By Negashi
It was already reported that Mekelle University issued a final call for Muslim Students to return back to the campus and start with their studies. At the back of this letter which carried a final ultimatum for students, there has been an intensive discussion underway to find a just way out. This yielded an acceptable deal where students may finally agree to return back to the campus and follow further for final settlement as the issue is no more an isolated case but a national issue.
Under this agreed upon understanding, students may continue offering their prayers in Jama’a as they have been doing so far. With regard to Friday prayer, students may use a plote of land next to the university. Until the crisis students use to perform thier Friday prayers on the football field of the campus. As prayer for Islam is not space bound but time, this deal is welcome by students.
The measure which Mekelle University became first to implement is not an issue of the University as such but an effort to implement a document that was released by the Ministry of Education on the rules and regulations Ethiopian educational institutions must follow.
For such measure that has come down from the top office, the reaction has to be also to that scale – at national level. Congnizant of this fact, students decided to return to their campus and continue for a fair and acceptable regulation.
In the mean time, the PM Meles Zenawi is reported to have commented on the issue at a moment he met academicians from Ethiopian higher institutions on Saturday 01. 12. 2007. Though he presented the case first incorrectly, he felt later the need to let all stock holders (students and the rest of the university community) discuss and enrich the proposed document. According to the information that reached him, students of Mekelle university asked for a plot of land to build Mosque inside the campus and for laud speakers to be installed each and every building, a demand that is impossible to realize. This incorrect presentation of the situation in MU was checked by a staff from Mekelle University who informed the PM that students did not present any new demand but keep the status quo that was accepted by the university so far.
This is a great success for all those who stand for respect for the basic right of Ethiopians to practice their religion and the fundamental principles of freedom and equality of worship. This does not mean however that the issue is solved for good. Both the individual and coordinated effort of students we so far seen need to continue. As the issue has far reaching implication than just what students face inside their campus, the actions of students need to be encouraged and get all the support it needs. Read more >>
10 thoughts on “Muslim Students of Mekelle University Returned to their Campus”
How are Christians treated in Saudi Arabia and practicing Christianity or to build a church permitted?
So, why do these students ask what they are asking? I think Saudi can accomodate their needs istantly and in Saudi.
What goes around comes around. This issue must be dealt in this fashion. They will be treated the same way as Christians are treated in the moslem countries. No more or less! Period.
mekoyet bezu yasayal!Ethiopian muslim students in Mekele went so far.School is a place where students learn not a church or a masque where to pray.This is rediculious.Addis Ababans are complaining of the loud prayer from the Mosqes and now the Mekelians wanted a mosque in ther school.I wonder what we will hear next.Zem belo mayet new dehena gize iskemeta.Aye Meles!
This shows how far Melles can go. HE WILL NOT SHY AWAY FROM USING RELIGION AS A POLITICAL WEAPON.
Muslims were welcomed by Ethiopia when they were persecuted in Saudi Arabia. Melles can not fool us any more!
Better leave religion out of universities. Go to the nearest places of worship,Be-Allah or Be-Igziabher blachihu!!!
I want to share what my friend told me what happened in Jedah.One of Ethiopian airline flight attendant had her Bible in her carry on bag.The security officer found the Bible and threw it in a trash can.The lady got mad and slaped him angrily.Imagine the airport! The passangers sent back to the plane and waited for 7 hours.The flight attendent was taken to jail.The Ethiopian ambassader had to negotiate w/Saudi government to release the lady after spending couple of days she was released.Ethiopia don’t have time to entertain any fanatics of any religion.I am christain I have many sweet Moslem friends.When we grew up I never felt any difference.Now they cover themselves and you can tell who is Christain and who is Moslems.Chritian women should cover their hair and wear long dresses according to the Bible like Koran.This is not First Century and it’s not relevent to the modern faith to cover our hair and wear long dresses that’s why we don’t cover any more.If they choose to cover that’s there choice.I wish they also think about their social life than focus on Islam culture. I pray Ethiopia will be a happy place to live where everybody practice their faith by respecting each and everyone’s differnt faith.AMEN!
Menew angebgebachew selat bisgdu beyuniversity wost.hagrachen yehulachenem mehonuan lemin tresalachu.
Burtonsville and others:
Guys Saudi is a muslim country and ethiopia is neither a cristian country nor a muslim one.
The majority of ethiopian are, whether we like it or not, muslims and religion must be respected.
why some $tupid craps always talk about Saudi when there is an issue about Ethiopians and Ethiopian Muslims. Are you saying Muslim Ethiopians are Saudi citizens? Are you saying Ethiopia is only for Christians?
BTW: Nobody in Mekele or any other universities ever asked for Mosque. NEVER. The only thing they were asking is to keep their right to worship their religion. They only asked to to be banned from praying and wearing head scarf.
