Hassan al-Turabi
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restoring unexplained deletions
[[Image:Hassan al-Turabi.jpg|right|thumb|188px|Hassan al-Turabi]]
'''Dr. Hassan 'Abd Allah al-Turabi''' (الدكتور حسن عبد الله الترابي in [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]]), commonly called '''Hassan al-Turabi''' (sometimes [[transliteration|transliterated]] '''Hassan al-Tourabi''') (حسن الترابي) (born c.1932), is a religious and Islamist political leader in [[Sudan]], who may have been instrumental in institutionalizing [[sharia]] in the northern part of the country. He has been called a "longtime hard-line ideological leader."<Ref name=appendix>The Appendix of the ''[[9/11 Commission Report]]''</ref>
Turabi was leader of the [[National Islamic Front]], a politically powerful but not electorally popular political movement in Sudan. In 1979 he became Minister of Justice. In June 1989, a coup d'etat by allies, the "National Salvation Revolution", brought him and the National Islamic Front to power.
In March 1996 Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where he served as speaker of the National Assembly "during the 1990s."<Ref name=appendix/> This period coincided with a decline in the influence of Turabi and his party's "internationalist and ideological wing" in favor of more pragmatic leaders, brought on by the imposition of UN sanctions on Sudan in punishment for Sudan's assistance to Egyptian terrorists in their attempt to assassinate Egyptian President [[Hosni Mubarak]].
Turabi was imprisoned
<!-- list Nimeiri et al -->
in the Kobar (Cooper) prison in [[Khartoum]] on the orders of his one-time ally, current president [[Omar al-Bashir]] in March [[2004]]. He was released on [[June 28]], [[2005]].
==Early life and family==
Turabi was born in the province of [[Kassala]], in eastern Sudan near the border with [[Eritrea]], around 1932. His father was a judge and expert on [[sharia]] law. [[Sadiq al-Mahdi]], former [[Prime Minister of Sudan]], is his brother-in-law.<ref name="brother in law">{{Cite book
| publisher = International African Institute ;;J. Currey ;;Indiana University Press ;;Fountain Publishers ;;East African Educational Publishers
| isbn = 9780253342133
| last = Johnson
| first = Douglas
| title = The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars
| location = [London] ;Oxford [England] ;Bloomington ;Kampala ;Nairobi
| date = 2004
}}p. 79.</ref>
He attended [[Khartoum University]] from 1951-1955, graduating with a B.A. degree. [[University of London]] 1955-1957 where he earned a M.A. in Law, and [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]], [[Paris]], 1959-1964 where he earned Ph.D. in Law.
==Religious and political beliefs==
Turabi has espoused progressive Islamist ideas, such as the embrace of democracy, healing the breach between the Sunni and the Shia, integrating `art, music, singing` into religion, <ref>{{Cite book
| publisher = Knopf
| isbn = 037541486X
| pages = 480
| last = Wright
| first = Lawrence
| title = The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
| date = 2006-08-08
}}p.165</ref> and expanding the rights of women, where he noted: <BLOCKQUOTE>The Prophet himself used to visit women, not men, for counseling and advice. They could lead prayer. Even in his battles, they are there! In the election between Othman and Ali to determine who will be the successor to the Prophet, they voted! <Ref>Interview with Hasan al-Turabi by Lawrence Wright, in Wright, ''The Looming Tower'', (2006), p.165</ref></BLOCKQUOTE>
In another interview he said, "I want women to work and become part of public life" because "the home doesn't require much work anymore, what with all the appliances."
During an interview on Al-Arabiya TV in 2006, Al-Turabi describes the requirement of [[hijab]] as applying only to the Prophet's wives, saying hijab was "a curtain in the Prophet's room. Naturally, it was impossible for the Prophet's wife to sit there when people entered the room." <ref>[http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=reform&ID=SP114306 Women Should Cover Chest, Not Face ... ]</ref>
He opposed death penalty for [[Apostasy in Islam|apostasy from Islam]] and opposed [[The Satanic Verses controversy|Ayatollah Khomeini's death sentence fatwa]] against [[Salman Rushdie]]. He declared Islamist organizations "too focused on narrow historical debates and behavioral issues of what should be forbidden, at the expense of" economic and societal development and eliminating Muslim backwardness.<ref>{{Cite book
| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan
| isbn = 1403965560
| pages = 227
| last = Fuller
| first = Graham E.
| title = The Future of Political Islam
| date = 2004
}}p.111-112</ref>
Al-Turabi also laid out his vision for a [[Sharia]] law that would be applied gradually instead of forcefully, and would only apply to Muslims, who would share power with the [[Christian]]s in a [[federal]] system.
