Hassan al-Turabi (Photo: AP)
Hassan al-Turabi, the leader of Sudan’s National Islamic Front, will arrive in Egypt on Tuesday in his first visit to the country for 23 years, during which he alienated the ousted regime which, in turn, isolated him.
The Sudanese opposition leader intends to hold wide-range discussions with the Egyptian political and popular powers.
Al-Turabi is the first Islamist political leader whose movement reached power in the Arab world, and he himself harvested the mistakes of the bitter Islamic experience in Sudan, and is reviewing it now.
Ahram Online interviewed Al-Turabi in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, during his participation in the independence celebrations, before his visit to Egypt.
Ahram Online: You will pay a visit to Egypt, the first in 23 years. What is the goal of the visit?
Hassan al-Turabi: I would like to acquaint myself with the Egyptian people in their new revelations after the January Revolution. Egypt and Sudan actually became part of a changing world after the recent developments in the two countries, a change that pervades the Arab region including Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen and others.
AO: Is the visit for the Egyptian people or the Islamists in Egypt?
HA: In my last visit to Egypt 23 years ago I met all communities in Egypt including parties, syndicates, press and scholars, and I’ll do this now. I want to see the Egyptian home from inside and I will visit Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the Revolution.
AO: Do you see that the current situation in Egypt imposes different challenges?
HA: Now, there is the New Egypt after the revolution. Freedom came to Egypt, but brought new challenges and trials as well. Sudan now changed and divided into two states.
AO: What is the message you will deliver to the Islamists in Egypt, as you are the leader of the first Islamic movement that ruled in the Sunni world?
HA: There is a need for renewal and there is difference between immobility and consistency...but if I slammed some people they might think I’m taking sides against them.
AO: Does this apprehension prevent you from transferring your experience in ruling to the Islamists in Egypt?
HA: No, I’ll try to transfer our experience of the Islamic rule in Sudan to our brothers in Egypt and also in Tunisia, especially the new generations. I met the Tunisians in my recent visit to Turkey.
AO: Why were you in a permanent feud with the Mubarak regime?
HA: The former regime in Egypt was in an internal problem with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists in Egypt.
This has reflected on their dealings with our Islamic experience in the Sudan, like the West which put Osama bin Laden, Khomeini and al-Turabi in one box, without having the ability to distinguish between Islamist and another.
Short link: