Christians in Ethiopia

In a much different context, another startling testimony came from bishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, president of the council of the Church of Ethiopia. After recalling that in all of Somalia, a Muslim nation that has had no government for fourteen years, “there are only four religious sisters who keep the only tabernacle of the Lord hidden in Mogadishu,” he continued: “From Eritrea and Ethiopia, there are many Christians who are working and living in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the Gulf States, and other Muslim majority countries. They are in the hundreds of thousands. Before they go to the Muslim countries, they are forced to change their Christian names into Muslim ones and, especially, the women have to dress in Muslim attire. Once they reach their destinations, their passports are taken from them and they suffer all kinds of abuses and exploitations. Many are forced by the situation to become Muslims. They are denied their right of expressing their religion: the celebration of the Eucharist, and the Sunday Mass. It is one of the religious persecutions of the modern times.”