Hassen Tourabbi to “Echourok” : Give more freedom to people and terrorism will disapear

Hassen Tourabbi is considered as the most controversial Islamic figures and the architect of the Islamic state. He is a staunch political opponent who doesn’t hesitate to express his views overtly even if the Sudanese regime considers them as a treachery against the nation. Western countries are still see in him one of the symbols of “extremism” and “terrorism”.

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• In a wide-ranging interview given to “Echourok” at his home in Khartoum, Sudan, the leader discussed several issues linked to the Sudanese situation as well as his view about terrorism and his relation with the Algerian banned Islamic party (FIS).
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• Q: What can Cheikh Tourabbi say about the Sudanese political scene?
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• A: The Sudanese people doesn’t have a common historical heritage that can unite them, the country was named after the plural of the word “Assouad” (Black). This appellation goes back to the region of Mali, while some countries retrieved their original names we were busy fighting for our independence and forgot to name ours after the old kingdom of “Sennar” or another Islamic country.
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• The leaders who freed this country neglected the fact that the invaders have set up their own rules and forgot that a country must be built on a common ground so that the people can identify itself to this model. This country is a mosaic of cultures and languages that includes Arab and Africans where the Arab language stands as their second language because they have their own dialects.
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• The dissention of the south was the beginning of the crisis, now that the south is supported by Africans and western countries they are almost independent from the country nothing links us except the common name of the country, no minister can pay a visit to them if they don’t give their go ahead they only link between us and them is an Airway and we have give them the right for independence.
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• A referendum will be organized in 2011, unfortunately the great majority in the south will vote for the break with the north because of our failure. Western countries portrayed me as “ The extremist who advocates “ Echariaa” (Islamic law) and Djihad ( Holly fight)”, but gates were wide open before me and discussed with them in their churches using arguments for the bible. I have also conferred with the southern government and came to a conclusion that there was no room for dissentions that the northern authorities are talking about.
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• The problem of the Islamic movements lies in that fact that they do not comprise all the ethnic groups that exist in the country where they are created, for instance, the Islamic movement in Iraq doesn’t comprise Kurds or Shia communities because these movements didn’t succeed to overcome their historical and ethnic problems.
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• Q: Doesn’t mean that Sudan is on the verge of explosion?
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• A: Yes, because we are like “Somalia” a group of tribes not a single community that belongs to the same country, because it’s easy for a fighter to seek refuge in his tribe that we will give him shelter and support even if it is beyond the country’s borders and so on.
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• Q: Do you want to see the president Omar Al Bachir in the International Criminal Court?
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• A: I swear that that I believe in globalisation because I’m Muslim and Muslims are not zealous and the Islamic religion teaches to deal with non Muslim communities and do not fight unless they started. I believe that the international justice is fair, that’s why the president has to appear before the International Criminal Court. The same president has called on the ICC to rule on the southern case, so how come the same institution be one day good and the other day evil?
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• Q: Does it mean that you consider the president part of the Darfur genocide?
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• A: I’m a legalist and trust in justice.. on the judicial point of view, I’m not judging him, but on the political side I consider  that he is responsible for the genocide in Darfur… How come that Muslims rape hundreds of girls to death? 2000 villages burnt to ashes? 4 to 5 millions displaced to big cities or camps? These are atrocities carried out by Muslims.
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• Q: Your name is associated to armed groups and many people in Algeria are accusing you of being the one who provided training camps to armed groups operating for the banned Islamic party ( Islamic Front of Peace)  after the stop of the electoral process in Algeria, leading to the deterioration of the bilateral ties between Algeria and Sudan is that true?
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• A: Not  at all.. Islam shouldn’t be spread by force if we were interested in training armed groups we should have been started with Chad or Ethiopia. Algeria is geographically far from us, these are pure allegations launched by the western media.
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• Q: What’s your opinion about the Islamic Front of Peace since you have paid a visit to Algeria and met its leaders?
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• A: When I was a student in Britain during the Algerian war of independence I participated in the creation of the Islamic Association for the support of Algeria… I have visited Algeria after the party’s win in the local elections in order to have a precise idea about the situation. I realised that the religious drive has resurged again in Algeria and the mosques were not big enough to host the prayers. This didn’t happen in any other Islamic country.
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• I asked the leaders if they have to rule the country how would they deal with women and their responses were different. And I asked them what would you do with oil, how are going to deal with France and the other African countries? But I didn’t receive answers.