Sudan’s Brotherhood group motives to control the international organization

Muslim Heneidi and Mohamed el-Dabouli

After the Egyptians people’s June 30, 3013 revolution that ended the Muslim Brotherhood rule, some of the countries that sponsor terrorism began provide direct support to the group (Muslim brotherhood), using the Sudanese geography, which represented a gathering point for the elements who flee from the Egyptian prosecutions.
Since the end of Rabaa sit-in, the Brotherhood members  in Sudan insisted on demonstrating in Khartoum while raising the Rabaa slogan. They also provided safe shelters to members of the group like the deputy Brotherhood guide Mahmoud Ezzat, Wagdy Ghoneim, and dozens of other supporters of the extremist current, who fled from the crimes they committed against the Egyptian people.

The Brotherhood presence in Sudan contributed to straining the Egyptian-Sudanese relations, which prompted the Sudanese authorities to conduct a quick review of their position and to control the Brotherhood’s presence.

This led the Sudanese authorities in February and March 2018 to adopt more severe decisions against the presence of Brotherhood in Sudan. It ordered members of the group who have Egyptian nationality to leave the Sudanese territory in response to the Egyptian demands which represents a major turning point in the branch of the group in Sudan.

The Brotherhood’s presence in Sudan has gained a state of privacy. The ruling “The Sudanese National Congress” party (NCP) has close ties with the Brotherhood in Sudan, led by Hassan al-Turabi, who was a prominent member of the party until 1999.
Al-Turabi, then, split from the ruling party and established another party under the name of the Sudanese People’s Congress Party in an attempt to weaken President Omar al-Bashir’s government.

The paper aims to shed light on the position of the Brotherhood branch in Sudan from its parent organization in Egypt in the light of the current developments, both in the local arena in Sudan and in the regional arena, which entirely call for stopping the extremist activities of the group.

Firstly: The actual presence of the organization in Sudan

It was expected that the branch of the Brotherhood in Sudan would be one of the first branches to be established outside Egypt, due to geopolitical considerations that linked the two countries. There is the Nile Valley which unite both people, as well as the Sudanese educational delegations in Cairo which formed a fertile environment for the recruitment of Sudanese. The group also used to send delegations to Sudan since 1945 to extrapolate the situation there.
After the group was dissolved in Egypt in 1948, a large number of its Egyptian members – from various disciplines – migrated to Sudan. This contributed to building an inclusive Brotherhood movement in all sectors of Sudanese society. The first Brotherhood organization, led by Babakir Karrar and Mirghani el-Nasri. This group is called the Islamic Socialist Party.

The political life in the Sudan was characterized by partisan schisms. There were many splits within the Brotherhood organization, which led to the emergence of many movements that carry the group’s ideology, but with different names, like:

► The Socialist Socialist Party: Founded in 1949 – 1954, established by the students of the University of Khartoum led by Babeker Karrar, and Mirghani el-Nasri.

► The Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan: 1954-1964. The name was selected by the first general observer, Professor Mohammed al-Khair Abdulqadir.

► The Islamic Charter Front: Founded in 1964 as an Islamic alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis and the Sufis. Hassan al-Turabi was elected Secretary-General in 1969.

► The National Islamic Front: Founded by Hassan Abdullah al-Turabi in 1986 to become an Islamic party.

► The Quran and Sunnah Group: It was established in 1991 and Sheikh Suleiman Abu Naro was elected as its president.

► The Popular Congress Party: Founded by Hassan al-Turabi in 1999 after his split from the National Congress.

Over the decades, Muslim Brotherhood members have gained some expertise in various fields of state administration, during their participation with m President Jaafar Nimeiri’s regime after the national reconciliation in 1977. They spread in the civil institutions and various ministries.

The economic activity of the Brotherhood in Sudan, especially in the area of ​​consumer goods and luxury goods, has expanded, and they are currently active in rural cities such as Kassala, Madani, Al-Abyad and others.

Secondly: The conflict of who takes the least at the international organization
The competition between the organization’s branch in Sudan, along with its parent in Egypt, can be seen on the international scene. The Sudanese Brotherhood members, driven by some local successes in the 1990s,  believed that it is their right to lead the organization as an alternative to the Egyptian branch.

The Sudanese quest to control the international organization and its rejection of the control of the Egyptian branch can be elaborated in the following points:

► Leadership Syndrome: One of the things that hit the Brotherhood branch in Sudan is the overwhelming presence of its leader Hassan al-Turabi, who considered himself not only the leader of the Sudanese branch, but also the mother group and the international organization.

► The uniqueness of the Sudanese experience: The experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan is a very unique experience as they succeeded more than once in reaching power both in the era of Jaafar al-Nimeiri and in the era of Omar al-Bashir. Thus, the group’s supporters in Sudan regard them as having more awareness than their Egyptian counterparts.

► Local context: The local context in which the group originated in Sudan differed from the context in which it originated in Egypt. In Egypt they worked secretly but in Sudan, it was more public; conferences were held openly. They also participated in ruling the country.

► Coup against the International group: In addition to his hostile comments on the international organization,, al-Turabi in 1987 suggested the establishment of a coordinating body between the branches of the group and the other Islamic movements. He held a conference in 1988 to discuss this suggestion, which led to the establishment of an alternative organization.

Thirdly: Integration and containment
After the conference held in Khartoum in 1988, the relations between the two sides started to calm as a result of many new factors, most notably the regime change in Sudan and the need of al-Turabi and his colleagues to support the Brotherhood in other countries.

The relationship between the two sides has remained calm over the past two decades, overcoming tensions between Egypt and Sudan such as the Halaib and Shalatin case and the assassination attempt of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

After the June 30 revolution, the Brotherhood in Sudan returned to the scene because the Sudanese branch provided safe shelters for the fleeing elements from Egypt. The relationship between the Brotherhood of the Sudan and the international organization became an integral one. The organization allowed its wealthy elements to live in Sudan and inject many investments into the Sudanese market.

However, in the coming period, the relationship may witness fluctuations due to the regional developments. Since the spring of 2018, the Egyptian-Sudanese relations have improved significantly, which has been reflected in the Muslim Brotherhood situation in Sudan. The Egyptian-Sudanese relations is likely to continue to rise, especially after the expected visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Thursday 25 October 2018, which represents a great development in relations between the two countries.

Therefore, the movement of the Sudanese branch has become very limited. On the one hand, the Sudanese branch lost the opportunity to use the international organization to re-establish its political presence in Sudan. On the other hand, the Sudanese government appeared to be incompatible with the group’s policies.

Another point that can not be forgot is the death of the  founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, Hasan al-Turabi, in March 2016. This was a great loss for the Sudanese branch as the charismatic character of al-Turabi played a pivotal role in the emergence of the Sudanese branch’s ambitions to remove the dominance of the Egyptian branch .

Finally, it is clear from the previous presentation that the relationship between the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the international organization was not fixed at one base. But rather, it took many forms and images. In the beginning, the Sudanese branch sought to deny its subordination to the parent organization. Then, it started to compete with the parent organization in Cairo to control and dominate the so-called “international organization”, and finally the circumstances pushed the Sudanese branch to retreat again and continue under the umbrella of the parent organization.