Mahmoud Muhammad Taha

• Name — Mahmoud Mohammed Taha • Native Name — محمود محمد طه • Office — Leader of the Republican Brotherhood • Term Start — 26 October 1945 • Term End — 18 January 1985 • Predecessor — Party established • Born — 1909 • Birthplace — Rufaa, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan • Died — 18 January 1985 • Place of death — Khartoum, Democratic Republic of Sudan • Party — Republican Brotherhood • Occupation — Politician, Religious thinker, Civil engineer

Taha was born in a village near Rufaa, a town on the eastern bank of the Blue Nile, 150 km 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, federalist and socialist political group, the Republican Party, and was twice imprisoned by the British authorities. In September 1946, Taha led a protest against the arrest of a woman who circumcised her daughter, which was banned in 1945. He was tried and sentenced to two years in Wad Madani by Judge Muhammad Ahmad Abu Rannat.

Taha was first tried and found guilty for apostasy in 1967 but the court's jurisdiction was limited to matters of "personal status". On 5 January 1985, Taha was arrested for distributing pamphlets calling for an end to Sharia law in Sudan. Brought to trial on 7 January he was charged with crimes "amounting to apostasy, which carried the death penalty". Taha refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court under Sharia, and refused to repent. The trial lasted two hours with the main evidence being confessions that the defendants were opposed to Sudan's interpretation of Islamic law. The next day he was sentenced to death along with four other followers (who later recanted and were pardoned) for "heresy, opposing the application of Islamic law, disturbing public security, provoking opposition against the government, and re-establishing a banned political party." The government forbade his unorthodox views on Islam to be discussed in public because it would "create religious turmoil" or a fitna (sedition). A special court of appeal approved the sentence on 15 January. Two days later President Nimeiry directed the execution for 18 January in Kobar Prison. Describing his hanging, journalist Judith Miller writes: Shortly before the appointed time, Mahmoud Muhammad Taha was led into the courtyard. The condemned man, his hands tied behind him, was smaller than I expected him to be, and from where I sat, as his guards hustled him along, he looked younger than his seventy-six years. He held his head high and stared silently into the crowd. When they saw him, many in the crowd leaped to their feet, jeering and shaking their fists at him. A few waved their Korans in the air. I managed to catch only a glimpse of Taha’s face before the executioner placed an oatmeal-colored sack over his head and body, but I shall never forget his expression: His eyes were defiant; his mouth firm. He showed no hint of fear. While his group of supporters (the Republican Brothers) were small in number, thousands of demonstrators protested his execution and police on horseback used bullwhips to drive back the crowd. The body was secretly buried. The President/military dictator at the time Gaafar Nimeiry was overthrown by a popular uprising four months later, the execution thought to be a contributing factor. The date of his execution, January 18, later became Arab Human Rights Day. Fifteen years later when a Sudanese reporter asked Nimeiry about the death of Taha, Nimeiry expressed regret and accused Islamist Hasan al-Turabi (Minister of Justice at the time) of "secretly engineering" the execution. Others have also blamed al-Turabi for the execution.

• The Second Message of Islam "al-Risāla al-Thāniya min al-Islām" الرسالة الثانية من الإسلام • The Middle East Problem "Mushkilat al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ" مشكلة الشرق الأوسط • The Way-Out "Hādhihi Sabīlī" قل هذه سبيلي • The Path of Muhammad "Ṭarīq Muḥammad" طريق محمد • A Treatise on Prayer "Risālat al-Ṣalāt" رسالة الصلاة • The Challenge Facing the Arabs "al-Taḥaddī alladhī yuwājihuh al-‘Arab" التحدي الذي يواجهه العرب