudan. According to one report just preceding the -gulf War, Iraq had sent as many as 7000 troops and large amounts of arms to the Sudan to help, among other things, in the fight against the southern rebellion , as well as in support of the Tigrai and Eritrean guerrilla forces against the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia. But more important perhaps was that Iraq, by 1990 , was already planning a possible attack against Saudi Arabia from the Sudanese Red Sea coast where most of the Iraqi troops had concentrated. It will be remembered that Iraq was an ally of the United States and the Arab countries of the Gulf financing its war against Iran recently terminated.

Since the Gulf War , Iran had replaced Iraq in the Sudan. The Task Force on Terrorism and unconventional Warfare of the Republican Committee of the U.S. house of Representatives had in a report entitled IRAN'S SHADOW OVER THE RED SEA reported on February 1, 1992 : that since the Gulf War and the destruction of Iraq, Iran had developed an interest in strengthening relations with the Islamic fundamentalist regime of General Omar al Bashir in power since coup of June 1989 , together with his Revolutionary Command Committee (RCC) and aided by Hasan Abdallah al-Turabi, leader of the International Muslim Brotherhood ( and "the spiritual head of Sudan" comparable to Khomeyni) who had close links with Islamic fundamentalist movements in the region (including FIS of Algeria, Tunisia, Pakistan , Afghanistan, and several Gulf states as well as in the Horn of Africa - Ethiopia , Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania etc. ). they are committed like the Khomeynist regime in Iran to the establishment of a single world-wide Islamist state through a single Islamist revolutionary movement that is duty bound to implement the Islamic revolution wherever Muslims live. Not very different from the internationalist objectives of the Marxist proletarian movement!

An internationalist organization for the spread the Islamic revolution called "Islamic Arab Popular Conference " was established in Khartoum in the early summer 1991 with Turabi as the permanent leader .Imbued with the ideas of al-Takfir, Hijra, ad Dawa and Jihad, they are committed to promote by all necessary means , including the Jihad, or religious war, the causes of the Islamic revolution. Among the immediate targets were Tunisia, Algeria, Libya , Egypt Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia. .. Sudan had concluded a military alliance and defense pact with Iran in Khartoum on 12-13 December 1991 on the occasion of the summit (157 men Iranian delegation led by Hashemi Rafsanjani , and the Foreign as well as Defense Ministers) under which Iran will supply oil , and particularly a military assistance of $.20 million a year. General Beshir was then reported as saying :" The West is now aware that rapprochement between Muslims will lead to the creation of a superpower which could defy Western civilization". The agreement also stipulated Sudanese-Iranian co-operation in the field of intelligence services, in exchanging and collecting information, training of Sudanese officers in modern intelligence methods and receipt of security equipment.

In mid-November 1991, Iran had agreed to pay the Sudan an additional $300 million worth of arms including 6 F-7 fighter aircraft. Chinese air force instructors arrived in the Sudan at the same time for training. Africa Confidential adds (December 20, 1992) that Iranian arms supplies included 18 F-7 and F-8 fighter aircraft, which were immediately "deployed in bombing Darfur and the south where there have been regular raids on Bor and Torit this month." According to the same sources the Iranian arms consignment also included 160 T-54 , T-59 and T-70 tanks, 270 announced personnel carriers and armored cars and multiple rocket launchers and artillery. " With a near total aid boycott by Arab and Western governments, Khartoum had been desperately short of material and the cash to buy it." To continue with the Republican report, immediately after Hashemi -Rafsanjani's visit , an Iranian ship loaded with weapons and ammunition arrived in port Sudan carrying a total of $20 million worth of military equipment, including the first batteries of Iranian -made SSMs Silkworm anti-ship missiles . as well as some 20 T-90 Chinese made tanks, artillery pieces, large quantities of small arms including 1,000 RPG-7s, ammunition and spare parts. Finally, Iran had strengthened and consolidated Sudanese sea power in the Red Sea and the first batteries of Silkworm missiles with Iranian and Sudanese crews have already been deployed in the Red Sea in joint exercises in January 1991. Additionally Iran is financing and assisting the renovation of 3 fast attack boats and their conversion into missile boats. The US supported Sudanese opposition - particularly those in Egypt, assembled under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), working, in collaboration with the SPLA , to oust the al-Beshir regime, give the exaggerated figure of 18,000 Iranians in the Sudan (AFP 21 February , 1992).

