There is a rising tension in Ethiopia between allegation by Muslim communities of government interference in their religion and the government cracks on what it calls the rise of a hard-line strain of Islam in the country.

Many who oppose the government’s interference believe that it is trying to ban the teachings of the conservative Salafist sect of Islam.  In this regard, the Islamic Supreme Council of Ethiopia recently fired several teachers at the Awalia mission school and shut down an Arabic language teaching center. 

Those who oppose the governments interference in their religion accuses the council of trying to indoctrinate Ethiopian Muslims into the little known al-Abhash sect that preaches non-violence, as opposed to the more militant Salafist brand of Islam.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi last month signaled a crackdown on those he accused of “peddling ideologies of intolerance."  In a speech to parliament, he said a few Salafis had formed clandestine al-Qaida cells in the southern part of the country.

Days later, four protesters were killed and many others injured in the southern state, Oromia. Last week, five men, including one Kenyan national, were arraigned in Addis Ababa's federal court on charges of operating an al-Qaida cell out of a mosque in Oromia.

In another incident this month, Ethiopian authorities expelled two Arab men said to have been visiting from an unnamed Middle Eastern country.  And last Friday, dozens of young men were reported to have stood outside Anwar mosque with tape over their mouths in a silent protest.  Young men standing at the entrance to Awalia mosque at last Friday's prayers said another big demonstration is planned for this week.

More than half of Ethiopia's roughly 90 million people are Christian, while an estimated 35 percent are Muslim.  The Horn of Africa nation has long prided itself on its religious tolerance.

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