Ethiopian Civil Service College Public, External Relations and Marketing Department prepared a half day conference on "Religious Tolerance for Building Democratic System" on November 11, 2009 at ECSC main premises.

Dr.Shiferaw T/Mariam,Minister,Ministry of Federal Affairs presented a paper on the subject .His paper focuses on three main areas: Religions in the Haile silassie,Derg and FDRE regimes, development ,democracy and religious tolerance, and democracy, development and religious extremism.

In the first part of his presentation, Dr.Shiferaw T/Mariam highlited the views of the three regimes towards religion. He said in Haile Silassie administration,religions and government were not separate. The government interfered in religious affairs. The Derg government considered religion as an instrument for reactionaries and it intimidated the religions followers. As a result many religious institutions were closed. In conclusion, Dr. Shiferaw said people were stigmatized and discriminated due to their religions in the previous administrations; but now FDRE government is trying to cover the loopholes emanated from our previous unjust relationship.

According to Dr.Shiferaw, the present government acts towards religious affairs in accordance with the article 11 of the FDRE constitution. This part of the constitution says state and religion are separate, there shall be no state religion, and the state shall not interfere in religious matters and the religion shall not interfere in state affairs .Dr. Shiferaw added, people need to respect others religions if they want them to respect theirs.

Dr. Shiferaw Explained in his second part of the presentation that in Ethiopia, diversity of religions shows the legacy of our people’s tolerance and respect to each other in one hand and it plays significant role to the country’s development and democratization process on the other hand. He strengthened his idea by saying that all religions have basic principles or dogmas with which they are guided and these principles go with the government’s development agenda.

In the final part of the presentation Dr. Shiferaw discussed democracy, development and religious extremism. He said the government believes religious extremism is anti democracy and development. As poverty and backwardness are suitable grounds for extremism, extremists and rent seekers want to exploit the situation, he further stated. He finally urged the participants to exert effort to fight these practices.

Dr.Haile Michael thanked Dr.Shiferaw for his presentation. He described the Presentation as a social science course which contained introduction, body and conclusion. This is all for the improvement of quality of life of the people, said Dr. Haile Michael.

Dr. Shiferaw finally reflected his ideas on the questions and suggestions raised by participants.