- that Sudan was becoming the key to the financing of Islamist movements throughout the region controlling several banks in the West and in Arab countries. The Turabi-led International Muslim Brotherhood was indeed considering the establishment "of a world bank for fundamentalists" to which Iran had contributed $ 30 million. The Republican report alleges that the FIS election victory in Algeria was financed by a 12 million grant from such international fundamentalist bank sources.

- that Sudan had become the focal point of the "terrorist" infrastructure for the promotion of the Islamic Fundamentalist revolution. It was alleged that the "terrorist "infrastructure in Sudan under the auspices of Turabi's Muslim Brotherhood, has been growing since the establishment of the first three bases in August 1989

1. On the Red Sea coast

2.in Kaduqli

3. in al-Jarif (near Khartoum) were established to train terrorists in "assassination, clandestine organisation, sabotage, and arms smuggling ." Khartoum provided the graduates with extensive assistance , including Sudanese passports " and were sent "as assassination squads to kill 'enemies'...in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Ethiopia." Two forward bases were ( also) established in northern Sudan to sustain operations... in Egypt through smuggling

4. Through Darb al-Araba'un to Asyut,

5. Through al-Wadi al-Jadid to Aswan and the Nile valley

In Halfayat al-Muluk (just north of Khartoum summer of 1990, where trainees included Egyptians, Sudanese, Eritreans, Palestinians , Yemenites and Saudis.

According to the same source, certainly of CIA-Mossad origin, following the Iran-Sudan defense pact, Iranian trainers and financing arrived , including several members of the Hizb Allah, who arrived from the Biqaa valley in Lebanon as well as Hizb Allah experts from Iran. By November 1991 , Iran had assisted in the establishment of 30 terrorist training bases including Jabak Taqiya (near Omdurman ) , Kadru ( north-east of Khartoum) , Jabal al-Awliya (80 km, south of Khartoum , al-Kamiliyan ( 120 km east of khartoum) , Quz Rajab ( eastern Sudan) , al-Ma'aqil region, ( south of Khartoum) , Arus camp ( in the Khartoum area, Sawba camp ( in the Khartoum area), al Shambat and al-Mazra'ah ( for terrorist actions in Europe.

According to the same source, the first group of trainees in Islamic Fundamentalist revolution in the Sudanese camps were given a 3-month course at the al-Shambat camp. Subjects taught in these camps included manipulating small arms, self-defense, advanced sabotage techniques through explosives (SEMTEX) , armed ambushes, manufacturing explosives from local materials, topography, and using night-vision equipment, clandestine work, counter -political work ( subversion and break up of political activities, rallies, etc.) A special attention was paid to the expansion of the Hamas principle, namely a dedicated armed branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The mainly targeted countries were Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Jordan and the Horn of Africa and particularly Ethiopia. Egyptian, Tunisian, and Algerian officials have repeatedly asserted that hundreds of fundamentalist "terrorists" arrested by security forces in those countries have confessed to having received military training , money and travel documents in Sudan before filtering home to engage in "terrorism". ( Africa Research Bulletin, June 1st to 30th, 1993) .

The struggle against the "Zionists" also occupies a major priority in the Iran-Khartoum connection, with offices in Khartoum offered particularly to members of the Palestinian "rejectionist front" - Abu Nidal's FRC, PFLP, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, etc.

Which rejected the peace negotiations with Israel led by the Palestinian Authority.

