Hassan Al-Turabi - Religious and Political Beliefs

Religious and Political Beliefs

Al-Turabi has espoused progressive Islamist ideas, such as the embrace of democracy, healing the breach

and expanding the rights of women, where he noted:

The Prophet himself used to visit women, not men, for counseling and advice. They could lead prayer. Even in his battles, they are there! In the election between Othman and Ali to determine who will be the successor to the Prophet, they voted!

In another interview he said, "I want women to work and become part of public life" because "the home doesn't require much work anymore, what with all the appliances." During an interview on al-Arabiya TV in 2006, al-Turabi describes the requirement of niqab (face veil) as applying only to the Prophet's wives, whereas hijab (the headscarf as part of a complete Islamic dress code for women) applies to all Muslim women. Hijab literally means "barrier" and he said it was "a curtain in the Prophet's room. Naturally, it was impossible for the Prophet's wife to sit there when people entered the room." The Prophet's wives sat behind it when talking to males because they were not allowed to show their faces. He opposed the death penalty for apostasy from Islam and opposed Ayatollah Khomeini's death sentence fatwa against Salman Rushdie. He declared Islamist organizations "too focused on narrow historical debates and behavioral issues of what should be forbidden, at the expense of economic and social development".

Al-Turabi also laid out his vision for a Sharia law that would be applied gradually instead of forcefully and would apply only to Muslims, who would share power with the Christians in a federal system.

However, after al-Turabi came to power in a military coup d'état that overthrew a democratic government, his regime was characterized by harsh human rights violations rather than progressive, or liberal theology.