Broadcast on Mogadishu Domestic Service (in Somali)  – Audible parts of speech by Sheikh Ali Sufi, head of the “Somaliland under Ethiopia” delegation during the 1964 Muslim World Congress

[Excerpt]…So many were killed by the Habashi (Abyssinian) government just because they believed in Islam. The martyrs murdered without reason included [several names indistinct], Musa Hassan, Mahmud Abdi Nur, Ahmad Shaykh Yusuf and eight men who accompanied him, Sayyid Abduillahi Quray and the nine men who accompanied him. The first group were murdered in Kalafo and the second group in Jigjiga. They all died for the cause of Islam.

Shaykh Ali Sufi (head of the delegation of Ethiopian Somalis) said:

“We Muslims in Ethiopia were forced to resort to armed revolt by certain events which dismayed us. These events included the ill-treatment of Muslims by the government and the refusal by the Ethiopian Government to allow us peacefully to unite with our Somali brothers.”

“Things turned still worse when Haile Selassie openly declared during his visit to the USA: We shall make our people one both in religion and language, otherwise we shall achieve no success. He said this when asked about Ethiopian plans for further development.”

“It was in 1956 and in the USA when Haile Selassie was asked what he would do with the Somali Moslem population, he answered: We have a written 12-year program which aims at eradicating the Muslim problem and the different language spoken by the Somalis. Our panic at this statement then added to our nationalism, and our nationalism strengthened by fear for our faith culminated into our present revolution.”

Shaykh Ali Sufi went on:

“All Christians in the world extend assistance to Ethiopia and I appeal to all Muslims, wherever they are, to extend assistance to the Muslims under the Habashi regardless of their whereabouts or color or race. The Somaliland which Ethiopians wants to swallow should be assisted to unite with their brothers.”

“The Muslims in Eritrea who are being suppressed should be helped in getting their rights. Something should be done about the Palestine issue which is a shame to all Muslims. This conference should recognize the right of self-determination. The Habashi should be condemned and recognized as a second Israel in the horn of Africa. There should be a strong unity based on Islam among all Muslims.”

_{FBIS-FRB-64-252, 29 Dec. 1964, p. I9}