As far as Egypt is concerned, the violent Islamic opposition movement frequented largely by Egyptian youth, and calling for the establishment of a pure Islamic State, full of threats against the minority Coptic Orthodox Christians, was not an Iranian -Sudanese fabrication but "home-grown". Thus, according to Africa Research Bulletin, the Islamic Fundamentalist opposition organization el-Gama'a el-Islamiya (the Islamic group) - far from being an Iranian-backed subversive group led by the blind Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman as the Egyptian government claimed - had as its true leaders two Egyptianwho had fought as volunteers in the Afghan war paid by CIA-Saudi Arabia. Further, according to el-Gama'a itself, "they received weapons and training during the Afghan war not from Iran but from the CIA ." Thus once again the "CIA-Saudi Arabia Connection," complicating once again the issue of arms sponsorship and the pay-masters of proxies! Africa Research Bulletin, which reports this fact, ads: "The Saudis have also given substantial funding to the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria." The news had caused the consternation, which has started to speak in general terms of "Islamic terrorism". A remarkable change of strategy is that U.S. officials have started to cast doubts on external involvement in Egyptian terrorism, preferring instead to attribute it to a "home grown" revolt motivated by poor social and economic conditions. (Africa Research Bulletin, May 1st to 431st, 1993) Information or disinformation? The Egyptian government , is said to be well aware of the Saudi connection but dare not publicize their concern for fear of alienating their richest neighbor, and the united States. And hence the Egyptian media's continued pin-pointing at Iran and the Sudan . Bur worse still, the Egyptian government is also well aware that Washington is preparing to abandon it by gradually diminishing the yearly 2-3 billion dollars of American economic and military assistance of the Cold War years. And more: "Anxious to avoid a repetition of the Iranian revolution - where their failure to form a relationship with the Islamic opposition turned an ally into an enemy when the Shah was dethroned - the Americans have been making discreet contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose calls for a nation governed by Sharia law are more moderate than those of the violent secret society el-Gama'a el -Islamiya." And concludes : "Mubarak is in danger!". We now that all that tends to be disinformation as uncontested Mubarak continues to successively win what the CIA calls Egyptian �democratic elections�.

The Khartoum government which has supported Iraq during the Gulf war, supported Libya's refusal to extradite two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing, denounced the bombing of Somalia by American forces, and has apparently chosen to support the rejectionist Palestinian forces opposed to the PLO-Israel Peace Treaty) denies categorically having any camps on its land for training internationalist Islamic revolutionaries or "terrorists" and attribute the whole thing to a covert disinformation campaign. The camps, in question , according to the Sudanese government, are training camps for students in the compulsory National Service who are being trained in military as well as police arts to guard public utilities from sabotage and mines. They are all Sudanese and do not include any foreigners at all. The youth militia or "auxiliary force" which complements the regular army and police, has been used in the war in the South, but it is particularly trained to defend the Sudan in case America's threatening posture becomes a reality.

The Sudanese government has, therefore , suggested an independent fact finding mission to study and report on the allegation of terrorist training camps in the Sudan.

In the mean time , on the basis of the above documentation , certainly collected by the CIA-Mossad and their Sudanese agents, the United States government had included the Sudan in its black list of terrorist states . Indeed the American marines in the Red Sea are constantly on the look out for Sudanese and Iranian , and indeed all ships, determined to stop any arms shipments to Khartoum and from Khartoum to neighboring regions. Already on two occasions, once a Yemeni ship and on another occasion a Japanese ship sailing to or from Port Sudan have been sized and searched by American marines, in Jeddah and Djibouti , without any success.

On the other hand we now know through the Orlando (Florida)-Uganda connection - which smacks of CIA covert involvement , that heavy and highly destructive American arms are being shipped to the insurgents in Southern Sudan, very probably unsearched and unchallenged in the Red Sea! Indeed, on August 18, 1992, the customs of Orlando had stopped , while still in the warehouse, a shipment of arms - including 400 TOW anti-tank missiles and 34 TOW launchers worth $18 million about to be exported illegally by an Ugandan-Egyptian team . And the incident had led to the arrest , among others, of the private secretary of President Museveni of Uganda , the Ugandan U.S. Ambassador , a former major -general and an army colonel in the Egyptian army and a 56 year old American lady, accompanying the arms shipment. The missiles were destined for Uganda to be passed to the Sudan's People's Liberation Army (SPLA) for the recapture of Juba. Since the liquidation of SPLA headquarters in Ethiopia, John Garang had moved his seat to near Kaya in Uganda . Significantly , the funds for the arms are said to have been provided by Saudi Arabia worried, like Washington and Egypt, by Iranian revolutionary influence in the Sudan. The failure of the arms shipment was a blow to all local and foreign opponents of the regime in Khartoum and particularly to the SPLA "which would have used (the missiles) to neutralize the Iranian -supplied tanks against which they have no effective weaponry."

Eritrea�( the presentation shown beneath regarding Eritrea � some portion of the presentation is deleted by me-Getachew Reda- weighing as irrelevant to the issue. Therefore the relevant part is quoted under.)

