Political Islam: the Logic of Governance in Sudan

By Ahmed Elzobier

The book aims to unravel the complexity of dynamics of power, domination, and resistance in Sudan. It will also draw special attention to who rules the country and how they ruled and what tools they deployed to execute their internal, regional, and international policies. Ultimately, by focusing on Sudan, I hope to provide an in-depth understanding of how political Islam operates in practical terms within the Middle East and North Africa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Aug 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496987327

Ahmed Elzobier

Ahmed Elzobier has, for many years, worked for various intentional organizations focusing on Sudan, including the Human Rights Watch. He was also a regular contributor to Africa Confidential and Sudan Tribune. His research, the subject of this book, was awarded the best research in 2013 by University of San Francisco.

Book preview

AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2014 Ahmed Elzobier. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/08/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-8731-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-8730-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-8732-7 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgment

Chapter I Introduction

1.1 Backgound

1.2 Statement of the problem

1.3 The book Layout

Chapter II What is Political Islam?

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Western scholars position on Political Islam

2.2.1 Political Islam: A General Perspective

2.2.2 The cultural/civilizational position

2.2.3 The Socio-economic position

2.3 Secular Muslims position

2.4 Islamist Ideology

2.4.2 Realist Islamists

2.4.3 Progressive Islamists

Chapter III The Rise of Political Islam to power in Sudan

3.1 Introduction

3.3 The Islamic Movement in Sudan

3.4 Building the infrastructure of power

3.4.1 The Islamic Movement Structure

3.4.2 The recruitment process

3.4.3 Financial resources

Chapter IV The 1989 Coup

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Infiltrating the army

4.2.1 The Western Connection

4.3 The multi-party system period (1985-1989)

4.4 Sequence of events before the military coup

Chapter V The logic of Governance: Domination and resistance

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Dissent and repression

5.3 Torture as method of suppression

5.4 Al Tamkeen (Consolidation of Power)

5.5 The Quest for Political Legitimacy

5.6 The NIF spilt

5.7 Political accommodation phase (1999-2011)

Chapter VI Case study: Sudan government propaganda

6.1 Introduction

6.2 The case study: Anti-The New Dawn Charter Propaganda

6.3 Religious propaganda tools

6.3.1 Sudanese Religious Scholars Board Edict (fatwa)

6.4 Propaganda analysis

7.5 Counterpropaganda

Chapter VII Conclusion

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Findings

References

Acronyms

Glossary

List of Tables

Composition of Some of the Founder Members of IDC

Elections Results in 1986

Elections Results in 1996

List of Figures

Figure 1 Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt) Structure

Figure 2 National Congress Party Organization Structure

Figure 3 First cartoon and propaganda

Figure 4 Second cartoon and propaganda

Dedication

To those who work diligently to improve Sudanese political life, despite extreme adversity.

Acknowledgment

I would like to acknowledge and extend my heartfelt gratitude to Mahmud Mohamed Taha, for sacrificing his life to make a difference in Sudan, his courage always inspired me. I owe my deepest gratitude to Professor Anne Bartlett for her understanding and great interest in my research, for her patient and sincere guidance through the intricate period of qualitative research, and for vital encouragement, support and excellent supervision. My gratitude to Gill Lusk and Patrick Smith for their kind support and encouraging feedback, during my internship with Africa Confidential, and for allowing me to access their rich archive. I am also indebted to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, for allowing me to access their valuable online archive that documented human rights violations in Sudan.

It was an honour for me to work with the Sudanese journalists in Sudan Tribune Team; I could not have done some of this research without their valuable inputs dedication and hard work to create a better informed public. Finally, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my colleague Joseph Stosberg for his proofreading and editing support.

Chapter I

Introduction

1.1 Backgound

In the early morning hours of the 30th of June 1989, some 1,000 individuals, eighty percent of which were civilians, using a military secret code the Beloved Country took control of Sudan. The Sudan Islamic Movement’s relentless quest for political power was finally realized, albeit by force and Sudan’s fragile multi-party system, one of the few in sub-Saharan Africa at the time, was no more. The Egyptians, unbeknowing were jubilant and called the new unknown military officers our boys. The Americans expressed a sigh of relief¹. The Sudanese coup plotters appeared to have pulled a trick that is very rare in modern politics. It could be simply described as a genius work of magicians; a kind of smoke and mirrors deception, which flawlessly managed to fool many people. The late Sudanese novelist Al Tayeb Salih, bewildered like many others, once asked: Where did these people come from? a new breed of politicians who certainly believes that In Islam, politics is worship, and worship is politics.² This study attempts to explore such questions and many others.

Furthermore, I will chart a trajectory of the logic and style of governance in Sudan with the special focus on the period post 1989. The importance of this period stems from the fact that the country was governed with a unique style³ for the first time in the Sunni Muslim world by an Islamic Movement. Of course, no attempt will be made here to present a complete story of Political Islam, or the Islamic Movement’s ascendancy to power in Sudan, so the approach is selective. However, I am interested in constructing a model that will effectively expose the central pattern of motivation, action, ideology and logic of governance. The study also aims to unravel the complexity of dynamics of power, domination and resistance in Sudan. I will also draw special attention to who rules the country and how they ruled; what tools they deployed to execute their internal, regional and international policies. Ultimately, by focusing on Sudan, I hope to provide an in-depth understanding of how political Islam operates in practical terms within the Middle East and North Africa.