However after Turabi came to power in a military [[coup d'état]] that overthrew a [[democratic]] government, his regime was characterized by harsh [[Human rights in Sudan|human rights violations]] rather than [[progressive]] or [[liberal]] theology.<ref>Fuller,''The Future of Political Islam'', (2003), p.108-9</ref>
==Political career==
After graduating, he returned to Sudan and became a member of the [[Islamic Charter Front]], an offshoot of the Sudanese branch of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]]. Within a five year period, the Islamic Charter Front became a large political group that identified Al-Turabi as its Secretary general in 1964. Through the Islamic Charter Front, Al-Turabi worked with two factions of the Sudanese Islamic movement, [[Ansar]] and [[Khatmiyyah]], to draft an Islamic [[constitution]]. Members of Ansar define themselves as the followers of [[Mahdi]] [[Muhammad Ahmad]], stemming from nineteenth century Sudan. Al-Turabi remained with the Islamic Charter Front until 1969, when [[Gaafar Nimeiry]] assumed power in a [[coup]]. The members of Islamic Charter Front were arrested, and Turabi spent six years in custody and three in exile in [[Libya]].
In 1977, the regime and the two factions of the Islamic movement in Sudan attempt to reach a "national reconciliation," where opposition leaders were freed and/or allowed back from exile, including Al-Turabi. "Turabi and his people now begin to play a major role, infiltrating the top echelons of the government where their education, frequently acquired in the West, made them indispensable," and "Islamizing society from the top down."<ref>{{Cite book
| publisher = I.B.Tauris
| isbn = 1845112571
| last = Kepel
| first = Gilles
| title = Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
| date = 2006
}}p.179-180</ref> Al-Turabi became a leader of the [[Sudanese Socialist Union]], and was promoted to Justice Minister in 1979.
==Sharia Law==
The Nimeiry administration declared the imposition of a harsh brand of [[Sharia]] law in 1983. Popular opposition against political actions such as the dissolution of the Sudanese parliament and legally-inflicted punishments such as [[amputation]]s and [[hanging]]s, resulted in a coup against Nimeiry in 1985.
His frequent close relationships with Sudanese Governments has resulted in great dislike of Turabi from the Sudanese nation which resulted in the famous association against him in the 1986 votes where all political parties decided to withdraw their nominees and keep only one nominee against Turabi which led to the loss of Turabi being part of the only Democratic government in Sudan during the last four decades.
==1989 coup==
On [[June 30]], [[1989]], a [[coup d'etat]] by General [[Omar Hassan al-Bashir]] and supported by Turabi and his followers led to severe repression, including purges and executions in the upper ranks of the army, the banning of associations, political parties, and independent newspapers and the imprisonment of leading political figures and journalists. <ref>Kepel, ''Jihad'' (2002), p.181</ref>
In 1994 a report issued by [[Human Rights Watch]]/Africa, conducted by Gaspar Biro, a Hungarian law professor and the United Nations' special envoy to Sudan in 1993 found the Sudanese government to be practicing "widespread and systematic torture" of political detainees.
<blockquote>Once uncommon in the Sudan, torture was now widespread, especially in the south. Non-Muslim women were raped, their children taken from them; paper bags filled with chili powder were placed over men's heads, and some were tied to anthills; testicles were crushed and burned by cigarettes and electrical current, according to a 1994 report by Human Rights Watch/Africa. <ref>Miller, Judith, ''God Has Ninety Nine Names'' (c1996), p.153</ref> </blockquote>
==Links to militant groups==
Al-Turabi personally invited [[Osama bin Laden]] to Sudan and the [[al Qaeda]] leader based his operations there from around [[1990]]-[[1996]]. Bin Laden moved from [[Saudi Arabia]] to Sudan in [[1991]], after conflict with the Saudi government over their granting of permission to the United States to station troops in Saudi Arabia during the [[Persian Gulf War]] against Saddam Hussein, rather allow bin Laden to fight Saddam with [[Afghan Arabs|Afghan Arab]] forces. Turabi granted Bin Laden a safe and friendly haven from which to conduct jihadist activities; in return, Bin Laden agreed to help the Sudanese government in roadbuilding and to fight [[animist]] and [[Christian]] separatists in [[Southern Sudan]]. While in Sudan, bin Laden is reported to have married one of Turabi's nieces.<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Shahzad
| first = Syed Saleem
| title = Bin Laden uses Iraq to plot new attacks
| work = Asia Times
| accessdate = 2007-12-02
| date = 2002-02-23
| url = http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/DB23Ag02.html
}}</ref>
Other violent groups Turabi invited and allowed to operate freely included [[Abu Nidal Organization]], which had killed more than 900 people in 20 different countries, aiming mainly at Jews and moderate Arabs; and [[Hezbollah]], which had killed more Americans at that time than any other non-state organization; and [[Ilich Ramirez Sanchez]], aka Carlos the Jackal, now posing as a French arms dealer. Carlos had converted from [[Marxism]] to [[radical Islam]]. <Ref>Wright, ''The Looming Tower'', (2006), p.173</ref> Sudanese sanctuary was not unconditional as it later allowed French intelligence to kidnap Carlos the Jackal while he was undergoing an operation on his right testicle." (p.219)
Turabi founded the annual [[Popular Arab and Islamic Conference]] (also sometimes called the ''Congress'') around 1991. Meeting here were several Islamic groups from around the world, including representatives from the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]], [[Hamas]], [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], [[Algerian Islamic Jihad]], and [[Hezbollah]].