�Tel Aviv trained the Derg's soldiers on the use of cluster bombs, they were simultaneously training Eritrean guerrilla fighters on the technology of defense from cluster bombs. However that may Issaias Afewerk 's trip to Jerusalem on January 5 , officially for medical treatment, but ending up , after recovery, in a well publicized official Eritrean delegation headed by Afework himself to meet Prime Minister Ishak Rabin on February 15, 1993), had generated an out-burst of Arab protest against the perceived CIA-Moss ad engineered alliance system. Syria, the country which came at the top of Arab military assistance to the "Arab" Eritrean guerrilla , part of the "Arab nation", etc. ( as Arab literature of the 1960's and 1970's described ELF ) had denounced as betrayal the trip for medical treatment to Israel "the land of the enemy" and expressed its disappointment violently in the official organ "Tishrin", followed also by Saudi Arabia where the Eritrean representative , Amin Mohamed Ali, was detained and later expelled along with four of his compatriots. Further Saudi Arabia had expressed concern that Moslems are underrepresented in the Referendum Commission established to prepare the poll for April 1993. And in general Arab attitude towards Eritrean independence was cooling down. Regarding the Eritrean official delegation to Jerusalem, Maher Osman writing in Al Hayat ( 18-2-93 , London) had spoken of a "coup d'�tat of Issaias " against the Arabs and ingratitude for their financial and material support up to victory: ."Why have Issaias and his collaborators chosen of all places, Israel - the principal enemy of the Arab countries ". Regarding the Rabin-Issaias negotiations the Arab papers spoke of a "security agreement" to ward off the common threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism. Issaias denounced the Saudi action and played down the value of Saudi assistance to the Eritrean guerrilla fighters during the 30 years war. According to the Cairo based Barry Gossa (quoted above) : "With Arab grievances , the Eritreans admit that a chapter in their struggle might have opened a new one, perhaps a more dangerous one...Many Eritreans living in Saudi are already under constant interrogation. Some were expelled. Here in Cairo the mood is not so bad as in Saudi, but the honey-moon is long gone. In the Sudan relations are acceptable only on the official level, and the common people are developing animosity. Turabi is very unhappy: He was heard saying "They can't win here and there. I always knew they should not be trusted in Arab issue." However, according to other sources, Turabi is reported to have promised at the Islamic Conference Organization meeting to give assistance to the Mujahedeen of ELF (Eritrean Liberation Front) who have announced to wage a Jihad against the Christian dominated EPLF. Most of ELF's Western Eritrea Muslim followers live in exile in Eastern Sudan. Issaias is reported to have protested strongly against Turabi's offer of assistance to his adversaries.

Israel was , naturally , reported delighted at its new ties and considered Eritrea as part of a bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism. (See text in Arabic.)�

Islamic Fundamentalist group is believed to be financed by Saudi Arabia.

The Religious Dimension of Inter-Ethnic Wars and the Threat of Islamic Fundamentalism in Ethiopia:-

During the OLF, and later OPDO and particularly the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromiya - IFLO led ethnic cleansing of Christian Amharas in the south and east, a number of Orthodox Churches as well as priests have been burnt. There were also cases of forcible conversion of Orthodox Christians. Both the OLF and IFLO having left the transitional government and parliament are to day engaged in a guerrilla war against the TPLF-EPLF government troops. The IFLO is, in spite of its declaration an Islamic Fundamentalist organization..

There is a lot of outcry and apprehension in Ethiopian Christian , and particularly Orthodox Christian circles regarding Islamic Fundamentalist penetration and development . The well-known New York Times columnist Jane Perlez had written in January 1992:

"Fears are mounting again among Christians in Ethiopia about another onslaught from Muslim Fundamentalists...The new Government led by President Meles Zenawi , is not only unsympathetic to the Church but is more accommodating to Islamic Fundamentalism , Ethiopian officials and diplomats here say."(New York Times, International, January 13, 1992).

A German evangelist paper , �Bund Freier Evangelischer� Gemeinden Kdor had reported that the Arab countries were spending millions of dollars to completely transform Ethiopia completely into a Muslim country within twenty years. The paper stated that Christians who accepted to convert themselves to Islam were paid an estimated 6000 German marks ( or about $3550) . Christian Bibles are being collected and burnt . Some 9 thousand Muslim missionaries are being recruited every year..."( quoted by Admas, Amharic periodical published in Zurich, May 1992) In the same way, the London based Islamic Watch ( October -November 1992) has written that there is a widespread persecution of Christians in Ethiopia. Churches were being burnt and large number of Christians massacred, particularly in Arussi and Harar region.

