A few readers have repeatedly objected to the invoking of our past in my writings. I apologize. It is my civic obligation to warn of the perils of repeating the ugly episodes of our history – "those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it." Why would I forget history and be silent watching the perpetual wall of injustice and division being rebuilt? I refuse to erase my memories; I refuse to blind my eyes; I refuse to freeze my conscience. In my view, a person without a memory is a mummy; a nation without memories is a nation of mummies. I will keep reminding those who have forgotten, or might forget.

There is no sound political policy that ignores social issues. And there is no sound social policy that ignores religious and other identities. Therefore, it is all right to have a religious agenda. Religious people should have one, if not, we are doomed to a moral decay. Regimes that stifle religious freedoms are in fact inviting the wrath of the faithful. And if for instance, a Muslim has concerns or grievances, it is all right to speak out about it. If a Tewahdo Eritrean feels that his faith is being assaulted, it is all right to speak out against the assault and air the grievances - be it real or perceived. What is not right is for someone to lecture another on why they should not air their grievances and concerns simply because their concerns carry religious tones. The PFDJ (and the communist culture of the struggle era) has succeeded in inculcating the convoluted belief that any religious concern is a promotion of sectarianism. This nonsense, though prevalent among many others, is more accentuated in the thinking of the supporters of the PFDJ. It is an intimidating tactic designed to silence the people from preserving their faiths and instead to be willing guinea pigs in the PFDJ’s social engineering exercise.

The PFDJ’s first victims were the Jehovah witnesses who suffered alone for years. Since the PFDJ didn’t face strong objection due to the euphoric period of independence, it crossed to the Catholic church closing its publications and restricting its funding channels. Still, it faced no serious resistance. It crossed to Muslim teachers and "bearded men" and imprisoned them by the hundreds. Yet, there was not enough force to stop it. It attacked the rest of the Charismatic churches, the Pentecostals and other minority Protestant churches. And no serious resistance. Recently, in the final episode of its successive assaults, the PFDJ knocked at the doors of the Tewahdo church. This is no minority or disenfranchised institution; it is the identity of a big chunk of the population. It should not pass without resistance like the previous assaults. And the resistance is being spearheaded from the Diapsora because those at home are too controlled and threatened. And there is hope.

Eritrea is a nation of devout Muslims and Christians; and religious identity is a major component of Eritreanism. In addition to our regional and tribal identities, the PFDJ has aggressively assaulted our religious identities. Erase that identity and you end up with a dull and corrupt personality- no character, no integrity and no compassion. Eritrea’s Islamo-Christian heritage belongs to all of us, and it is under attack. Every free patriot has a stake at risk.

The role of religious institutions in a society should go beyond spiritual rituals to social issues: encouraging education; a good pious compassionate life; encouraging familial bonds and proper parenting; preaching against corruption, prostitution and all sorts of vice. To do these, religious institution need to be free from governmental interference.

The whole idea of Eritrea germinated on the ideals of justice and equality. If not for that idea, which was conceived in the minds of brave patriots of yesteryears, we wouldn’t have a nation to start with. Eritrea is an idea synonymous with justice. If it ceases to reflect the meaning of justice, it ceases to exist as an idea. It becomes a mere playground for oppressors; and we should not allow our country to be a playground anymore.

The PFDJ has been targeting the very formula that kept Eritreans united. It has perfected Haile Sellasie’s divide-and-rule tactics and is using it more lethally to undermine our unity. It is carrying out its merciless mission of destruction. It is employing its bigots, the always ‘ready-tools-for-hire’ in the project -- bigots are always among us, even when they die, they reincarnate every decade or so.

The usual suspects, the always-pro-injustice individuals might not like what I have to say today, but then, they never liked the airing of issues they wish subdued.

Ex-officials of successive Ethiopian oppressors that we fought to unseat for years are still prominent. They are ruling, under the license of the PFDJ, as commissioners, ministers, advisors, etc. They have the support of the usual foot-soldiers. Janhophiles are blended in with Isaias’ ruling elite and his advisory gang; and he doesn’t care about the sensitivities of the people. Though there is an abundance of evidences to support my claim, I will present one example: the re-politicizing of the Tewahdo church.

