on 1 February 1932 in Kassala, eastern Sudan, to a Sufi Muslim sheikh, and received an Islamic education, before coming to Khartoum in 1951 to study law and joined the Muslim Brotherhood as a student. He graduated from Khartoum University School of Law in 1955 and also studied in London and at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1962, where he gained a PhD. He became a leader of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1960s. He is a descendant of a famous 17th-century religious sheikh, Hamad al-Turabi. Religious and political beliefs Turabi's writings, rhetoric, sermons, and public pronouncements have often been described as progressive, theologically liberal, "moderate and thoughtful", but his time in power was notable for harsh human rights violations. This contradiction has been explained (by diplomat Andrew Natsios) by the different positions taken by Turabi for English and French-speaking interviewers (moderate) on the one hand, and in speeches to fellow Islamists on the other. Al-Turabi's philosophy drew selectively from Sudanese, Islamic, and Western political thought to fashion an ideology for the pursuit of power. Al-Turabi supported sharia and the concept of an Islamic state, but his vision was not Wahhabi or Salafi. He appreciated that the majority of Sudanese followed Sufi Islam, which he set out to change with new ideas. He did not extend legitimacy to Sufis, Mahdists, and Islamic scholars, whom he saw as incapable of addressing the challenges of modern life. One of the strengths of his vision was to consider different trends in Islam. Although the political base for his ideas was probably relatively small, he had an important influence on Sudanese politics and religion. His views on the role of women in society were relatively progressive. Al-Turabi had his greatest success in recruiting supporters from the educated and professional classes in urban areas. He attached fundamental importance to the concept of shura (consultation) and ibtila, his view of modernity, which he believed should lead to a more profound worship of God. Religion was regularly tested by the reality of ibtila. As a Sunni Islamist, Turabi's ideas differed in some ways from traditional Islamic ideas, such as in his lack of reverence for professional Islamic scholars. Rather than the ulama (class of Islamic scholars) being restricted to educated Islamic scholars, he stated that "because all knowledge is divine and religious, a chemist, an engineer, an economist or a jurist are all ulamas." In