According to one Ethiopian political writer , the CIA , through Abdul Mohamed Aba Bora , a widely suspected agent of Ethiopian Muslim origin, was indicated as having established and financed �The Ethiopian Muslim Youth Organization� � EMYO (formed in 1992?). (Moresh, June-July 1993). The Ethiopian Muslim Youth organization lists its objectives as being to spread the teaching of Islam and raise the status of Muslims in Ethiopia. The Organization which has branches in different provincial cities, publishes as of January 1993 �Da'awa Tri" (The Call of Da'awa) . And the articles in its first issue appear to suggest Muslim Fundamentalist and Integra list inclinations and bent on international Islamic fraternity. The Organization denounced the repression of Muslim Fundamentalists in Algeria and Egypt, and supported the Muslim liberation movements in Kashmir. It had organized in Addis Ababa a demonstration in solidarity with Indian Muslims on the occasion of the destruction of the Mosque of Ahoja! Da'awa also publishes articles sympathizing with the causes of Muslims of Bosnia where, we are told through the words of a Serb soldier, the objective of the war was the elimination of Islam from Europe" through the extermination or conversion of the Muslims. Close to home the Muslim Youth Organization condemned the UN-US so called "humanitarian intervention" in Somalia. . "Do they really need 35,000 soldiers to support the Somali Muslims dying everywhere from famine. No one believes them! But don't worry for, in the final analysis, Allah willing, victory is ours," the paper commented. If indeed the organization is CIA promoted through Abdul, this is not the first time that the U.S. has been denounced by its own prot�g�s. The Ethiopian Muslim Youth Organization participates in international Muslim activities and appears to be in close contact particularly with Muslims of Africa. The first issue announces scholarships granted by the Sudanese to Ethiopian Muslims through the Ethiopian Muslim Youth Organization. Regarding Fundamentalism and Integralism, an article in English in this same first issue, entitled "ISLAM , SYSTEM OF LIFE" reads:- "Islam is a system for practical human life in all its aspects. This is a system that entails the ideological ideal ..."

There is also mention of other Muslim organizations in Ethiopia. One is called the �Ansoire Sura Association of Ethiopia"-ASAE presided by a Christian convert from Arsi, Ustaz Ahmed Alfaqir'a who had attended a three month course in the Sudan ( in the Islamic revolution camps?). Regarding the All Ethiopian Muslim Democratic Movement,-AMDM established in the United States which was one of the 23 ethnic and multi-ethnic organizations which attended the July Conference in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Muslim Youth Organization- EMYO denounced it as anti-Islam. "At its ...conference we have read love poems..." This is yet one more revelation on the type of representation of the so-called July "national Conference" out of which was formed the Transitional Government of Ethiopia!

The London based Islamic Watch October/November 1992 alleges: "Col. Ghadafi is reported to be financing a plan to turn Ethiopia into an exclusively Islamic country by the end of the century. A growing number of Christians are converting to Islam, for which they receive a payment of 10,000 Birr (2000U.S. dollars)." International as well as Islamic organizations, on the other hand, condemns Christian missionaries for past and present work of proselytism. Rashid Moten, writing in a clear integralist tone and terminology and after complaining that "in spite of its having a Muslim majority (about 65%)of its 43 million population) (both figures are wrong), the world knows Ethiopia as a Christian country�, he goes on to say: "Sayyid Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, who introduced the Khatimiya Sufi order in eastern Sudan and Eritrea, had successfully carried out his Da�awa and converted a number of Christians," such that the Muslims came to constitute an overwhelming majority in Eritrea...The colonial incursions , however stopped the revivalists from further "unfurling the banner of the Prophet" and transforming the whole country into Dar ul -Islam (House of Islam). The colonial powers, with their "civilising mission" were interested in uniting the local Christian forces and augmenting their power position so as to form a bulwark against their common enemy - Islam."

