Bashir and Turabi discuss reunification of Islamic forces in Sudan
July 13, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The secretary-general of the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP), Hassan al-Turabi discussed with the Sudanese president and chairman of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) Omer al-Bashir his new proposition for the unity of Islamic forces.
NCP political relations official, Hamid Mumtaz, told reporters on Monday that al-Bashir recently met with al-Turabi to discuss the unification of Muslim people but he denied that they discussed ways to unify the forces of Islamic movement.
Mumtaz was keen to emphasize that the idea of Muslim people includes the “Sufis, Salafis, modern groups, and factions of the Arab nationalists and left, as well as civil society forces”.
“Turabi explained in detail the regime of succession,” he further said.
Turabi’s new project focuses on the need to overcome the failure of the Islamic movement parties to establish an Islamic state in Sudan despite governing the country for over 26 years and to meet all together over a new platform aiming to build an Islamic society in Sudan.
Following the coup d’etat of June 1989 organized by the National Islamic Front (NIF), Turabi founded the National Congress Party, but ten years later he was removed from the party and jailed for several years.
During the past 25 years of rule, many Islamists left the NCP over power struggle and criticism for the government policies. Some distanced themselves from politics and others formed new political parties like al-Tayeb Mustafa and Ghazi Salah al-Din Attabani.
Turabi who is a founding member of the Muslim brotherhood in Sudan in 1946, opted during his long political career for the formation of all-inclusive alliance of Islamic forces and rejected the idea of elitist party.
He established the Islamic Charter after October 1964 Revolution, the National Islamic Front after the collapse of Nimeri’s regime in 1985 and the NCP after his coup d’etat of 1989.
(ST)