Ethiopia

 
 

1.  Ethiopia Facts
Languages
Amharic, Tigrinya, Orominga, Guaraginga, Somali, Arabic, other local languages, English (major foreign language taught in schools)
Literacy
35.5% total, 45.5% male, 25.3% female (1995 est.)
Religions
Muslim 45%-50%, Ethiopian Orthodox 35%-40%, animist 12%, other 3%-8%

2.  Ethiopia Arrests Overshadow Muslim Protest
[By OnIslam.com]
NAIROBI – An Ethiopian crackdown on Muslim demonstrations against government interference in religious affairs is casting its pale on the protest movement, amid signs that the dissent is dying down.

“So far, we have not seen anything illegal. None," Hailu Shawel, chairman of the opposition All Ethiopian Unity Party, told Voice of America."They [the government] just want to control everything that moves, control everything that sticks, control everything that tries to move in a direction which they do not like.”

   

3.  Eritrea and Ethiopia: The Winter Of Islam And The Spring To Come 
[
By harunyahya.com ]
Muslims Want Peace and Security

War and chaos have continued on the African continent for scores of years, their ferocity tragically undiminished. After the colonial powers such as Britain, France and the Netherlands withdrew in the 1950s and '60s, most African countries fell into the hands of communist or fascist dictatorships. Most of these post-colonial regimes followed a policy of systematic intimidation of Muslims, and indeed are still doing so. One of the countries where war and chaos have reigned uninterrupted for many years due to such policies is Eritrea, which spent nearly two centuries under Ottoman rule from the middle of the sixteenth century.

 

4.  Ethiopian Muslims
[By International Islamic News Agency(IINA)]
Sheikh Abdul Rahman Hussein, president of the Supreme Council of Ethiopian Muslims, has disclosed that there are four main religions in the country, with Muslims making up 52 percent. The others are Orthodox (about 25 percent), Catholics and Protestants (23 percent). He told IINA that among the pressing problems facing the Muslims of Ethiopia are ignorance and poverty, adding that for a long time Ethiopia’s Muslims had not been in contact with the rest of the Muslim world.

Sheikh Abdul Rahman said things have now began to change, in that the Muslims of Ethiopia are now in touch with their brethren outside the country, and such countries, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have started to provide them with financial help, adding that Egypt has been helping them mostly by sending them Daawa workers, to enlighten the Ethiopian Muslims on matters relating to their faith.

   
 

5.  Ethiopian Embrace
[
Islam before Madina, says head of Shari’a Court]Haj Bashir Dawood Abdul Qader, the head of the Shari’a Court here, has said that Ethiopia is the oldest state in Black Africa, in that by 1000 BC, in that the people of Saba, north Yemen, settled in Eritrea’s highlands, where Queen Bilquis of Saba met with King Solomon, giving birth to Menelik I. He said Christianity spread to Ethiopia between 325 and 350 AD, and Islam came to it even before it spread to Madina.

Haj Bashir, who was visiting Egypt, told IINA correspondent here that according to the latest statistics published in 2002, the total population of Ethiopia stands at 67 million, adding that the Muslims account for 65 percent. He regretted that inspire of this numerical superiority, the government is in the hands of Christians, the President is a Christian, adding that this was "contrary to United Nations norms." He also regretted the fact that Muslims lack in education and that even as far as Islam is concerned, they know very little, other than their Islamic names. 

 

6.  Ethiopia Census 2007
The Total population size of Affar and that of Country Total includes the estimated
population of eight rural kebeles (21,410) in Elidar wereda (Affar Region). But the
percentages are computed excluding this estimated population.
- The total population figures for the Affar and Somali

   

A mosque in Harar, Oromia. The city of Harar is widely considered to be the 4th holiest city in Islam.
 

7.  Muslim critics reject national census for 'missing millions'
[By Jimma Times, published 12/27/2008]
Ethiopian Muslim critics say the country’s national census that put the Muslim population at 33.9 percent of the nation is inaccurate. They claim Muslims total between 45 and 50 percent of the country.

The Central Statistical Agency (CSA) recently announced that the Ethiopian Orthodox population makes up 43.5 percent of the country while Protestant Christians are 18.6 percent, for a total Christian population of 62.1 percent.

According to a Jimma Times correspondent in Oromia, critics claim the Ethiopian 

8. New census shows 76 million, evangelicals triple
[By Jimma Times, published 12/04/2008]
According to a report, the Ethiopia Statistics Authority indicates that Ethiopia's population has reached 76.9 million. This makes Ethiopia the second biggest African country after Nigeria, which is around 150 million. Third in Africa is Egypt at 75.6 million.

According to the census, the number of Christians (Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic, other) in Ethiopia has increased from 32.7 million in 1995 to 46.4 million this year. One of the fastest growing religions in Africa, the Ethiopian Evangelical Christian population nearly tripled, growing from 5.4 million in 1995 to around 14 million today (18.4%). Ethiopian Muslim population has increased from 17.4 million (32.8%) to 25.2 million (33.9 %).