The reality to day is on the contrary the proliferation of mosques and the conversion of Christians with the objective of reducing them to an insignificant number. According to the above quoted Islamic Watch, since the rise to power of the Tigrai-Eritrean Sha�abia-Weyane guerrilla forces in Addis Ababa, at least 500 mosques have been built in different parts of Ethiopia. The funding for the construction of mosques and for the conversion of Christians is said to come from Saudi Arabia. Libya and Iran, among others.

Ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Christians

And the burning of Churches and monasteries

The Spectre of Islamic Fundamentalism

A neglected issue of the survival of an ancient African Christianism

In a letter addressed to Congressman Marvyn M. Dymally, Chairman of the United States Congress sub-Committee on Africa, Professor Asrat wrote:-

" In the above provinces (Arsi, Hararghe, Bale and south Showa) churches have been desecrated and burnt to the ground while throwing the clergy and those people who sought refuge in the churches into the fire alive. The surviving clergy are forced to accept the faith of Islam if they preferred to live. "

Thus according to Professor Asrat (letter of In June -July 1992 (Sene 27, 1984), under the supervision of the same Government and OPDO representative Dima Gurmessa, the following six Orthodox Christian churches in the Arba Gugu Awraja with all their sacred objects inside have been set on fire and the priesthood massacred by the same OPDO militia.:

In Abessa 1. Abessa Egziahrab

2. Abule Giorgis

3. Abshira Medhane Alem

In Gunna 4. Andere Giorgis

5. Teram Gabriel

6. Messo Gabriel

In the same letter the AAPO leader had denounced desecration of the 700 year old historic monastery of Asebot near the Awash in the province of Harar (one of the many threatened ancient cultural heritages of Ethiopia in the south, outdating the Galla invasion of Ethiopia in the 16th and 17th centuries) and massacre of monks and others, by the militia of the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromiya (IFLO) led by General Gira largely believed to be financed by Saudi Arabia. The General was heard inciting his men "Long Live the Tigrai Guerrilla who have disarmed the Amhara: Now is the day to exterminate them!" once again admitting openly who had prepared the onslaught! Professor Asrat lamented that he had been obliged to present the plight of the Christians because, as he put it:

"This happens at a time when the Ethiopian Orthodox Church completely abandoned, and without any one to protect and defend its followers and clergy, is headed by leaders fighting for power and wealth and competing to raise their own tribe to the throne, that they have had no time to denounce the horrors suffered by Christians either to the Ethiopian public or to the Christians of the world."

This refers to the CIA man Fesseha Tsion Tekie manipulated controversial appointment of Abune Pawlos of Tigrai in July 1992 as Patriarch of Ethiopia, an event which has divided the Ethiopian Church inside as well as outside, as confirmed by the recent case which has come out in the American press. The Patriarch is, in fact, accused to be a politician entirely committed to the cause of the Sha�abia-Weyane Tigrai and Eritrean occupation forces and not a holy figure committed to the promotion and survival of the Ethiopian Church. We have indeed, not been able to find any condemnation on his part of the massacres perpetuated in Arussi, Harar, and Welega etc or against the burning of the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Churches and monasteries.

--------End of the paper----

My hope is that, reading this document, our Islam brothers/sisters will be well aware the danger aiming against Christianity in Ethiopia. My guess is the writers who stood against Alem Zelalem�s concern are well aware of what took place in Ethiopia by Islamic fundamentalists against Christianity centruries back. It is this threat therefore, that put us to suspect the activity of fundamentalist in the Horn and in Ethiopia.

We are also hope, our Islamic brothers who are writing in the internet defending Wahabi faith will equally present as we do �the threat and activities by Islamic fundamentalist� that is going on in Ethiopia, be it Wahabism or any other Islamic religion.

These gentleman as educated as they are, and also being Islam themselves- They have written their best to tell the internet readers the domination of Islam by Christians in Ethiopia, but similarly also � we are expecting them to present us and inform us the danger we both (Christian and Islam) face from Islamic extremist in Ethiopia- just exactly as what the two honourable high Muslim officials in Ethiopia -----last week expose the secret connection of Saudi Arabia and Wahabist in Ethiopia and the activity and the threat of Wahabists in Ethiopia and the huge money(4million Saudi Riyal) that is been used to corrupt officials and citizens in Ethiopia to advance Wahabism in the illegal way.//-// Read the following Amharic script with Ge�ez font posted in ENH originally published by Reporter news paper in Tahassas 19/1996.