HIGHLIGHTS OF NIF ROLE IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA

A number of factors have contributed to an eventual moderation of the regime's policies, including a weakening of its support for international terrorism and armed Islamist groups, and have helped to hasten the ouster of al-Turabi from power. These factors included;
Sudan 's increasing international isolation, including UN sanctions; Concerted diplomatic engagement by the U.S. government: and The patent failures of Sudan 's Islamist policies to provide the hoped-for security in both the international and domestic spheres.
Nonetheless, it appears that Sudan continues to maintain relations with many, if not all the Islamist and other groups that it supported in the 1990s. These groups can be deployed as a part of Sudan 's arsenal when or if they are needed to threaten neighboring states. In addition, new Al Qaeda training camps have been identified on Sudanese soil, which leaves the unsettling impression that the Sudanese government, or at least elements of it, also maintains relations with international terrorism, even as the government has officially began to cooperate with the United States in its war on terror.
Hassan al-Turabi
Hassan al-Turabi was the architect of Khartoum 's Islamist ideology that buttressed the regime's hold on power and quest for regional dominance. With advanced degrees from the University of London and the Sorbonne, al-Turabi's intellectual brilliance and personal charm often masked his political cunning and ruthlessness.
As a young man, al-Turabi came to Khartoum in 1951 to study law. While other students promoted secular solutions to the problems in Sudan , al-Turabi joined the Al-Ikhwan Al-Moslemoon," or Muslim Brotherhood, in Sudan -- just as the parent organization in Egypt was entering a phase of fomenting political revolution.
A 22-year-old elementary school teacher, Hasan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 as an Islamic revivalist movement following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent end of the Caliphate system of government that had united Muslims in the region for hundreds of years. Al Banna contended that Islam was more than a religious observance; it was, rather, a comprehensive way of life. He propagated the tenets of puritanical Wahhabism, better known today as "Islamism," and he insisted that the Brotherhood's male students receive Jihadia training rather than what had been traditional Islamic education. Soon after its founding, the Muslim Brothers set up branches in neighboring countries including Sudan , and worked actively to spread the principal Islamist idea: That Islam is "creed and state, book and sword, and a way of life." These principles conflicted with what was then the mainstream view of Muslim scholars, namely that Islam should be restricted within the walls of the mosque. The Muslim Brothers also adopted an anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist stance in their rhetoric about the West.
The Muslim Brotherhood sought to institutionalize Islamic law throughout Sudan , and the legal scholar, al-Turabi, became secretary general of Sudan 's Muslim Brotherhood in 1964. When General Jafa'ar Nimeiri took power in a coup in 1969, he dissolved the Brotherhood and arrested its leadership, including al-Turabi. Dr. Turabi returned to political life in 1977, upon reconciliation with Nimeiri. General Nimeiri then designated al-Turabi his attorney general. A former dean of the Law School at the University of Khartoum , al-Turabi, played a leading role in the introduction of Sharia. The enforcement of Sharia-dictated amputations and hangings provoked a public outcry that contributed to the popular and nonviolent overthrow of Nimeiri in 1985 and a brief reinstatement of parliamentary democracy.
After the overthrow of Nimeiri, al-Turabi proved instrumental in setting up the NIF, a Brotherhood-dominated organization that included several other small Islamic parties. Following al-Bashir's 1989 coup, the military government arrested al-Turabi, as well as the leaders of other political parties, and held him in solitary confinement for several months. Nevertheless, this action failed to dispel a pervasive belief in Sudan that Turabi and the NIF actively collaborated with the Colonel Bashir in the coup. Not long after Bashir's rise to power, the NIF influence within the government became evident in its policies and in the presence of several NIF members in the cabinet. From that time until 2001, al-Turabi was the power behind the throne. He maneuvered the NIF police state and associated militias to consolidate Islamist power and prevent any popular uprisings.
Throughout his long political career, al-Turabi maintained links with the wider Islamist international movement. Indeed, he reportedly was a mentor to Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Zawahiri founded Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he merged with Osama bin-Laden's al-Qaeda group to create the "World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders." Al-Zawahiri became Bin Laden's personal physician and close confidant and is currently his second-in-command.
The National Islamic Front in Sudanese National Politics
Bashir's government forged an alliance with the NIF in an attempt to create legitimacy for his military regime. The Mulsim Brotherhood and later the NIF drew its support almost exclusively from university-educated, middle class males. The NIF never succeeded in growing much beyond this traditional base of support, which remained a small minority within Sudan . Bashir's and the NIF's political success lay largely in repressing the democratic opposition. They moved to undermine the trade union movement, which historically opposed the authoritarian military state, and purged democratic sympathizers within the military and government bureaucracy. The regime also employed divide and rule tactics when dealing with different ethnic groups within the country.
The failure of the NIF to broaden its base of support is explained, at least in part, by Sudan 's Islamic history. Al-Turabi's austere legalistic view of Islam remained at odds with mainstream Islam in Sudan , which is heavily influenced by the Sufi orders or brotherhoods. Sudan is one of the remaining strongholds of Sufism in the Muslim world today, and although not directly involved in politics, Sudan 's traditional Sufi orders have historically been pillars of support to the moderate UMMA party of former Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi. The Sufi mandate of tolerance with "family, neighbors and all others in the world" is at odds with the al-Turabi's NIF view of Islam that preaches the Arabization of Africa and the Islamization of the United States . According to Dr. Hasan Al Fatih Qaribullah, a leading sheikh of the Sufi movement in Khartoum , "If there is a family in Sudan that does not have at least one Sufi member, it is not Sudanese." Sufi notions of moderation have hobbled al-Turabi's efforts to make his more intellectualized version of Islam the dominant tendency in Sudan .
PAIC: Al-Turabi's Internationalism

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