Today I will tell you something from the heart. I hope you listen attentively; it is very important.
Over the years, my messages, lectures, and educational episodes have all been focused on enlightenment, advice, appeals, and concern for national unity so that the nation we all love may become a peaceful, prosperous, and just country. It was not in vain; I can see that the combined efforts we have made are bearing fruit. But we are still failing—primarily because of the never-changing attitudes and behaviors of the PFDJ leaders and supporters.
إذا كان رب البيت بالدف ضارباً فشيمة أهل البيت كلهم الرقص
Iza kana rebi’lbeyti bdufi dariben fshimet ahl’ebeyti kulihumu a‘reqsu.
The PFDJ regime and its party apparatchiks have not made a single focused effort or program aimed at improving our political behavior and promoting peaceful coexistence and harmony—at least on the political front. Remember, politics has a major influence on our social behavior. If it becomes rational and just, the nation follows. If it becomes the opposite, we cannot expect a better situation.
Imagine, such appeals are not new. We have been pleading and appealing for the last 35 years.
لقد أسمعت لو ناديت حيـا / ولكن لا حياة لمـن تنـادي
L’qed ’asmaEta lew nadeita Haiyen, w’lakin la Hayata limen tunadi.
Those who suffer from a phobia of Arabic, bear with me. The culture is deeply engraved in our collective memory. One of our major failures in achieving peace with our neighbors is our ignorance of their cultures. In fact, we are better than most of our neighbors when it comes to understanding the cultures of the region—I can defend that argument. For instance, most Ethiopians are almost totally ignorant about Eritrea, except for a mediocre understanding of some social dynamics. Besides, our neighbors on all sides are obsessed with religious superiority—whether Arabs or Abyssinians. They often behave as if God is their relative and permanently on their side, even when they are the aggressors.
What is the main goal of religion? Does it encourage bloodshed, enmity, hatred, prejudice, or racism? It does not. Does any of the so-called religious leaders have a special mission to belittle, defame, or exterminate any human being? They do not.
At its core, religion is about compassion, spreading peace, caring for life, and respecting others—their rights, their dignity, and their unalienable right to believe in whatever they choose.
It has been thousands of years since the major faiths we know—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—were established in our region.
Now answer this honestly:
Would any of you think that all the warriors throughout history were merely carrying out the bidding of the Almighty?
How many lives were disrupted and lost because some fanatic religious person wanted to accumulate enough points to secure entry into heaven?
Is entering heaven guaranteed by the whimsical counting of Tsidqi and Hasanat, for which you alone serve as accountant and auditor?
Such reasoning has been written about, preached about, and philosophized about for centuries. Yet religious agitation and disruption remain among the main drivers of mayhem in many parts of the world.
To bring it closer to home, we have experienced extensive racist and supremacist agitation for several years. The clergy have become competitors of political activists in spreading hate, backwardness, and superstition. Do they have the right to do that? Of course they do. But they do not have the right to spread hatred and promote disharmony among the general populace.
As we have seen, they have created wedges among sectors of the population and frozen the quest for enlightenment.
The irresponsible fanatics are many, and their naïve cheerleaders are even more.
So-called religious books are many, and their interpolators are more.
Those who aspire to create harmony are many; those who create wedges are more.
There are many pious preachers, but those who preach irrationality are more numerous.
The math does not reflect an optimistic future. The airwaves are occupied by villains who narrow the civic space and work to eradicate logic and rationality.
Some speeches can become either conciliatory or aggravating depending on how they are delivered. Responsible people are aware of what they say and how they say it. If civility, concern, and decency are forgotten, it has nothing to do with divine ordinance. It is human. Those who preach hate and confusion have no sane religious excuse. It is your ignorance, your irrationality, and your selfish interests. Religion has nothing to do with it.
As for me, in case you are wondering, I have one book that guides me spiritually. I do not follow man-made additions, viewpoints, superstitions, or cultic beliefs. I can live with the parts that preach ideas commensurate with rationality and the well-being of humanity. I want nothing to do with the rest of the foolish notions that defy logic. It hurts me to listen to them, let alone be guided by them. Superstitions are not my cup of tea.
A note on style: I deliberately preserved your direct, conversational voice and the rhetorical questions. I only corrected grammar, tightened a few sentences, and smoothed transitions without altering the substance or shortening the piece.
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