Islam in Africa 
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| Title: | Transformations of Islam and communal relations in Wallo, Ethiopia |
| Author: | Abbink, Jan |
| Book title: | Islam and Muslim politics in Africa |
| Editors: | Otayek, René Soares, Benjamin F. |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Pages: | 65-83 |
| Language: | English |
| City of publisher: | New York |
| Publisher: | Palgrave MacMillan |
| Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
| Subjects: | Islam interreligious relations |
| Abstract: | The relationship between religious communities in Ethiopia, especially since the era of Emperor Menelik II (r. 1889-1913), has been characterized by accommodation and compromise. Muslims in Ethiopia are of diverse ethnolinguistic backgrounds, and Islam has acquired a strong indigenous character. This chapter looks at transformations of Muslim life in Wallo, a region with one of the oldest and largest Muslim populations in Ethiopia. It assesses how these transformations may affect both local communal relations and national politics in a context of increasing globalization and political liberalization. The chapter first describes the roots of Wallo religious culture, the sociocultural context of local society, and the changes that have taken place in the last decade. Then it investigates religious accommodation in Wallo, arguing that the particular combination of politics, State power, and religious identity in Wallo enabled a constellation of hybrid and negotiated communal relations to emerge, but that this balance is vulnerable due to changes in the political system and a decline in Wallo's social infrastructure of religious coexistence. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |