Resistance through De-securitization: Ethiopian Muslim Movements and Contestations of the Securitization of Islam (2011–2018)

This paper examines forms of resistance practiced by Ethiopian Muslim movements between 2011 and 2018, focusing on how these actors challenged the state-led securitization of Islam. Securitization in this context refers to the framing of Islam and Muslim institutions as existential threats to national security, a process that enabled extraordinary state interventions beyond routine constitutional and legal procedures. Such measures included restrictions on Islamic associations, suppression of religious education and media, and the co-optation of religious leadership structures. Drawing on the securitization framework and insights from Resistance Studies, the paper argues that Ethiopian Muslim movements articulated de-securitization as a form of resistance. Rather than relying primarily on overt confrontation, Muslim actors mobilized constitutional principles of religious freedom, equality, and citizenship established after the 1991 political transition. Through organized advocacy, legal engagement, peaceful mobilization, and everyday religious and cultural practices, these movements sought to shift Islam out of emergency security logics and back into the realm of normal political and civic debate. Empirically, the paper highlights how religious gatherings, public scholarship, civic organizing, and culturally visible Islamic practices functioned as both symbolic and practical challenges to dominant security narratives. These practices not only contested state representations of Muslims as security subjects but also reasserted Muslim agency and belonging within the Ethiopian polity. The paper contributes to Resistance Studies by demonstrating that resistance under securitized governance often operates through discursive reframing, legal mobilization, and everyday practices rather than open rebellion alone. By foregrounding de-securitization as resistance, the study expands understandings of how marginalized communities negotiate power, reclaim political subjectivity, and challenge exceptional forms of state authority in contemporary settings.