Sudan - Dr. Hassan Abdullah al-Turabi

This is the man pulling the strings. Intelligent, well-educated and determined to be the first guy on his block to have his own fundamentalist state. He has described himself as being the symbol of a new movement that will change the history of humanity. His goal is to unify the billion or so Muslims under one guiding theocratic government. He was educated in London and earned his doctorate at Sorbonne in 1964. Five years later, he became leader of what was then a small and fanatical group of religious nuts. Turabi became the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, only to be banished from Sudan less than a month later, when General Nimeiri's Marxist coup made Turabi's style of religion out of style. Saudi Arabia took him in and the Brotherhood took hold among the 350,000 professional Sudanese working in oil-rich but skills-poor Saudia Arabia. They provided a source of funds, which Turabi used to send the brightest Sudanese to Western universities to get their Ph.D.s. The Brotherhood was busy turning out doctors, lawyers, writers and teachers, who would then take the message of Islam back to other Muslim countries. They created the Islamic African Relief Fund (now the Islamic Relief Association) to help with the millions of African refugees in sub-Saharan Africa. In the mid-1970s, they created Faisal Islamic Bank to handle the deposits of expat workers in the Gulf States. Islamic banks charge no interest, pay no interest and share profits with their depositors. The bank made loans to small businessmen, taxi drivers and shopkeepers.

After building a strong financial and political base from Saudi Arabia, Turabi returned to Sudan in 1977 as attorney general under Nimeiri's program of national reconciliation with former enemies. In 1983, Nimeiri declared Shari'a, or Islamic law, after a particularly vivid dream. Turabi was not the force behind the change. Although Turabi is extreme in his long-term plans, he is a moderate in affecting change.

The dramatic changeover did not affect the political climate as much as it influenced the financial health of Sudan. Nimeiri instituted the 354-day year, and taxes were abolished and replaced with voluntary tithing. Interest was abolished, and the resultant loss of revenue and fiscal chaos plunged Sudan into bankruptcy. Sudan was US$8 billion in the hole and sinking fast. When the government couldn't cut a check for US$250 million, they went into default with the IMF. By March 1985, Nimeiri blamed the country's slide into debt on the Islamic laws now ostensibly enforced by Turabi. Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were removed from political office, and Turabi was put in jail. Three months later, Nimeiri was ousted in a coup, and the first thing General Siwar el-Dahab did was dispatch a plane to fly Turabi back from prison to Khartoum. By then, Turabi was head of the National Islamic Front, originally an opposition party. But Turabi, once again, became attorney general. The Muslim Brotherhood was welcomed back into politics.

http://www.turabi.com

http://msanews.mynet.net/Scholars/Turabi/

http://www.dm.net.lb/rdl/1909/tourabi.htm