N E G A S H I - OJ

Dear Vistitors,

Ramadhan Mubarak! 

Negashi OJ is upgraded and moved to another address (http://blog.ethiopianmuslims.net or http://negashi-oj.ethiopianmuslims.net). It is our hope that the new look and functionality will provide a better platform to communicate and exchange ideas. The page still carries a bulk of important material occumulated over the last four years. Untill we finalize exporting all our data to the new database, this page will remain accessible to visiters. We won’t however add new enteries here any more. Please follow us there.

Negashi OJ team.

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful the Compassionate!

HAVE WE NOT opened up for you your heart,
and lifted from you your burden,
that had weighed so heavily on your back?
And [have We not] raised you high in dignity?
And, behold, with every hardship comes ease:-
verily, with every hardship comes ease!
Hence, when you are freed [from distress], remain steadfast,
and unto Your Sustainer turn with love.
[Q94:1-8]

“With Challenges Come Opportunities”

With a theme: “With challenges Come Opportunities“, the second annual conference of the Network of Ethiopian Muslims in Europe (NEME), sets to assess the challenges the organization faces and the opportunities it has to challenge the challenges. The current state of affairs of Ethiopian Muslims will also make a headline of the conference discussions. The theme reminds us that we may not bow down to challenges - they rather should give us hope and strength to do more and struggle with resolve.

As part of the overall full three days program, a special plenary session is also planned with the objective of accessing the merits and application of the “Negashi Model of Interfaith Relationship” as a potential model for religious and cultural understandings. Known scholars and experts in the area, from around Belgium and oversees, are invited to join the penal discussion. Several high level diplomats and officials are also invited for the event.

The presence among us of our renowned and loved scholars will indubitably be one that makes the event colorful. The conference will be an opportunity to replenish our soul and mind; vow and renew our commitment to stand united and work for the good of ourselves, our communities and our fellow mankind at large.

Indeed with every challenge comes all sort of opportunities. Let’s use them … The second annual conference is just one that help us take this very fact a step ahead. Let’s not miss it then.

Register your Self, if you have not done already.

Collect your Arrival Guide

During the last few years Ethiopian Muslims have lost several precious personalities - within the seven months alone we lost at least three people of exemplary devotion and success: Professor Hussien Ahmed of AAU (June 2009), Shaykh Mohammed Rafae (Ethiopian Bukhari, July 2009), and very recently Al-Hajji Dawud Bashir (January 2010). These fathers devoted the whole of their life for the benefit of their community and their country so much so that their work surpassed their name while they were alive but destined to keep them alive long after they departed us. May Allah Reward them with the best of rewards and admit them to Janat-ul Firdous.

At every stage of their history, communities/nations produce unique figures and these individuals passed leaving a legacy that remained alive long after their generation. However, the greatness of the nation is determined not only by what these people could achieve during their life time but by its determination to continue with the works and visions these pioneering individuals started with. As a community Ethiopian Muslims have also given birth to several distinguished fathers and have their own way of upholding at least keeping their memory. Naming their children, mosque, village etc after them are just few examples. This trend has lately got another dimension by establishing funds and prizes that directly contribute to Muslim oriented research work and education. The Mufti Dawud Fundation established by the Addis Ababa Islamic Research and Cultural Center (IRCC) is just an example.

Shortly after the death of Prof. Hussein Ahmed last June, 2009, his students and colleagues came to the conclusion that the best way to keep the unique work of the late professor alive is by establishing a foundation in his name. The foundation was inaugurated immediately and since then the founders toiled day and night to turn the dream a reality.

Last Sunday, February 14, 2010, a special program was organized at Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa. About 200 people attended the program. Two Ministers and senior staff members of AAU were among the attendees. During the program the life history and the works of the professor were displayed. Distinguished figures went on the podium and shared their memories of the late professor, expressed the gap his death created in the study of Islam and Muslims in Ethiopia and  emphasised on the need to fill that gap as soon as possible. What was remarkable was a passionate speech delivered by his daughter, sister Semira Hussien. Her words and unique love, respect and admiration she displayed for her late father sent every participant to tears. It was not only tears. The participants immediately went to action and promised a total sum of about 375, 000 birr (three hundred seventy five thousand) to support the work the professor started with.

It is to be recalled that the diaspora Muslim organizations particularly the Badr Ethiopia and Network of Ethiopian Muslims promised to set up Prof. Hussien Foundation on their own with the objective of promoting the study of Ethiopian Muslims at international level. It is time that these organizations live up to their words and fulfill their promise by formalizing the initiative. While working on launching their intended foundation, it is important that they help the initiative at home by providing both technical and financial support.

Insha Allah Negashi OJ will try to get a video clip of the last program held at Ghion Hotel.

CPJ’s OPEN LETTER

His Excellency Meles Zenawi
Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Via facsimile: (251) 11 1552020

Mr. Prime Minister,

We are writing to draw your attention to conditions that undermine press freedom as guaranteed in Article 29 of the Ethiopian Constitution. We would welcome your leadership in furthering reform by working for the repeal of draconian provisions in recent antiterrorism and media legislation. We also call on your administration to abandon practices that obstruct the free flow of information, such as the ruling EPRDF’s absolute control of the government-subsidized and publicly funded national press, the government’s restrictive media regulation and licensing practices, and the state’s censorship of Internet content.

Five journalists are currently in Ethiopian prisons in connection with their work, according to our research, making your country the second worst jailer of the press in Sub-Saharan Africa. Only Eritrea jails more. Three of the journalists were sentenced to prison for their independent coverage of government affairs dating as far back as 2004 under Ethiopia’s now-obsolete 1992 press law, according to our research. The government has declined CPJ’s repeated requests to account for the whereabouts, health, and legal status of two others-Eritrean state television journalists Saleh Idris Gama and producer Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi-who have been held incommunicado and without charge or trial since 2006.

• Read more: Ethiopia’s Zenawi Urged to Pursue Press Reforms

Human rights instruments provide protection against refoulement. The UN Convention against Torture, in Sub-article (l and 2) of Article 3 states that:

1. “No State Party shall expel, return (refouler) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
2. “For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.”

Reports has reached African Rights Monitor-ARM, that Ms. Bisharo Wa’adi, an Ogaden Women Democratic Association activist, who fled from Ethiopia to the neighboring province, Somaliland, as a refugee has been captured and detained by Somaliland authorities and handed to the Ethiopian Security Services (ESS) on February 10, 2010. Ms. Wa’adi lived in Hargaisa for the past two years as a refugee under the alias Shamsa Abdulahi Hirsi to disguise her identity from ESS after she escaped from JigJiga prison where she was unlawfully detained from October 2006 to January 2007. Prior to this latest arrest, Ms. Wa’adi was arrested and jailed multiple times where she was severely tortured psychologically, mentally and physically. Ms. Wa’adi’s body bears injuries that made her physically disabled and her mental anguish prevented her from leading a productive life.

Article 14 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that

“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”.

ARM urgently appeals to the international human right agencies, the United Nations, and governing bodies, to condemn Ethiopia and Somaliland for these unlawful acts against innocent civilians that flee a country that does not respect nor protects the rights of its citizens. This is not the first reported renditions by ESS and the Somaliland forces against innocent Somali refugees and this violation of basic rights must be stopped and prisoners freed.
__________________________
Contact: Huda Yusuf FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Email: africanrightsmonitor@gmail.com

Ethiopian Muslims has lost another man of great history. Hajji Bashir Dawud, a legendary father of  Ethiopian Muslims Right struggle, has died, Inna Lillahi We Inna Ilaihi!. Negashi OJ conveys its heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the this great father. May Allah enter him to Jenat al-firdous. May He, the almighty, give the umma patience and strenght. It is to be remembered that two other great men of the nation died last year: Prof. Hussien Ahmed and Ethiopian Bukhari - Hajji Muhammed Rafea.