Currently, at least within Sunni Islam, there are three groups that can be identified as engaged in politics that use selective components of Islam as political ideology. Political science scholars agreed to describe these groups using the term Political Islam (Kramer, 1980; Roy, 2004).The use of terms such as: radicals, extremists, or fundamentalists are not helpful. There is no real agreement between scholars on the definitions of moderation, radicalization, fundamentalism and extremisms (Salwen, 2012). However, all these groups agree on literal interpretation of Islam with minor variations. They all believe that there is a golden period in the history of Islam that Muslims should return back to. As a result, they differ in tactics ranging from accepting the status quo (traditional Salafists), to those who believe in gradual change from the bottom-up approach using deception and sometime violence if necessary (Muslim Brotherhood) or those who believe in use of violence to change the status quo (Salafi-Jehadi - their ideology is fusion between Muslim Brotherhood ideas, especially Sayyid Qutb, and the interpretation of Wahhabi doctrine.)

Special attention in this study will be given to the Muslim Brotherhood movements that now dominate the political scene in the Middle East and that share the same ideological background as the ones in Sudan. The Muslim Brotherhood international organization constantly learns from each other experience, tactics and strategy. However, the Muslim Brotherhood movements are diverse in their strategies and interpretations of Islamic traditions. These differences can be attributed to the different historical and organisational evolution of these movements, as well as to the changing socio-political contexts. All these movements ultimately aspire to achieve a same final goal: building an Islamic state. Ideologically, they were inspired by Hassan al-Banna⁴ and Sayyed Qutb as well as Abul Ala Maududi, who had developed a powerful set of ideas that would directly inspire all shades of Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood to Al-Qaeda. Of course, they are not localised political movements: rather, they are movements with regional and international ambition because for them, the notion of nation state is meaningless. To achieve their goal of building an Islamic State the Muslim Brotherhood needs some form of international solidarity and coordination. Therefore the plan of working globally is embedded in the ideology of the movement. Hasan al- Banna, in his famous booklet, The Message of the Teachings, articulated this vision clearly that the critical rule of the Muslim Brotherhood: "Guiding the world by spreading the call of Islam to all corners of the globe." Thus, the idea of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood emerged since its inception. Sudan in this context could be viewed as a template for such project – a test for the model. Therefore the nature of this modern political phenomenon (political Islam) need to be understood, its common foundation, and strategy need to be explored.

Since 1989, the new regime in Sudan has treated Islam as the state religion and had declared that Islam must inspire the country’s laws, institutions and policies. A totalitarian theological state was declared a grand project with a metanarrative title as Civilization Project was installed. Hassan Al Turabi, the leader of the movement behind the coup announced the aim of his regime as "It is to Islamise public life-civil, business, police, military, economy and culture in all dimensions. When I say ‘Islamise’ I mean not only in forms, according to Islamic Sharia, but also attitude and disposition…Madinah⁵ is our model."⁶

1.2 Statement of the problem

The aim of this book is to examine how Sudan was ruled in the post 1989 period. For many, this regime was described as a political system for managing crisis; a regime that created unparallel humanitarian crisis, a failed state, a machine of corruption, a machine that commits war crimes in Darfur, and an entity that caused the separation of South Sudan. Despite the long list, the Islamic Movement regime managed to sustain power for almost 24 years, at least in the remaining part of Sudan. To explore these issues the following questions need to be addressed: 1) How the political domination of the Islamic Movement was sustained 2) How the regime produced compliance 3) How domestic political opponents were handled and; 4) What tools were deployed to navigate regional and international powers?; 4) More specifically, the research questions I will address in this study are: How the Islamic Movement managed to achieve and sustain power in Sudan. What logic of governance was produced by the Islamic Movement. How the Islamic Movement communicates their message internally and externally.

1.3 The book Layout

In Chapter Two will focus on addressing the issue of definition and current debate and understanding of Political Islam. I will lay out three positions mapping the scholarly discourse among western theorists and their view on the phenomenon of Political Islam. I will then follow that by exploring the debate that is contained in the secular Muslims debate. Then I highlight some of the main arguments presented by Islamists thinkers. In Chapter Three I attempt to address part of the initial study question of how the Islamic Movement managed to achieve and sustain power in Sudan. I will then provide background on the historical political development of the Islamic Movement in Sudan and explored in detail of the rise of the movement to power in Sudan, with special attention paid to the period from1977-1989. In addition, I will provide some evidence of how the movement started to build the infrastructure of power including: organisational structure; the recruitment process and access to financial resources. Subsequently, in Chapter Four I discuss in detail the ongoing strategy of National Islamic Front infiltration of the Sudan Armed Forces that was started in 1977, and explain the events that led to the military coup in 1989. In Chapter Five I explore how political power was sustained, including tactics of domination and resistance that followed the coup of 1989. Chapter Six investigates how the Islamic Movement (IM) communicates their message internally, by looking at a case study of propaganda and media in Sudan which played a critical role in pacifying the population and demonizing opposition groups. Chapter Seven concludes with the findings of this study as well as proposing future research opportunity in this rather ongoing complex situation in Sudan. Finally, I address a number of important limitations that need to be considered. It is important to note that throughout this study I will be using the name Islamic Movement when referring to the Muslim Brotherhood movement that started in Sudan in the early 1950s, but adopted many names during its political development.

Chapter II

What is Political Islam?

The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. Edward Gibbon: The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire.⁷

2.1 Introduction

The