Mahmoud Mohamed Taha
Encyclopedia
Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, also known as Ustaz Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, was a Sudanese
religious thinker, leader, and trained engineer. He was executed for apostasy
at the age of 76 by regime of Gaafar Nimeiry
.
Taha was born in Ruffaa, a town on the eastern bank of the Blue Nile, two hours south of Khartoum. He was educated as a civil engineer in a British-run university in the years before Sudan's independence. After working briefly for Sudan Railways he started his own engineering business. In 1945, he founded an anti-monarchical political group, the Republican Party, and was twice imprisoned by the British authorities.
He has revolutionary ideas about the second message of Islam. Taha opposed shariah law as applied in Sudan as unIslamic and preached that the Sudanese constitution needed to be reformed to reconcile "the individual's need for absolute freedom with the community's need for total social justice." He believed that Islam "in its original, uncorrupted form" accorded women and non-Muslims equal status, and formed a small group, known as the Republican Brothers, to advance his cause.
On Jan 5, 1985 Taha was arrested for distributing pamphlets calling for an end to Shari'a law in Sudan. Brought to trial on January 7 he refused to participate. The trial lasted 2 hours with the main evidence being confessions that the defendents were opposed to Sudan's interpretation of Islamic law. The next day he was sentenced to death along with 4 other followers (who later recanted and were pardoned) for "heresy, opposing application of Islamic law, disturbing public security, provoking opposition against the government, and reestablishing a banned political party." The government forbade his unorthodox views on Islam to be discussed in public because it would "create
religious turmoil" or fitnah. A special court of appeal approved the sentence on January 15. Two days later president Nureiri directed the execution for January 18. Despite the smallness of his group thousands of demonstrators protested his execution and police on horseback used bullwhips to drive back the crowd. The body was secretly buried.
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Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
religious thinker, leader, and trained engineer. He was executed for apostasy
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
at the age of 76 by regime of Gaafar Nimeiry
Gaafar Nimeiry
Gaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry was the Nubian President of Sudan from 1969 to 1985...
.
Taha was born in Ruffaa, a town on the eastern bank of the Blue Nile, two hours south of Khartoum. He was educated as a civil engineer in a British-run university in the years before Sudan's independence. After working briefly for Sudan Railways he started his own engineering business. In 1945, he founded an anti-monarchical political group, the Republican Party, and was twice imprisoned by the British authorities.
He has revolutionary ideas about the second message of Islam. Taha opposed shariah law as applied in Sudan as unIslamic and preached that the Sudanese constitution needed to be reformed to reconcile "the individual's need for absolute freedom with the community's need for total social justice." He believed that Islam "in its original, uncorrupted form" accorded women and non-Muslims equal status, and formed a small group, known as the Republican Brothers, to advance his cause.
On Jan 5, 1985 Taha was arrested for distributing pamphlets calling for an end to Shari'a law in Sudan. Brought to trial on January 7 he refused to participate. The trial lasted 2 hours with the main evidence being confessions that the defendents were opposed to Sudan's interpretation of Islamic law. The next day he was sentenced to death along with 4 other followers (who later recanted and were pardoned) for "heresy, opposing application of Islamic law, disturbing public security, provoking opposition against the government, and reestablishing a banned political party." The government forbade his unorthodox views on Islam to be discussed in public because it would "create
religious turmoil" or fitnah. A special court of appeal approved the sentence on January 15. Two days later president Nureiri directed the execution for January 18. Despite the smallness of his group thousands of demonstrators protested his execution and police on horseback used bullwhips to drive back the crowd. The body was secretly buried.
Works
One of his most important books is “ The Second Message of Islam". The book was in Arabic and it was translated in English by Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'imAbdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law. His specialties include human rights in Islam and cross-cultural issues in human rights, and he is the director of the Religion and Human Rights Program at Emory. He is also a senior fellow of...
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- The Second Message of Islam
- The Middle East Problem. "Mushkilat Assharq Al-Awsat"
- This is my Path. "Qul Hadhihi Sabieli"
- Mohammed's Path. "Tareiq Mohammed"
- The Message of Prayer. " Risalat Assalat"
- The Challenge Facing the Arabs. "Al-Tahaddi Alladhi Yuagihu Al-Arab"
Sources
- Alfikra.org - The Republican Thought (ArabicArabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
. EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
version here) - 100 Years of Progressive Islam, 1909 - 2009, A Conference in honor of Mahmoud Mohmed Taha, Ohio University, January 17–18, 2009, Ohio University Centre for International Studies
- Edward Thomas, "Islam's Perfect Stranger: The Life of Mahmud Muhammad Taha, Muslim Reformer of Sudan," I.B. Tauris: London, 2010