KHARTOUM, Sudan — A turbaned Hassan Turabi sinks back into a large, plush sitting-room sofa, his stockinged feet barely touching the floor.
It's hard to comprehend that this aging former law professor with a chipmunk grin is the same man condemned by Western leaders as a terrorism-loving extremist and jailed repeatedly by Sudanese dictators he once helped empower.
"I'm an old man," the white-bearded Turabi, fresh out of his latest stint in prison, says with unconvincing modesty.
But behind the glinting teeth and rectangular spectacles is one of Africa's most influential Islamists, a man who has arguably had more impact on Sudan than anyone else.
Nicknamed "The Fox" at home and "The Pope of Terrorism" abroad, Turabi is climbing his way back onto Sudan's political stage, forging an opposition alliance, preparing candidates for the next election and criticizing the recently formed unity government as a failure.
Insiders in the Sudanese capital predict, some with a touch of dread, that even at 73, Turabi may have one more act to play out in his career.
"He's trying to make a comeback," said Edward Ladu Terso, an editor at the Khartoum Monitor, one of Sudan's few independent newspapers. "Turabi is addicted to power."
Since jumping into politics in the 1960s, Turabi has either been whispering in the ear of the president or languishing in a prison cell on charges of treason.
In the 1980s, Turabi helped ignite a 20-year civil war by trying to impose Islamic Sharia law on animists and Christians in southern Sudan. He was a founder of the National Islamic Front, which joined the government of Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup. As the power behind the throne, Turabi turned Sudan into a haven for militants, opening borders to terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal.
Turabi's hand is even seen in the conflict in the western region of Darfur, where the Muslim scholar has long enjoyed support. A disciple of Turabi's heads one of the main rebel armies there, the Justice and Equality Movement.
"If you trace everything back, you find Hassan Turabi," said Eltayeb Hag Ateya, director of the Peace Studies Institute at the University of Khartoum. "Turabi is a very dangerous person. I'm sure the government is worried. Sudan is in a very precarious transition right now. People should expect just about anything."