Yeftahe Demitros, whose name we heard repeatedly during the last few months, is an ex-ambassador who worked for the Derg. He is now a top official in the religious affairs commission of the PFDJ. Anyone who has the least sensitivity, and the least political responsibility, would not appoint this man to any public office let alone an office that deals with Eritrean religious institutions.

Political appointees (and Yeftahe is one) should be persons with impeccable past that do not remind the people of agonies and pains- this is an important element of reconciliation. Yeftahe was an ambassador of the enemy of Eritrea, the Derg. That alone disqualifies him from any political appointment. But it is even worse: Yeftahe is the son of Demitros, the notorious lackey of Haile Sellassie, a corrupted priest who was instrumental in building the anti-independence and sectarian Unionist Party. He was also instrumental in helping destroy the federal arrangement, which resulted in Eritrea becoming a mere province under Haile Sellasie. He garnered huge anti-Eritrean coerced-support that enabled Asfeha Weldemichael to undermine the Eritrean aspiration for independence. He blackmailed the faithful by giving them two choices: either support the unionist party or be excommunicated from the church. For a faithful Eritrean individual, excommunication is perceived as condemnation in this world and dwelling in hell in the hereafter. No faithful person weighs that lightly. I know of Tewahdos who were refused baptism by the church because their parents were members of the Independence Block. As our history attests, the faith based blackmail played a destructive role in our quest for self-determination and led to a long and costly struggle.

There were many Eritrean lackeys who supported Haile Sellassies against their own people. Many bravely repented and stood for the rights of their people. Others gave their lives for the Eritrean cause. But those who perpetuate injustice, generation after generation, cannot be forgiven.

Of course, Yeftahe cannot be held responsible for his father’s mistakes (he has enough of his own) but he is Isaias’ political appointee! The same Isaias who repeatedly utters bitter words in public to show his contempt for the Eritrean people. That appointment disrespects not only the Tewahdos, but the whole Eritrean people.

An apprentice of the Ethiopian occupation, who hasn’t repented and continues to serve an oppressive regime, cannot be loyal to Eritrea. By now, the interference of the PFDJ in the Tewahdo church is a well-documented fact. Yeftahe is the man who shuttled to Egypt to secure the blessing of the Egyptian patriarch in order to reverse centuries-old tradition of appointing a patriarch-- to demote the legitimate patriarch, his holiness Abune Antonyos, and replace him with a political appointee. How arrogant can the PFDJ be to expect to hoodwink his holiness Papa Shenouda? Yeftahe wants to turn the church into an extension of Isaias’ bureaucracy where he promotes and demotes lackeys at will. Yeftahe, and Naizghi Kiflu, the commissioner before him who used to come to church meetings drunk and smelling of stench, have disrespected the church. Many elders from the church board have resigned in the late nineties in objection to the PFDJ’s interference. Even Dragon Haile-Melekot, a previous commissioner, is said to have resigned to avoid disrespecting the church when he observed where things were heading. Yeftahe and his commission have done serious damage to Eritrea.

The same commission that is now trying to cripple the Tewahdo church into servitude has done so with the Muslim Awqaf institution. It has systematically confiscated its properties, and impoverished it. The commission has emasculated the seat of the Muslim Mufti; a seat once occupied by the brave revered Mufti, the late Ibrahim AlMukhtar. It is now occupied by a PFDJ appointee, a cadre masquerading as a Mufti. He is surrounded by cadres of his despicable caliber pretending to be leaders of the Muslim institutions - one of the reasons why Muslims have been grieving their affairs for too long. The Muslim institutions of Eritrea were destroyed by the PFDJ to the extent that the community lacked the minimum institutional strength to curb extremism and maintain the true nature of Eritrean Muslims, as we knew it for years. If nothing is done, the same fate is awaiting the Tewahdo institutions.