<blockquote>''Turabi sought to persuade Shiites and Sunnis to put aside their divisions and join against the common enemy. In late 1991 or 1992, discussions in Sudan between [[al Qaeda]] and [[Iran]]ian operatives led to an informal agreement to cooperate in providing support-even if only training-for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States. Not long afterward, senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives.''<ref>''9/11 Commission Report'', Chapter 2</ref> {{verify credibility|date=December 2007}} </blockquote>
In August 1993 Sudan was placed on the U.S.'s list of "state sponsors of terrorism," following the [[World Trade Center 1993 bombings|first World Trade Center bombing]] in February. The [[US State Department]] notes that "five of 15 suspects arrested" following the bombing were Sudanese. <ref>[http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=8552 The Nation | Unconventional Wisdom Since 1865<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
===Mubarak assassination attempt===
Two years later an assassination attempt was made on Egyptian President [[Hosni Mubarak]] by [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]] organization, many of whose members were living in exile in Sudan. <ref>Sageman, Marc, ''Understanding Terror Networks'', University of Pennsylvania Press, (2004) p.45</ref> Evidence from the Egyptian and Ethiopian governments implicated the Sudanese government<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Egypt and Sudan repair relations
| work = BBC
| accessdate = 2007-12-02
| date = 1999-12-23
| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/576380.stm
}}</ref><ref>Wright, ''The Looming Tower,'' (2006), p.213-4</ref><ref>Sageman, Marc, ''Understanding Terror Networks'', University of Pennsylvania Press, (2004) p.45</ref>
"The debacle led to a unanimous vote in the United Nations to impose stiff economic sanctions on Sudan. The Sudanese representative denied the charges, but the Sudanese delegation was already in disfavor, having been implicated only two years earlier in a plot to blow up UN headquarters ..." <ref>Wright, ''The Looming Tower,'' (2006), p.213-4</ref>
Rather than disassociate himself from the plot, Turabi praised the attempted killing and called Mubarak stupid:
<BLOCKQUOTE> The sons of the Prophet Moses, the Muslims, rose up against him confounded his plans, and sent him back to his country .... I found the man to be very far below my level of thinking and my view, and too stupid to understand my pronouncements. <Ref>Petterson, Donald, ''Inside Sudan: Political Islam, Conflict and Catastrophe,'' Boulder DO, Westview, 1999, p.179</ref></BLOCKQUOTE>
==Decline of influence==
The international sanctions took effect in April 1996 and were accompanied by a "general withdrawal of the diplomatic community" from Khartoum. At the same time Sudan worked to appease America and other international critics by expelling members fo the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and encouraging bin Laden to leave.<ref>Wright, ''The Looming Tower,'' (2006), p.221-3</ref>
In March 1996, national elections were held for the first time since the coup,<ref>''New York Times'', March 16, 1996, p.4</ref> and Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where he served as speaker of the National Assembly "during the 1990s."<Ref name=appendix/> This was his first instance of holding a political position with some consistency.{{Fact|date=October 2007}} During the "last few years of the 1990s", his influence and that of his party's "'internationalist' and ideological wing" waned "in favor of the 'nationalist' or more pragmatic leaders who focus on trying to recover from Sudan's disastrous international isolation and economic damage that resulted from ideological adventurism."<ref>Fuller, ''The Future of Political Islam'', (2003), p.111</ref>
===Imprisonment===
After a political falling out with President [[Omar al-Bashir]] in 1999,<ref name=Spur>[http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/17/news/Sudan-Opposition.php "Sudan opposition head: rebel assault may spur more violence"], Associated Press (''International Herald Tribune''), May 18, 2008.</ref> Turabi was imprisoned based on allegations of conspiracy before being released in October 2003.<ref name=Denies>Wasil Ali, [http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article27123 "Sudanese Islamist opposition leader denies link with Darfur rebels"], ''Sudan Tribune'', May 13, 2008.</ref> He was again imprisoned <!-- list Nimeiri et al --> in the Kober (Cooper) prison in [[Khartoum]] in March 2004. He was released on [[June 28]], [[2005]].
