Saudi Gazette Political history and changes Soon after his graduation, Hassan Al-Turabi 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. 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 Al-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.” Al-Turabi became a leader of the Sudanese Socialist Union, and was promoted to Justice Minister in 1979. Hassan Al-Turabi today Al-Turabi has espoused progressive Islamist ideas, such as the embrace of democracy. In an 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. He declared Islamist organizations “too focused on narrow historical debates and behavioral issues of what should be forbidden, at the expense of economic and social development”. Al-Turabi also laid out his vision for a Shariah law that would be applied gradually instead of forcefully and would apply only to Muslims, who would share power with the Christians in a federal system. Al-Turabi has espoused progressive Islamist ideas, such as the embrace of democracy, healing the breach. Al-Turabi also laid out his vision for a Shariah law that would be applied gradually instead of forcefully and would apply only to Muslims, who would share power with the Christians in a federal system. However, after Al-Turabi came to power in a military coup d'état that overthrew a democratic government, his regime was characterized by harsh human rights violations rather than progressive or liberal theology. A karate attack by a Sudanese black-belt opposed to the Sudanese National Islamic Front Islamist regime, left Al-Turabi almost crippled resulting in the loss of control over his limbs. He also had a slurred speech after the attack. In March 1996, national elections were held for the first time since the coup, and Al-Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where he served as speaker of the National Assembly “during the 1990s.” This was his first instance of holding a political position with some consistency. After a political falling out with President Al-Bashir in 1999, Al-Turabi was imprisoned before being released in Oct. 2003, followed by yet another arrest in March 2004. He was released on June 28, 2005. In 2004, he was reported to have been associated with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), an Islamist armed rebel group involved in the Darfur conflict. Al-Turabi himself has denied these claims. After the JEM attacked Khartoum and Omdurman on May 10, 2008, Al-Turabi was arrested on the morning of May 12, 2008, along with other members of his Popular Congress Party (PCP). On Jan. 12, 2009, Al-Turabi called on Bashir to surrender before the International Criminal Court while holding Bashir responsible for war crimes in Darfur. Arrested on Jan. 14 he was set free only two months after. On April 11, 2009, the PCP called for the creation of a transitional government to lead Sudan to the planned 2010 election, and Al-Turabi suggested that leadership should come from the younger generation. Al-Turabi announced on Jan. 2, 2010, that the PCP had designated his deputy, Abdullah Deng Nial, as its candidate for the 2010 presidential election. On Jan. 18, 2011, security forces arrested Al-Turabi from Khartoum, presumably at the wake of the recent instability in Sudan's politics. Al-Turabi commented on the recent price-rises in Sudan stating it could result at a ‘popular uprising' if the unrealistic rises were not reversed. He added that the governments including that of Sudan should take lessons from the recent events in Tunisia. __
