Al-Ahbash and Wahhabiyya: Interpretations of Islam

Abstract

Islam is a universal religion and culture. Scholars who tend to focus on Islam in specific societies may overlook connections that, over the centuries, were important in shaping various Islamic intercultural dialogs. One case in point is the role of Ethiopia in the history of Islam. Although situated next door to the cradle of Islam, Ethiopia conveniently has been perceived by many Western historians of the Arab Middle East as an African “Christian island,” and as largely irrelevant. In practice, however, the Christian-dominated empire has remained meaningful to all Muslims from Islam's inception. It has also been the home of Islamic communities that maintained constant contact with the Middle East. Indeed, one of the side aspects of the resurgence of political Islam since the 1970s is the emergence in Lebanon of the “The Association of Islamic Philanthropic Projects” (Jamעiyyat al-Mashariע al-Khayriyya al-Islamiyya), better known as “The Ethiopians,” al-Ahbash. Its leader came to Beirut from Ethiopia with a rather flexible interpretation of Islam, which revolved around political coexistence with Christians. Al-Ahbash of Lebanon expanded to become arguably the leading factor in the local Sunni community. They opened branches on all continents and spread their interpretation of Islam to many Islamic as well as non-Islamic countries. This article is an attempt to relate some of the Middle Eastern–Ethiopian Islamic history as the background to an analysis of a significant issue on today's all-Islamic agenda. It aims to present the Ahbash history, beliefs, and rivalry with the Wahhabiyya beginning in the mid-1980s. It does so by addressing conceptual, political, and theological aspects, which had been developed against the background of Ethiopia as a land of Islamic–Christian dialogue, and their collision with respective aspects developed in the Wahhabi kingdom of the Saudis. The contemporary inner-Islamic, Ahbash-Wahhabiyya conceptual rivalry turned in the 1990s into a verbal war conducted in traditional ways, as well as by means of modern channels of Internet exchanges and polemics. Their debate goes to the heart of Islam's major dilemmas as it attracts attention and draws active participation from all over the world.

The Dialogue between the (Self) and the (Other): Analysis of Arab-American Dialectical Relation

“…Arabs believed that Americans exerted pressure on the rulers in Oman and the Gulf to accept missionary mission activity despite its misconduct in many cases. (Kabha, 2006) The US President Thomas Jefferson chairing the military committee in the Senate , ordering the use of camels in the military campaigns in the West and during the civil war, where $ 30 thousand were allocated for the purchase of camels , led by Navy Lt. David Dixon Porter to the Mediterranean Sea for the bold use of the camel's weapon by the US Army ,where the American ship was lead to Egypt for the purchase of 33 camels, after their failure to purchase in Tunisia because the Ottomans used it in the Crimean War (West,2018).…”

“God made beautiful things”: Proper faith and religious authority in a Jordanian high school

“…Ethiopian), or al‐Ahbash, is the commonly used name for members of the Association of Islamic Philanthropic Projects, an organization and movement established in Beirut by Shaykh ‘Abdalla, an Ethiopian Islamic scholar. Al‐Ahbash are known for their emphasis on moderation and coexistence with Christians (Kabha and Erlich 2006:525). They draw on some Sufi practices, although Mustafa Kabha and Haggai Erlich (2006:525) argue that Sufism is not central to the identity of the movement 38 .…”

“…Their movement has spread throughout the region and has a particularly strong presence in Lebanon and among Muslim minority populations in Europe. Al‐Ahbash have been in direct conflict with Wahhabi scholars, and Saudi clerics have issued fatwas against them, accusing them of being “deviators” from Islamic orthodoxy (Kabha and Erlich 2006:527).…”

“…The principal said that Maysoon's parents thought their daughter was going to “ordinary” religion lessons at someone's house and did not realize that unorthodox ideas were being taught. Although al‐Habashiyya has a small presence in Jordan (Kabha and Erlich 2006:523–524), the group was clearly considered outside the realm of the acceptable.…”

Salafism, State-Politics, and the Question of “Extremism” in Ethiopia

“…The only contributions are those of Nizar A. Hamzeh and Hrair R. Dekmejian (1996) and Kabha and Erlich (2006). coordinated by the so-called arbitration committee, demanding an end to the government-enforced al-Ahbash campaign, to reinstate the inde pendence of the Awolia College, and started to call for elections of a new EIASC-free from government interference.…”