The Islamic Awakening's Second Wave

Abstract

Hassan al‐Turabi, often referred to as the most significant Muslim cleric since Ayatollah Khomeini, had a central influence during the 1990s on the rise of Sunni Islamist movements across the Middle East and North Africa. He was a mentor of Ayman al‐Zawahiri and had a close personal relationship with Osama bin Laden, sponsoring his presence in Sudan before the Al Qaeda leader fled to Afghanistan. Al‐Turabi was the ideological force behind the coup led by Omar al‐Bashir, with whom he has since fallen out, that brought Islamists to power in Sudan in 1989. As an opposition leader al‐Turabi has been in and out of jail for years, most recently over the issue of Darfur.The soft‐spoken philosopher of Islam sat down with me for a lengthy and candid discussion in the summer of 1992. We met in a dilapidated townhouse near DuPont Circle in Washington, where he had come, as it turned out without success, to repair relations with the United States.