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Introduction
Mr. Chairman, honorable congressmen, I have been involved in Islamic work since I was a student, and later on I went to England and to France where being exposed to the other [cultures and religions], perhaps I became even more conscious of my religious identity. And ever since I have been in the mainstream of Islamic work in the Sudan. And it's in this capacity that I organized, with my fellow Muslim workers, a number of political parties and fronts advocating a return to indigenous values, an Islamic constitution, the implementation of the higher law of Islam, Shari'a. And it's because of this activism that I was detained under President Nimeiri for about seven-years. Later on he came to see the popularity of Islam and to try to invoke it in his policy.
And in this context I became minister of justice, but I was not allowed to implement my program of gradual and rational Islamization of public institutions and of laws. I fell foul of him and I was detained again, and once more I was active in public life, and I joined a coalition government later on in a multi-party system that succeeded Nimeiri, and a draft bill establistling Islamic law and civil and criminal law was prepared. That was interrupted by the fact that democracy fell to a military takeover, and I served a short term of detention . I'm not here in any official capacity. But I have come to testify about Islamic fundamentalism, which is a term that many Muslims resent. But it has come here to describe a new phenomena that is sweeping the Muslim world and that's now visible in Africa, as opposed to the dormant, traditional Islamic society which is oblivious to religion except as private practice. This renewed spirit of Islam is represented by a sharper consciousness of identity, a revived faith, a reformed personal and social conduct, a liberal intellectual attitude, and increased socio-political activism seeking to close the gap that separates the condition of Muslim society and its ideals of Islam. Although the movement is visible in Africa, it is better understood in the wider scope of its global dimension. And it should be seen as an integral movement for general social change rather that a mere personal or political reform movement. And it is also better judged in the perspective of its evolution over the last 40 years, although it has caught attention only very recently. Most African and all the Muslim countries have witnessed an evolution from an early phase of nationalism, which was very relevant for national independence, and then a phase of authoritarian socialism. And when socialism failed to fulfill its promise, elites first and then the masses generally came to look to Islam as a way of life and of advancement. Political elites, civilian and military, are increasingly embracing this new spirit of Islam, because the process started much earlier on the Nile Valley. You saw perhaps the first manifestation of Islam. And there was an early attempt to go public and to impact on political life but this was met with an immediate repressive reaction. And consequently these movements now confine themselves to the modern sector where they are relatively immune from repression, and because the modern sector is more responsive perhaps to the spirit of renewal. The normal evolution of Islamic revival would begin with an intellectual phase where classical literature is rediscovered, where contemporary writings proliferate, and then small groups will start organizing and working for Islam. It's only when the movement has matured that it would develop a popular dimension. And since the seventies this popular manifestation is seen all over Africa and right across the Muslim world. It has been given an impetus by the development of mass communications. It's more obvious where there are free elections. And the recent interest of the world media in Islam has also perhaps been a factor in the development of this spirit. In West Africa the movement is still in its initial stages. On the Nile Valley it has matured and developed because it started very early. In the Maghreb and in Algeria in particular, the movement has been recently noticed as a popular movement. But in fact it has undergone the evolution that I've just described. Although the movement is universal and exhibits general features worldwide there are certain particularities about each movement, depending on the circumstantial context. Where the movement is recognized then it tends to be a moderate movement, and even its development tends to be very gradual. Where it is denied, where there is a secular anti-Islamic establishment, you have a backlash of even a more powerful movement. One can compare the case of Morocco where Islam is given some expression in state policy as an official religion, and Tunisia were the rational socialist movement has sought to secularize the country, and the result, the outcome was that the Tunisian movement is even more active. 
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