After decades of execution of its owner .. Republican thought back to the front in Sudan

Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum

More than three decades after the execution of Republican leader Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, thought came to the fore in Sudan after the victory of the revolution on April 11, where the Khartoum International Book Fair was an opportunity to make their books public.

Since Mr. Mahmoud Mohamed Taha was hanged on the morning of Friday 18 January 1985 after being convicted of apostasy, his students have been banned and harassed, opting for immigration or alienation.

But after the revolution, Republicans return to the station before the execution of the "professor", controversial in the intellectual and political arena in Sudan.

As a renewed religious movement, the GOP was launched from Riffa in the central Sudan state of Jazira in the early 1950s, led by Mahmoud Mohamed Taha.

The origin of thought
Mahmoud Taha's ideas have stirred controversy, and Republicans see them as a completely different view of Islam, while others consider it a deliberate distortion of Islam and an attempt to change it according to Taha's personal views and beliefs.

The main feature of the "republican idea" of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha is "separation between the Holy Quran, which he considers the origin of Islam, and the civil Koran, which he considers branches."

Taha believes that the original is the Meccan Islam, which included general provisions and is the first message of Islam, while "Civil Islam is a branch of religion descended on the Prophet to rule through the time he lived, and this Islam ended with the end of the era of the Prophet and ended with the signs of jihad and exile Inheritance and discrimination between men and women and borders ", and therefore calls for a" second message of Islam "and this included one of his writings.

The authority of General Jaafar Nimeiri put an end to the movement when a court convicted him of apostasy and sentenced him to death, and a helicopter carried his body to be buried away in the desert. Until now, no one knows where the "professor" grave is, as his murid dubbed him.

Political rivalry
The researcher and academic Noor Hamad hypothesis "get rid of Taha" to the competition between political opponents, as "Republican thought is the real rival of the Muslim Brotherhood organization led by Hassan al-Turabi."

Mahmoud Mohamed Taha's ideologues were accused of apostasy and convicted twice before the courts in 1968 and 1985 to be executed in the late Nimeiri era.

Hassan al-Mahlawi, judge of the emergency court Taha, condemned under article 96 of the 1983 Penal Code, "undermining the constitution and provoking war against the state", an article punishable by death, life imprisonment or imprisonment.

The appeals court judge, Taha al-Makshafi, upheld the verdict of the trial court and stated that Taha and four of his students claimed a "new understanding of Islam," and the court granted them the right to write, which was rejected by the Republican leader.

Surprise Republicans
Surprisingly, after the ban imposed by the regime of ousted President Omar al-Bashir on publications and books of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, the same literature is the focus of attention at the Khartoum International Book Fair, which began its 15th session last Thursday.

Republican wing official Amna al-Kamdani says there is an overwhelming turnout for Mahmoud Mohamed Taha's work.

She adds to Al Jazeera Net that the pavilion has achieved a very large sales of up to 400 books a day since the launch of the exhibition, which led them to request to print more books, explaining that the best-selling books "the second message" and "Islam in its first letter is not suitable for humanity of the twentieth century."

According to Amna, Republican books had previously been banned from closing Mahmoud Mahmoud Taha's center in 2012, after which Republicans resorted to a "furnished" exhibition in central Khartoum, but security also banned and confiscated their books. "Now we embraced freedom as no one hugged it," she says.

Religious objection
It was noteworthy statement of the Council of Islamic jurisprudence in which the Secretary-General of the Council not to publish and distribute the books of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, based on the judgment of its elimination apostasy.

The Secretary-General of the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Sudan, Ibrahim Ahmed Sheikh al-Dirir surprised to enable Republicans to "dangerous positions" rather than nominate acceptable people, in reference to the appointment of a number of Republicans ministers in the new government.

Al-Dheer tells Al-Jazeera Net that any book on which there is controversy or contains a methodology contrary to religion should not be presented or published, and increased "I do not know behind it? Is that the meaning of freedom?".

The blind man determines the task of the Fiqh Academy in providing an advisory opinion to the state, which happened with regard to the presentation of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha's books in the book fair, but it was not taken into consideration by the council's fatwa, even though that body was the one that asked for his opinion.

He attributed the turnout to the writings of Republican thought, despite the fatwas of Islamic synagogues about his departure from Islam to what he called curiosity due to the debate about the idea and the absence of Republicans for a long time.

The blind warns the responsible authorities of the fall of the people and the current generation in the clutches of Republican thought and thus his departure from religion.

Salafi groups led a campaign from mosque pulpits against the Minister of Youth and Sports, Walaa al-Boushi, from a republican family, for celebrating the launch of the first women's football league, described by Sheikh Abdel Hay Youssef as a "grave-apostate man who does not believe in what we believe".

Social media platforms have also been buzzing with the appointment of Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdouk Omar al-Qurai, a Republican leader, as director of the National Center for Curriculum and Research.

The Lord is harmful
It is due to Hamad Hamad turnout to identify the Republican thought of the vicious campaign led by the sheikhs of religion against the idea.

Hamad, a Republican living abroad, told Al Jazeera Net, "The media campaign, the Friday platforms, the prolonged ban and the execution of the professor all combined led to an unprecedented turnout on Republican thought."

He points out that as a result of the spread of awareness, there are now dozens of pens defending the Republicans, although for 30 years religious scholars did not represent the spirit and revolution of Islam.

"The public sphere is now open to any ideology, and Muslims, Christians and non-Christians have the right to put forward ideas. These are the principles of democracy."

According to Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments Nasr al-Din Mufreh, the issue of the Republican Party is political, not religious, and after the revolution there is no stone on anyone in what to write, say or do as long as it does not violate the laws, regulations and state regulations.

Mufreh says to Al Jazeera Net "ideas are tied to the argument and not to prevent and ban, and any party or party feared the fight is weak."

After the revolution, Khartoum received leaders of the republican movement who chose to emigrate since 1989, such as Nour Hamad and Omar al-Qarai. Al-Qurayi denies that return has a regulatory feature.