Page 190 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

The Winter of

ISLAM

and the Spring to Come DJIBOUTI

Oppression in Africa's

smallest country

D jibouti is a small though little-
known country lying between
Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Wars
and massacres have gone on there for hun-
dreds of years, and the Muslim population
have been condemned to conflict from the
colonialist period right up to the present
day.
Islam came to what is now Djibouti in
the seventh and eighth centuries. Until the
beginning of the sixteenth century, Muslims
were the sole power in the region, which
then came under the sphere of influence of
Portugal, a major commercial and political
power at that time. When Egypt came under
Ottoman rule, the Horn of Africa where
Djibouti lies also became part of the
Ottoman Empire.
The bloody history of Djibouti actually
began when the Suez Canal was opened to