Personal Reflection on ETV’s Film Number 4 The film starts with the story of Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian man who bombed government buildings in Oslo, killing 77 people in a mass shooting on 22 July 2011. This is deliberately made to show that the government is not targeting any specific religion by its accusation of Muslims for terrorism and to show that it believes that terrorism is not monopoly of Islam. With this, the aim is to build strong rapport with the audience and brainwash them that what is going to be presented in the film is balanced information. But, this is contrary to the fact that the Ethiopian Muslim question is not about who is terrorist and who is not. Unlike, Anders Behring Breivik, the Ethiopian Muslim demand is constitutional and peaceful, which continued to be the same all along despite the hard effort made by the regime to sabotage the struggle by killing and brutally cracking down on the peaceful protesters. The film then continued to show taking long time on the discussion about the injustices done during the past regimes where it was declared in the constitution that Ethiopia to be an Orthodox Christian country. This again is clearly aimed at showing that the government is not targeting Islam, which it rather recognized the injustices done in the past and addressed them in the new constitution. This is also aimed at building rapport with the audience and camouflaging the reality with discussion on very good articles of the constitution. This is contrary to the real question of the Muslim community, which is not about amendment of the constitution but effective implementation of it in its entirety. This is evidenced by the speech made by the Muslim committee members on several occasions. The question is demand to uphold the constitution and not to meddle in to our religion, in accordance with what is stipulated in the constitution. The three simple and constitutional questions are still remaining and without any modification, except one additional quest for the release of the representatives who are jailed for nothing but echoing the demand of the people. The film’s mere compilation of juxtaposed ideas, some of which are false, is exposed when information stated to have been gained from paltalk, which cannot be verifiable, is claimed as an evidence to portray the Muslim community’s demand as a terrorists’ move. Showing Shek Shakir’s speech made on one meeting in Washington DC, who he was invited by the organizers of the meeting, shows failure of the regime to produce any tangible evidence that can prove the false allegation it made against our representatives from inside the country. It is clear to everyone that the movement did not start at Washington DC, but indigenous and constitutional right based demand. Ethiopian communities from around the globe and Diaspora are just contributing to the achievement of the demand of the Muslim community in the country, and not working as a front runner leader of such struggle, nor are they at the start of the struggle. Such attempt shows how desperate the regime’s position is in terms of failure to produce tangible evidence for the false accusation it made against the committee members. This is also clear when we look at the recent attempt to accuse Abubakar Ahmed for knocking down some ones’ big toe by a car, the charge which it retracted shortly as it was shameful for the regime itself and hard to prove it. But, this proved the extent of length the government can move just to put pressure on those it perceives are threat to its policies by fabricating false stories. It is only short memory for us when they accused Teddy Afro, who opposed the regime in his new album music at that time and charged with the same kind of crime and convicted a kangaroo court. The other issue in the film worth mentioning is the attempt to relate the movement with the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood, as opposed to previous accusation with Salafism in apparent move to convince the audience by showing practical and recent “evidence” mentioning that Muslim Brotherhood has burned many Churches in Egypt. Though the reality about Muslim Brotherhood is also different from how the film tried to portray it, the Muslim community’s purely Ethiopian constitution based demand has nothing do with the move in Egypt. As to the Muslim Brotherhood, it was democratically elected to lead Egypt, but faced coup data and overthrown by military force. Just with the same model the regime in Ethiopia is following, the military junta burned several churches in Egypt in order to get the support of the West and Egyptians Christians. But, latter on the conspiracy was exposed and even the Christians themselves accused the military for deliberately orchestrating such kind of evil in order to gain support for its move. The film also deliberately attempted to relate the struggle with Egypt in order to threaten the innocent people of Ethiopia by capitalizing on the historical enmity between the two nations and showing the danger the movement poses to Ethiopian sovereignty. Furthermore, the film attempted to substantiate its claim by discussion with “scholars” who are in connivance with the regime and some leaders of the government’s wing organization, Majlis. The whole bunch of information they propagated is similar with cliché of the issues mentioned by government, which stands contrary to the demand of the Muslim community. Did the Muslim community challenge the constitution? Did they ask about the amendment of any article in the constitution? The answer is clear, not at all. The slogans used during the protest after Jum’a prayer and speeches made by the leaders, Abu Bakar Ahmad, kamil Shamsu, and Ahmadin Jabal clearly demonstrated that the people are not after discussion on the paper based constitution, but effective implementation. Finally, the film attempted to substantiate the evidence by words from some Muslim Cadre “religious scholars” on the threat from Wabasim. This again contradicts with the claim made about Muslim brotherhood, whose philosophy is antithesis with the philosophy of Salafism. We can see that the regime is just using any means with its disposition so that to prove its unprecedented unlawful acts against the Muslim community. The regime also unashamedly repeated the footage of the some committee members as it was done in Jihadawi harakat, contrary to the ban by the court on a reason that it is unconstitutional to defame someone who is under court process and the right that everyone is entitled to be considered as innocent until proved guilty. Motivation of the Regime to produce the film and the message it carries First, the regime’s production of a film, a usual compilation of contradictory clichés seems to be partly a means to consolidate what it believed to have gained from a recent crackdown on the Muslims on the day of Eid-al fatr, where the police violently beaten the innocent people and following which the protest was temporarily paused by the ‘Dimtsachin yisema’ leaders. Such temporary halt on the protest was meant to be the time for contemplation of new strategy for further advancing the pressure on the government and also give the chance for it to reconsider its actions. However, following the temporary halt, an action taken as the government as a sign of weakness and successful control of the movement, the government continued with its crack on the potential youth leaders in different parts of the country, forceful overtaking of the mosques and handing over them to the loyalist “Cadres Sheiks” that occupied the leadership in the Majlis. Secondly, it also seems that the film made as a reaction to the recent press released by the committee members, where they exposed the extensive torch and atrocious treatment perpetrated against them by the security officials in the notorious “Ma’ikalawi” prison. The press release is feared to galvanize the movement again and the message of the film is targeted to the Muslims so that to convince them not to continue the protest. Finally, the timing of the film also indicates the regime is trying to shrug the pressure mounted on it by the opposition parties in expressing their support for the movement and criticizing the government’s action, which is feared to endanger the vote for the ruling party in the upcoming election. In fact, the regime seems to have been less worried about securing enough vote in the upcoming election, especially from the rural people. This may be partly counting on 5-1 spying net-work established throughout the country and the usual treatment of any individual that shows support for the opposition. In addition, the government seems to continue capitalizing on the lack of unity among the opposition parties and their weakness in leadership, which partly was created by the government itself. Conclusion The regime seems to be adamant to carry out the same evil and unconstitutional actions it used to pursue over the last two years against Islam and Ethiopian Muslims. This is despite series of huge protest and attempt to strongly press the government time and again both inside the country and abroad. The film shows that beyond its lack of interest in being responsive to the demands of the people, how determined the regime is in trying to twist the clear, simple and constitution-based three questions and find scapegoat for further pursuing its onslaught on the Muslim community. This is contrary to the expectation of many of us, especially during the initial stage of the movement, in which the regime was taken as if it was wronged by inaccurate information and analysis it was fed by some hawkish individuals or groups. It clearly shows the how far the enmity of the regime has gone in its hate against Muslim citizens and their peaceful co-existence with fellow citizens following other faith. Therefore, the Muslim community and non-Muslim Ethiopians, who used to stand for justice in supporting the Muslim community’s demand, should prepare themselves for a long journey of struggle and persist in the face of possible additional cruel acts by the regime. As long as the cause for our struggle is justifiable, constitutional and peaceful, history has shown that it is a matter of time for such kind of struggles to achieve their goal. As usual, those who are leading the struggle at the forefront should also seek additional new tactics and strategies that can help put hard pressure on the regime so that it will be forced to respond to our demand. Specially, the upcoming election can be taken as an opportunity for finding a better way to advance the struggle. The role played by media like BBN and Radio Najashi is to be appreciated and supported by all means at our disposition. Victory for those who are struggling against oppression and injustice, Allahu Akbar
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 23:44:45 +0000
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