As of 2004 he was reported to have been associated with the [[Justice and Equality Movement]] (JEM), an [[Islamist]] armed rebel group which is involved in the [[Darfur conflict]]. Turabi himself has denied these claims.
After the JEM [[2008 attack on Omdurman and Khartoum|attacked Khartoum and Omdurman]]<ref name=Terrified>[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A0C807C2-F75E-4E95-8BFD-F1BFE716CD77.htm "Sudan leader 'terrified' by arrest"], Al Jazeera, May 13, 2008.</ref> on [[May 10]],<ref name=Kiir>Issac Vuni, [http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article27116 "Turabi is a scapegoat to rebel aborted coup – Sudan FVP"], ''Sudan Tribune'', May 13, 2008.</ref> Turabi was arrested on the morning of [[May 12]] [[2008]], along with other members of his Popular Congress Party (PCP). He said that he had expected the arrest, which occurred while he was returning to Khartoum from a PCP gathering in [[Sennar]].<ref name=Denies/> He was questioned and released without charge<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/12/africa/AF-GEN-Sudan-Turabi-4th-Ld.php "Sudanese government releases opposition politician al-Turabi without charge"], Associated Press (''International Herald Tribune''), May 12, 2008.</ref> later in the day, after about 12 hours in detention.<ref name=Wasil>Wasil Ali, [http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article27113 "Sudan releases Islamist leader al-Turabi"], ''Sudan Tribune'', May 12, 2008.</ref>
Presidential advisor Mustaf Osman Ismail said that Turabi's name had been found on JEM documents,<ref name=Wasil/> but he denied that Turabi had been arrested, asserting that he had merely been "summoned" for questioning. Turabi, however, said that it was an arrest and that he had been held at Kober.<ref name=Denies/> According to Turabi, he was questioned regarding the relationship between the PCP and JEM, but he did not answer this question,<ref name=Terrified/> although he denied that there was a relationship after his release;<ref name=Denies/> he also said that he was asked why he did not condemn the rebel attack.<ref name=Wasil/> He said that the security officers questioning him had "terrified" him<ref name=Terrified/> and that, although they claimed to have proof against him, they did not show him this proof when he asked to see it.<ref name=Denies/>
[[Salva Kiir Mayardit]], the First Vice-President of Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan, said that there had been no discussion about arresting Turabi at a presidency meeting on the previous day and that there was no security report implicating him. He alleged that Turabi was being used as a [[scapegoat]].<ref name=Kiir/>
In an interview on [[May 17]], Turabi described the JEM's attack on Khartoum as "positive" and said that there was "so much misery in Darfur, genocidal measures actually". He also said that the JEM attack could spark more unrest.<ref name=Spur/>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book
| publisher = Brill
| isbn = 9789004131965
| last = Burr
| first = Millard
| title = Revolutionary Sudan : Hasan al-Turabi and the Islamist state, 1989-2000
| location = Leiden ;;Boston MA
| date = 2003
}}
==External links==
*[http://www.turabi.com/ Official website]
*[http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ai=214&ar=1112wmv&ak=null Turabi video Interview]
*[http://www.sudanupdate.org/WHOSWHO/NIF.HTM Sudan Update's entry on the National Islamic Front]
*[http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/03/turabi-bio.htm Biography of Hassan al-Turabi from Human Rights Watch]
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1182857,00.html Guardian article at the time of his March 2004 arrest]
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4637069.stm BBC article on his June 2005 release]
*[http://www.islamonline.net/iol-english/qadaya/qpolitic-14/qpolitic1.asp Text of a speech given by Turabi before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee] <!--Can anybody find this on the House site?-->
*[http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch2.htm Chapter 2 of 9/11 Commission Report] Turabi is described in Section 2.3
*[http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=15021 13.04.2006 - Sudan Tribune: "Sudan’s Turabi - Muslim women can marry Christian or Jew"]
*[http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=15219 24.04.2006 - Sudan Tribune: "Sudan’s Turabi considered apostate"]
*[http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=15403 02.05.2006 - Sudan Tribune: "Sudan’s Turabi accuses Islamic clerics of misunderstanding"] with Interview
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[[Category:Muslim reformers]]
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:Al-Qaeda]]
[[Category:Darfur conflict]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Sudanese politicians]]
[[Category:Sudanese Muslims]]
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[[ru:Тураби, Хасан Абдалла]]