Top Six Sudanese Muslims?

This week Georgetown University’s Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding released a list of the top 500 most influential Muslims. Some blogs have criticized the overall exercise, as well as pointed to the conspicuous absence of individuals like Mohamed Yunis and Fareed Zakaria.  In looking at the six Sudanese included in the list, they collectively encompass much of the past and present in Sudan.  But who might be missing and who best represents the future of Sudan?

To start, the report describes Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in the following unflattering way:

al bashir, his excellency president omar: Al Bashir is the current president of Sudan and head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in a coup in 1989 and has since instituted elements of sharia law throughout the country, including in Christian and animist areas. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for al Bashir in 2009, indicting him on five* counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape) and two counts of war crimes (pillaging and intentionally directing attacks against civilians). *Note: Bashir has been indicted on seven charges.

It also, unsurprisingly, includes the two other Sudanese leaders that have dominated politics and the religious discourse in Sudan for the last four decades:

al turabi, hassan abdallah: Al Turabi is a Sudanese religious leader. He is widely regarded as a moderate and uses Islamic teachings to foster social development. He is an advocate for women’s rights, and believes Muslim fundamentalists place prohibitions above social development. He has recently stated that Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir should give himself up to the International Criminal Court for the sake of Sudan.

al Mahdi, H.E. Imam Sayyed Al Sadiq: Uniquely situated on this list as the single most influential Sudanese leader who derives influence from his lineage—his great grandfather, Muhammad Ahmad, claimed to be the Mahdi, or messianic figure in Islamic eschatology—Imam Sayyed al Sadiq al Mahdi is also Imam of the al Ansar sufi order and president of the moderate Islamic Umma Party.

These short descriptions fail to convey the complex intermingling of politics and religion in Sudan.  In reading them, one would never know that al-Turabi provided al-Bashir with the hard-line Islamist ideology and man-power to overthrow al-Mahdi’s democratically-elected government in 1989.  Labeling al-Turabi as a “moderate” may make sense today as he has recently taken stances that have upset Salafists in Sudan and beyond.  In doing so though, the description ignores al-Turabi’s track record of imposing strict sharia law in Sudan in the 1980s and 1990s and also providing refugee and support to the international jihadist movement – including, of course, inviting Osama bin Laden to use Sudan as a staging ground in the mid-1990s.

As for Darfur, the report highlights the tragedy by including:

osman, salih mahmoud: Salih Mahmoud Osman is a Sudanese lawyer, human rights advocate and a member of the Sudan National Assembly. Listed in European Voice’s 50 most influential people in 2007, Osman also received the 2005 Human Rights Watch Award and the American Bar Association’s 2006 International Human Rights Award.

As I have met Salih on many occasions, I can personally attest to his inspiring commitment to human rights and standing up for the victims in Darfur.  Here is a link to an article that he wrote in The Nation in 2007 on “Justice and Peace in Darfur.”

The other two Sudanese on the list spend most of their time outside of Sudan.  Indeed, I have my strong doubts that they could fully conduct their important work in Khartoum or elsewhere in the country:

ibrahim, dr mohamed ‘mo’: Mohamed Ibrahim—more commonly known as Mo Ibrahim—is a Sudanese-born entrepreneur, currently based in the UK. He became successful as a businessman in the telecommunications industry, founding one of Africa’s biggest cellular phone companies, Celtel. He has recently come to prominence for his idea of a Prize for Achievement in African Leadership—which gives a $5 million initial payment, plus $200,000 a year for life. The Prize was conceived as a way to stop the need for corruption by African leaders, who often resort to corruption to obtain financial security when they leave office, and to promote good governance. The prize is believed to be the world’s largest, surpassing the $1.3m Nobel Peace Prize.

el bashir, his excellency dr issam: El Bashir is the secretary general of the International Moderation Centre (IMC) in Kuwait. The IMC is an organization set up by the Higher Committee for the Promotion of Moderation, of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs of the State of Kuwait to promote Islamic moderation domestically and around the world. The center has worked with communities in Britain and Russia, among other places, to promote moderation among the extremist elements of their Muslim population. Locally it trains over 700 Imams at a time with a focus on practices of moderation.

In my opinion, there are at least two significant individuals that the list could have also included: Lubna Hussein andYasir Arman. Hussein just entered the domestic political scene in Sudan and grabbed headlines around the world with her public protest over the right to wear pants. While not of the stature of the other individuals, her inclusion could have highlighted the much-neglected topic of women’s roles as leaders in Sudanese society.  Arman as a critical leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) continues to fight in the Sudanese parliament and beyond for the ‘New Sudan’ as envisioned by the SPLM’s founder and visionary, the late John Garang.  Many think that Arman, as a Muslim within the predominantly Christian SPLM, could – if given the chance – help transform Sudanese politics by challenging the entire system through his unique position and message of unity.

Finally, an often overlooked fact about Sudanese politics and society is that the most prominent individuals – such as al-Bashir, al-Turabi, and al-Mahdi – are getting quite old.  While they certainly have plans to hand off their various networks of influence to their predecessors, a seamless transfer is not assured – especially given that so much of their power rests on the public images and personal patronage they have developed over the decades.  The others on the list – as well as Hussein and Arman – however have risen recently through the ranks of politics, society, and religion largely because of the power of their ideas and the significance of their accomplishments.  If given the chance to operate in a free society, there is no doubt that they would lead Sudan into a more prosperous future.