Insha Allah we will try to bring you a brief biography of this great man.

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• Read more: Radio Negashi Editorial (24/01/10) - Uncompormised Right

Ethiopia - the Second Worst Jailer of Journalists!

Ethiopia jails editor whose paper challenged Zenawi New York, February 1, 2010—An Ethiopian judge sentenced a journalist to prison on Friday in connection with a January 2008 column that criticized Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s statements about religious affairs in Ethiopia, according to local journalists.

Federal High Court Judge Mohammed Omar sentenced Editor Ezedin Mohamed of the Muslim-oriented newspaper Al-Quds to one year in prison. The precise charges were not immediately available but were related to a January 30, 2008, column that came in response to Zenawi’s interview with The Guardian of London that month, according to CPJ sources.

The Al-Quds column challenged Zenawi’s characterization of his country as “Orthodox Christian Ethiopia,” one source said. Mohamed has begun serving his sentence at Kality Prison outside the capital, Addis Ababa, sources said. “The jailing of Ezedin Mohamed is another example of Ethiopia’s intolerance of independent and critical voices,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “It is high time for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to demonstrate his commitment to democratic values by ending the practice of imprisoning journalists.”

Mohamed is the fifth journalist imprisoned in Ethiopia, which is the second worst jailer of journalists in Africa, according to CPJ research. Only Eritrea jails more.

Information that reached Negashi OJ indicated that Ato Ezedin Mohammed, editor-in-chief of the weekly Newsletter Al-Quds has been sentenced to a one year imprisonment. The reason for the sentence is an article that he published a year ago. The particular article was analysing the implication and impact of the draft regulation of the Ministry of Education.The regulation was seen by the Muslim Community as a measure intended to curb the rights of Muslims.

Insha Allah, Negashi OJ will soon bring more on the arrest of Ato Ezedin Mohammed.

BEIRUT – An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in flames early Monday just minutes after takeoff from Beirut, authorities said.

Four bodies were recovered in the hours after the crash as ships searched through the choppy waters under gray skies and driving rain, a Lebanese military official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Lebanon has been slammed by stormy weather since Sunday night, with crackling thunder, lightning and pouring rain.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said terrorism was not suspected. “Sabotage is ruled out as of now,” he said. The Boeing 737-800 took off around 2:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. EST) for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, said Ghazi Aridi, the public works and transportation minister. “The weather undoubtedly was very bad,” Aridi told reporters at the airport. He added that the plane went down about 2 miles (3.5 kilometers) off the Lebanese coast.

The Lebanese army said in a statement the plane was “on fire shortly after takeoff.”

The wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon was on the plane, according to an embassy official who asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the matter. Helicopters and naval ships were scrambled for a rescue effort in poor conditions. Huge waves lapped the shore as several ships plowed through the water.

Ethiopian Airlines released a statement on its Web site confirming the plane was missing. “A team is already working on gathering all pertinent information,” the statement said. “An investigative team has already been dispatched to the scene and we will release further information as further updates are received.” Calls to the airline were not immediately returned.

Relatives of the passengers began arriving at the airport early Monday, many of them crying and hugging. Officials led them into a VIP area. The plane was carrying 90 people, including 83 passengers and 7 crew. Aridi identified the passengers as 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one Syrian, one Canadian of Lebanese origin, one Russian of Lebanese origin, a French woman and two Britons of Lebanese origin.

Ethiopian Airlines reported that there were 82 passengers and eight crew; the discrepancy could not immediately be explained.

Ethiopian Airlines has long had a reputation for high-quality service compared to other African airlines, with two notable crashes in more than 20 years.

• Read more: Ethiopian Jet Crashes off Beirut, Lebanon _ 90 on Board