There are many Christians and Muslims who would like to see a sort of organizational modernization of their respective "archaic" religious institutions. However, such affairs are the concern of the respective congregations and not the government. Politicians, let alone un-elected oppressive regimes, should not be allowed to interfere in religious affairs. If they do, they use religion as a tool to curb resistance, divide the people and garner support for their oppression. This has happened during the rule of Haile Sellassie and it is now being reenacted. Some members of the clergy have started to speak in the usual PFDJ partisan exclusionary lingo. Pictures of their open mingling with the PFDJ’s partisan droves and mobs have became too common. Priests who turn a blind eye to the perpetual injustice befalling helpless Eritrean citizens have the temerity to march in support of the PFDJ’s call for a demonstration. But there is hope in the few enlightened religious leaders who are not corrupted.

Followers of the Tewahado faith should learn from what happened to the Muslim institution before the PFDJ embarked in its interference in the Tewahdo church. Long before they started to jail and banish pastors and priests and empower cadre-priests, threatening and impoverishing has destroyed the elders of the Muslim faith who used to take care of the Muslim community affairs - remember the late Hedad Kerrrar who was released from jail into house arrest when he became sick in prison? Remember how he became bed-ridden and was denied exit visa by the PFDJ to travel for medication and died of neglect under house arrest? Remember the tens of teachers who were arrested decades ago by the PFDJ in a direct assault on the Islamic religious affairs? Remember the countless Muslims arrested and made to disappear with no traces? The PFDJ leaders do these to any faith simply because 1) they are atheists of the worst kind and 2) they are communists to the bone and 3) they are oppressors in need of any tool to tighten their grip on society. Unless it is stopped, the PFDJ is not stopping on its own before it destroys all religious institutions.

The mindless Muslim zealots have tarnished the image of Islam more than any "enemy" would care to. They have embarked on a terror campaign boasting of their monstrous killings that even a mindless savage would not commit. They are not alone. Muslim zealots have their equals, if not worse, in many Christian zealots. They both have medieval prejudiced mentality.

The subject of religious extremism and its international magnitude; religious fanaticism and its destructive actions throughout history; theological issues and the age-old debate between secularism and religious forces, are too complex and deep subjects requiring deeper knowledge to address properly. But I am trying to present issues, as a layman, briefly from the Eritrean perspective with a bias for Eritrean social and political interest.

Muslims have grievances since a long time; that grievance has worsened under the PFDJ regime. The Tewahdo had grievances under the Derg occupation and now under the PFDJ’s rule. Many are concerned about the evangelism of the charismatic churches. The charismatic churches have grievances related to rights and freedoms. The Kunama and Affar have their grievances… and so on. In nations that have vibrant civil societies and democratic governance, such issues are normally debated, discussed and solved. Political issues pertaining to such problems are solved in parliaments. But none of that is possible in PFDJ’s Eritrea.

I like to acknowledge the grievance of anyone who claims to have one simply because they either have a legitimate claim or a perception of one. It is the duty of any JUST citizen to listen and learn from those who say they are affected. Then, there are two things that can be done: 1) convince the claimants that their grievances are a creation of their imagination and wrong perception, if one felt so, or 2) sympathize and help them in ameliorating their grievances. We should try to solve the cause of wrongdoing if it is real and change the perception if it is only that. Outright rejection (mostly prejudiced) of a grievance, without even trying to understand the issue, is a disservice to the unity of our people and a betrayal to our national ideals. It borders on bigotry. Justice is not served by ignoring the agonies of others. It is not served by downplaying complaints and turning deaf ears to issues one does not like.

Sensitivity and right attitudes strengthen harmony and foster unity. It is not wise, or civil, to disrespect the identity or the religion of others and throw condescending remarks irresponsibly while the whole Eritrean population is suffering under the yoke of a ruthless un-elected regime whose main purpose is to inflict all sorts of injustice on the population. It just needs to be dismantled.

The nascent Eritrean civil society in the Diaspora cannot grow effectively unless it courageously raises such "volatile" issues for a serious debate. I think that civil societies should not treat power struggle, partisan politics and petty quarrels within the opposition as their priority. In my opinion, civil societies should contribute towards the strengthening of the resistance against the regime – it is the regime that is preventing the existence of a civil society in the first place. In my view, that is the difference between a civil society and a political organization. I firmly believe that as soon as both institutions stop confusing their priorities, we will be better equipped to solve our problems. Has anyone seen a press release from the EDA concerning this grave interference?