Any Muslims should pray 5 times a day on time. Its the very very basic rule of Islam. If one doesn’t pray 5 times a day S/HE is not a Muslim. And it should be performed without hindering or obstructing the normal activity of other individuals even animals. Muslims are not allowed to pray in places where animals supposed to rest pass or drink from.
It hardly takes 10 minutes and usually performed very quietly.
these students were praying in wasted field or in their dormitories. they never bothered anyone except the intolerant.
One should not be hindered from practicing her/his own religion unless that practice puts others (even oneself)in danger.
How on earth a Muslim woman covering her hair puts other in danger?
How on earth Muslims praying in an isolated space quietly taking hardily ten minutes, without obstructing the normal activity of others, is considered dangerous?
If we can’t tolerate to see fellow Ethiopian Muslims praying in one corner, Where the heck is the so called “techachilo manor”?
Once again the Muslim students never asked for mosque to be built by the University. They only asked the right to practice their religion to be respected.
“Give one an inch, and he will take a mile.”
United more than ever, brainwashed by the Islamist infiltrators, and motivated by the Surah 9:5 (kill the infidels), the Mekelle University Muslim students, the children of Ahmad Gragn and the products of illiterate Ethiopian Mullahs and Imams, have raised recently a profound question that vibrates the entire Ethiopian Christian kingdom from its foundation.
The question these MU Muslim students raised was not really about looking for a place of worship or about building a mosque in the middle of the university campus. It is deeper than that. For thousands of years, the Ethiopian Christian kingdom has never refused from providing the Ethiopian Muslims a place of worship and a burial space for their dead. In this case, the MU Muslim students are not the exceptions. They have been worshipping Allah at the MU Gym, and the MU could have never rejected their request had they asked the university a reasonable question: to give them a place of worship out side the campus rather than asking the university to allow them build a large mosque in the middle of the university campus and a loud speaker on the top of the mosque. What student or professor can tolerate such an ear-deafening noise that comes out of the loud speaker five times a day while the learning process is continuing in each classroom or lecture hall of the university?
A peace of land for worship is not the main point these MU Muslim students are asking for, but by asking the university an impossible question such as to build a mosque in the heart of the university campus, they are testing the Muslim power in Ethiopia and, may I say, they got it when the Ethiopian Muslim university students from Mekelle to Gondar to Wollo to Bahirdar, to Addis Ababa to Harar to Wallaga, and to many other Ethiopian Universities rallied behind them and brought the attentions of the Ethiopian government and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church abroad and at home. These Ethiopian Muslim students also know that the Muslim population in Ethiopia is the majority, so in order to incite a rebellion against the Ethiopian Christian kingdom, to overthrow it and to take it by force they can maliciously establish a Muslim Caliphate in Ethiopia. When this happens, God forbid, the Ethiopian Christians may start to persecute the Ethiopian Muslims; the good thing, however, for the Ethiopian Muslims is that they have many places to go to escape the persecution: they can go to Somalia to Sudan to Yemen to Egypt to Saudi Arabia, and to many other Muslim or Arab world. Yet when the Ethiopian Muslims persecute the Ethiopian Christians, where do the Ethiopian Christians go? There is no place for them to go except to die in the hands of the Ethiopian Muslims.
Then when the Ethiopian Muslims are in power, they may give the Ethiopian Christians three choices: extermination, expulsion, and conversion. None of these choices are pleasant for any Ethiopian Christians, but they have to choose one of them, and remembering all the good things the Ethiopian Christians have done for many Ethiopian Muslims, they will rehearse the words of the Psalmist again and again: “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” (41:9)
After the Ethiopian Christians are either exterminated, expelled or converted to Islam, then the Ethiopian Muslims will order all those beautiful Ethiopian Churches such as the Zion Church at Axum, the Holy Trinity Cathedral Church in Addis Ababa and many other ancient and historical Ethiopian Churches and monasteries to be converted into mosques: the bells, the golden crosses, the holy vessels will be replaced by the Islamic features such as the mihrab and the four minarets. These are the fundamental goals the Mekelle University Muslim students are trying to accomplish when they asked the university an impossible question: to build a mosque in the middle of the university campus. Question of this kind by the Ethiopian Muslim students will not be the last one. In-sha-allah (God willing), their next demand will be to build a mosque inside the compound of the Zion Church at Axum.
It is sad to see our brothers and sisters on this situation.how a normal person relate Ethiopia with SaudiArabia.you do not even know your own history…so called Wayane is enjoying your ignorance…are you representing the opposition? wow you are giving more golden years for Woyane.you are erasing the concept of opposition in ethiopian poletical system.
