Source: https://www.alfikra.org
The Republican Brotherhood, a reformist and esoteric Muslim movement from Sudan, has largely been dispersed to the Gulf States and the U.S., but in the process, it faces new difficulties in sustaining itself. The Republican Brotherhood was founded in 1956 by Mahmoud Mohamed Taha to promote social reform based on divine revelations he claimed to receive. The movement, only numbering in the thousands, faced opposition and persecution in going against Islamist currents in Sudan, especially as it protested against the imposition of sharia law in the country and supported gender equality. Since Taha was executed in 1985, the Republican Brothers have gradually revealed to the Gulf States of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Because no official leader followed Taha, the propagation of Republican Brotherhood teachings has relied on individual initiatives.
Facing less restrictions than in the Gulf States, the brothers have felt free to promote their teachings in the U.S. (especially though their specialty of street preaching), though they have faced poverty along with other Sudanese immigrants and experience tensions over immigration (many non-Republican Brothers have applied for asylum claiming they are members of the heterodox movement). Although Republican Brothers have refrained from attending mosques since the 1970s, they sell regularly gather for prayers and hold recruiting events, usually in college towns, as well as keep connected through social media. Most Republican brothers in the U.S. and in other diasporas sell return annually to Sudan, especially as a civilian government has recently been. installed and a handful of members have been appointed to high positions in the government. Abdullah Ahmed An-Na’im, a legal scholar at Emory University, is considered an intellectual leader of the movement. (Source: Religions, 12: 100)
