Their 30 Years War: The Defrocking of Hasan alTurabi by(Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim)
Their 30 Years War:
The Defrocking of Hasan alTurabi
by
Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim
Department of History. University of Missouri
The Arabic proverb "inna al-Masa'ib la ta'ti furada" or "Misfortunes do not assail in ones" is the equivalent of what an English speaker means when he says "misery loves company." Hasan alTurabi, the leader of the Islamic revival movement in Sudan and SecretaryGeneral of the sixyear-old Islamic "International," could not agree more these days. Sudan government, whose "evil genius" he is said to be, is under pain of international sanctions to surrender the men who crossed into Sudan from Ethiopia after their failed attempt to assassin President Hosni Mubark of Egypt last year. To make what is bad worse, Ja'far Sheikh Idris, a dissident who broke ranks with the Turabi-led Muslim Brotherhood almost thirty years ago, and has lived ever since in Saudi Arabia and the United States, gave a public lecture on October (1995) at the University of Khartoum in which he charged alTurabi of apostasy and dismissed Turabi's views on religious reform as secularism in Islamic garb.
Charging al-Turabi with apostasy is not new. It has stalked him all the time, specially during the course of the conflict that raged in the Islamic movement in the late sixties. This conflict was between al-Turabi's faction, what I would call here "the political group," and their opponens whom I call the "educationalist group." The educationalists were appalled by the readiness of the political group, led by alTurabi, to overhaul the internal structure of the movement in order to accommodate the numerous and extremely successful, if ethically questionable, political alliances with other centers of power. They accused alTurabi's faction of being preoccupied with politics and showmanship at the expense of deepening the educational foundation of members. Ignored and outnumbered, the educationalist, among whom was Ja'far Shaykh Idris, rebelled in the late seventies and formed their own organization. Apparently, it was this brake-away organization that sponsored the lecture of Mr Shaykh Idris; their old, fiery brother who was returning from the USA.
The lecture was by and large a rehash of a litany of the alleged heresies of alTurabi, long in circulation among the initiated. In going public, the educationalists might have wanted to settle old scores with alTurabi whose government and movement appeared to have attained both power and prestige. Members of the alTurabi's movement in the audience were angry and disconcerted. A young and apparently confused member of the audience asked the lecture; Mr Idris, if alTurabi could lead Muslims in prayer, considering the things Mr Idris had said about? Mr Idris, who sounded like passing a sentence rather than giving an answer, responded by saying: "Not before he recants".
The accusation of apostasy apart, alTurabi could hardly fail to recognize this flagrant selfrighteousness his movement has perfected into a technology of political power. Two of the heresies of which alTurabi was found guilty by his critics would evoke memories of dramatic and tragic episodes in the recent history of the Sudanese people; memories that would rub salt in wounds that are still raw. The first heresy is alTurabi's flippant language in the public statements in which he discusses matters pertaining to Prophet Muhammad, his household and his companions. Thirty years ago, the use of such un-restrained language gave the budding Islamic movement its first clearcut victory over the Sudan Communist Party, believed then to be the most popular and well-organized communist party in Africa. In 1965, a student, allegedly a member of the Communist party or one of its splinter groups, made a statement that the Islamists deemed frivolously disrespectful of the Prophet and his household. Mobilizing a broad alliance comprizing other Sudanese parties, clerics and sufi brotherhood, the Islamists succeeded in altogether banning the Communist party and in barring its dully elected representatives from sitting in Parliament. The party never recovered from this fatal blow. This event and its repercussions gave alTurabi's movement an unsurpassed authority to speak on religious matters, an authority enjoyed neither by the popular and dominant sufi fraternities nor by the clerics.
It would be one of the bizarre ironies of fate if alTurabi could be forced to recant or be charged with apostasy in the wake of Mr Idris's lecture. It is only ten years ago that the Muslim Brotherhood were implicated in the execution of a religious opponent accused of apostasy. Many Sudanese hold the Brotherhood responsible, politically as well as juridically, for charging the late Islamic reformer, Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, who was 76 years old at the time, of apostasy. Accordingly, he was condemned to death and was publicly hanged in 1985. Even those observers sympathetic to the Islamists do not absolve them of having a hand in the murder of this important man. The Muslim Brotherhood had for a long time dismissed Taha as an annoying, eccentric demagogue, but took no action against him. But when Nimeri, the military dictator who ruled the Sudan between 1969-1985, tried Mahmoud M. Taha for heresy, the Brotherhood threw its weight behind him. As a "newborn" Muslim, Nimeri had already allied himself with the Brotherhood a few years back. On the day of the public hanging, many followers of the Brotherhood flocked to the "killing field", in show of support for the decision to execute the old man.
Many Sudanese find some of the charges against alTurabi ludicrous and baseless. Nevertheless, the charges are there, and are serious. AlTurabi is accused, for example, of believing (in contradiction to most Muslim thinkers) that, in Islam, the application of the term "apostasy" is restricted only to those who raise arms against a Muslim government. He is also believed to have said that Muslims who want to change their religions were free to do so. But if these accusations have any foundation in truth, then why did al-Turabi fail to practice what he is believed to have preached, once he has assumed power in Khartoum? Contrary to statements in which alTurabi is said to have made these ideas known, article 126 of the 1991 Sudan Criminal Code promulgated under the present governmenta government allegedly run by alTurabidoes not make any distinctions between categories of apostates. At any event, it is saddening to see lslamic thinkers toy with a matter as serious as apostasy . Apparently, alTurabi is not prepared to enact into law his "heretical" notion of apostasy, for which he may pay with his own life.. As for his adversaries, it is clear that they do not take the trouble to verify their sources or prove their accusations.
All said and done, secularists in the Sudan and elsewhere should not rejoice in the fact that their "public enemy number one" is having presently big problems. For a change, they should be looking for what is good for their cause rather than what is bad for alTurabi. The promiscuous ease with which Nimeri executed M.M. Taha should be a lesson to secularists to be seriously concerned when they hear the word "apostasy" thrown about, even if it is the head of their hateful enemy that is going to roll this time. Again, the Islamists of the Educationalist group should not be encouraged to carelessly flounce around apostasy charges even if they are slitting each others throats. "Never again" is suitably invented for situations such as the one under consideration here. It will serve as an earlywarning system to help us nip in the bud all accusation of apostasy before they turn sour and cancerous. Secularism, let it be remembered, came into the world to save religious adversaries from killing one another in the Thirty Year wars in Europe. ***
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