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Eritrea: Religious Politics and the Issue of Securing Political and Economic Dominance
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Shabait.com (Asmara)
EDITORIAL
5 November 2007
Posted to the web 6 November 2007
Asmara
As various studies indicate, religions like Islam, Christianity and others to which people have been strongly devoted for many centuries, have since the beginning of the last century faced an onslaught of reformative, radical and conservative movements.
Due to these continuous 'reformations' which are closely tied to the new global system of economy, a great number of new faiths began to emerge. According to several reports, as a result of this wave of division and emergence of religions, every year six million people adopt new faiths in Africa alone. Without going too far, the Ethiopian people for instance are mostly devout followers of the Coptic Church, but in the last few years alone, 15% of the people of that country abandoned their old faiths in favor of new ones.
But what is the basic reason behind all this shifting of faiths? Is it because new discoveries have been made from within the Holy books, which have for centuries been read and adopted by the people of the world? As individuals who have made extensive studies on the issue point out, the decisive factor behind the division of religions and the emergence of new faiths is the politics for securing economic dominance. At a time when the superpowers are manipulating religious organizations and encouraging the emergence of new faiths so as to secure political and economic interests, the uneven distribution of wealth that plunges the majority of the world's population into poverty and misery is indeed one of the major reasons for the emergence of the new religions.
Hence, having established that the main factor behind such religious divisions is the issue of political and economic interests, it is imperative to critically analyze the objectives that come along with these new religious movements. As it is well known, religion is a matter of faith and has no relation whatsoever with material gains. Being a member of a specific religious faith, either individually or collectively, does not or should not depend on material gain. Thus, the only reason that these externally introduced new faiths bring along with them worldly benefits is because they have other political agendas.
Eritrea is a country where followers of the Christian and Islamic faiths lived in harmony and unity for more than 1400 years. These two religions were not introduced to Eritrea along with invasions or colonization. The people of Eritrea had not been forced or lured into their respective faiths but accepted them for their content and message. As most believers understand, not only could there be no change in the content of the holy books, but it is also a mortal sin to try to change them. Still, it is quite obvious that some individuals have fallen victim to the worldwide movement of the shifting religious politics because they lack the aforementioned understanding. As a result, a few externally subsidized new political religions tried to establish themselves in Eritrea .
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The primary objective of these new religions is thus to dilute the strong unity and harmony of the Eritrean people, create religious division and distrust, and more importantly, to paralyze and weaken the minds of the youth and encourage them to abstain from their national duties and obligation, as well as their own personal development. The objective of this evil religious politics is to weaken the patriotism of nationals and use material gains to lure persons away from the native faiths. Hence, our policy towards such conspiratorial movements can only be that of zero tolerance, for they are working against our unity, peace and development.
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