If you know how to type some hostile words against muslims, I hope you know how to access the Internet, who is the majority in Ethiopia?regarding Mekele students they never ask to build mosque inside the campus but to pray which is obligation under Islamic rule.when ever you ECHO false statement and news WAYANE enjoy it like fresh Ethiopian Juice,because you are the opposition…sad…learn how to love yourself…because Muslims are your brothers,.and if you need a change in Ethiopia work with Muslims, because they are the majority…learn how to accept reality…do not relate poor Ethiopians with the reach Saudis…if you went Saudi and discriminated me too but I am a Muslim.
Let me tell you reality you want to know about AXUM civilization?…great it neither for Christians nor for Muslims but for Ethiopians, because it was their before those two religions.learn how to accept reality…spread Love..Love yourself…love each other…
Dear proud Ethio-American Muslim,
I’m glad you are proud of your Ethio-American Muslim, but I’m happier than you are because of my Ethio-American Christian, my Ethio-American Muslim, and my Ethio-American Jew since we all are brothers and sisters through our linage to Adam and Eve even though I have no clue what religion these two great persons belonged to or believed in; perhaps they believed in one God the Almighty. So we too!
To make my previous comment clear and germane to your misunderstanding of my analysis about the motives, ambitions, and clear goals of the Mekelle University Muslim students’ demands to own a place of worship or to build a house of prayer near or inside the university campus, I will ask you to explain to me in one or two sentences what makes you believe that I’m ignorant of the history of Axum, the history of Wayane, the history of Saudi Arabia, and my own history? Yes, Axum and the other famous Ethiopian historical places belong to all of us Ethiopians: Muslims, Jews, and Christians; however, most of these historical places are the contributions of the Ethiopian Christian Kings and Queens where as the Ethiopian Muslims’ contributions to their country, Ethiopia, is insignificant. Of course, Ethiopian Muslims have been merchants, traders, shop keepers, weavers, and experts of opening kiosks in every Ethiopian cities, towns, and villages. For such good services of theirs, the rest of the Ethiopian people are thankful to them.
As far as the government of Wayane is concerned, I have commented in detail how ruthless, oppressive, and bias Meles’ government has been since its inception. Refer to ER, November 24, 2007 under “He is all!” That and my recent comment may help you understand that I am not on the side of Meles’ régime. For sure I will not stop commenting on Wayane’s government until its heavy yoke on the Ethiopians’ soldiers is completely pulverized and its pieces carried out by the winds of democracy and thrown into one of the Great Oceans.
No one is interested, including you, proud-Ethio-American Muslim, in Saudi Arabia except in its huge oil reserve; however, Islam in Ethiopia is related to Islam in Saudi Arabia. You are an Ethio-American Muslim, so you are more or less related to Saudi Arabia Muslims than to Ethiopian Christians, and that is why you are a little bit fussy or uneasy about my comment against the hidden agenda of the MU Muslim students who emailed to their fellow Muslim students through out the Ethiopian Universities to join them in their demand for a place of worship from MU. Their communication with the other Ethiopian universities’ Muslims is just short of calling the whole Ethiopian Muslim population for a holy war or jihad against the minority Ethiopian Christians. Instead of calling other Ethiopian Universities’ Muslims to join them, these MU Muslim students should have confined their demonstrations or hunger strikes to their own university campus. That is what I am against for!
By the way, you ask me to accept the reality that the majority of the Ethiopian population is Muslim, and you further suggest that I have to work with the Ethiopian Muslims in order to bring change. According to your reasoning, any person who works with Ethiopian Christians, with the Ethiopian Jews, and with the rest of other ethnic groups, will not bring change unless he/she works with the Ethiopian Muslims. In reality, all the changes that have been achieved so far have been made with or with out the Ethiopian Muslims, and most of those good changes were destroyed by Ahmad Grange, an Ethiopian Muslim leader. So who would like in his or her right mind to have an Ethiopian Muslim Prim minister in the land of ancient Christianity even though the Mekelle University Muslim students’ hidden agendum was to achieve this goal? If in the future their goal has become materialized, then all the Ethiopian Universities will become like Pakistani’s Muslim religious Madrasses that train young Ethiopian Muslim terrorists.
One does not have to go to the Internet to know that the majorities of the Ethiopian populations are Muslims, but one has to ask why the Muslims are the majority in Ethiopia. The simple answer to this question is that Quran permits Muslims to marry multiple wives: The Prophet Muhammad himself had many wives (Quran 33:50). Yet, Christ had none, and each of his Christian followers is confined to the statement: “one man for one woman for life.” That is why the Muslim population is exploding in Ethiopia while the Christian population is lagging behind. You are very proud because you are in the majority, but I’m scared to death, for I’m in the minority, and I know when Muslims are in the majority, the minority Christians will suffer as it is clear in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt, in Indonesia, and in many other parts of the Muslim world.
Finally, you want me to know my own history; I know my own history has been love, compassion, tolerance, hard work, and fear of God.