18/11/2013(Mareeg.com)By Ahmed Abdi
There is a Somali legendary,the Sufis had been a blood-war with another sect from he
Capital of Somalia, Muqdisho ,Commanded by a Scholar named,Shiekh Ibrahim.And Sufi
Scholar,Sheikh Maqdashe,in Ogaden Region sought a support from Ethiopian highlanders
by saying “Naa'” which in Amharic means “come” in a loud voice. Ethiopia and Sufi
Sect have had full diplomatic relationship since that time.
But as Bismarck coined the term, ‘In politics, there are no permanent friends or
foes, only permanent interests’.
A decades ago, an Ethiopian soldier mistakenly assumed a Sufi member a rebel and
started to beat and harass him.The Sufi man asked for a young man to interpret
between him and the Ethiopian soldier by saying that he was a member of Sufi
followers. The young man said in a response a term that became a common Somali
saying,”Afka aad kaga keentay Maqale ku la hadal” which roughly translated, ‘You can
speak with him the same language that you make him come here (Ogaden region), from
Meleke’.
That shows how Somalis in the Ogaden region have been unhappy with the Ethiopian
occupation.
For the last couple of years,Ethiopia Government and the Regional puppet
Administration of Occupied-Ogaden have been targeting Ahlu suna Waljama’ (ASWJ),a
moderate Sufi Islamist sect that has hundreds of thousands of followers in the vast
majority of Somalis in the Ogaden Region.
Ethiopia Army and its ally the notorious Liyu Police militia attacked several
Qadiriyah school teachings among them Birqod, Kabri-bayax, Danan, and Araarso.
The sects main Uluma’ figures were accused of supporting an independence seeking
rebel group,Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and were jailed in a notorious
Prison,locally known as “Jail Ogaden” in the Regional Capital of Jigjiga. The
crackdown comes after Ehlu Sunna Waljama’s arch-enemy Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI),
a radical Islamist group, signed a peace-deal with Addis Ababa in July 30th,2010.
An article posted on Ogadentoday Presss states that there was a religious
disagreement between ASWAJ AND AIAI who should dominate the Masjid-ul Acla.And one
of them must be out from the political arena.
“We gravely concern for the Sheikhs’ well being”.We put our trust in Allah and when
Allah intervenes in the Ethiopian evil and the Bid’ah-refers to any innovations in
religious matters-amid Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI) will be defeated “, Said Mr.
Aidid,an exile Sufi follower.
Several thousands of civilians are serving life in prison in notorious “Jail Ogaden”
without charge among them the sheikhs or scholars of Sufi sect and their followers.
Ethiopia Army and the ASWJ had been living next to each other for a long time, and
the sect,(ASWAJ) believes that the arrests of its scholars is only a conspiracy from
its arch-enemy ,Itahad-Al Islamiya,that want to cause grief for the Qadiriyah
followers .
“I would like to express my sympathy to the jailed,demised, and injured Uluma,and I
can assure you that this is only a conspiracy from Al-Itahaad,” said Sheikh Aidid.
Al-Itahad leadership in Ogaden region believes that affiliating with the Regional
puppet administration is not only a privilege for them but a right to revenge
against their arch-enemies ASWAJ and ONLF. But also a chance to attract youths that
can devote its strict teachings of Islam in the long-term and when the time is
right,they will be able to wage a Jihadi war against the black imperialist of
Ethiopia.
“Our peace-deal with Ethiopia was not surrendering as many believes,but a
game-changer, only military effort was not the solution, we can dominate the
economic sector and teach teenagers the sharia law,then when the time is right;we
can defeat the Christian state of Ethiopia”,Said Al-Itahaad leader,who declined to
be named.
The embattled Ahlu Suna Waljama’a in Somalia is heavily armed and enjoy military
confidence while its impoverished followers in Ogaden region are unarmed and
money-striped.And the Sect is now desperately searching support from their followers
in Somalia.
But it is not clear what the sect will do since it’s an Ethiopian ally against
Al-Shabab in Somalia.
So Will the sect offer support to its Qadiriyah fellows in Ogaden region or not?
That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question!
