The Islamist group and its ideology have long been a stumbling block for Sudan’s stability and development.
President Donald Trump has vowed to ban the Muslim Brotherhood in America and end the civil war in Sudan after Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman asked for American help. In a strange formulation, Trump announced, “There is a place on earth called Sudan.” Sudan, terrorism, and America have a history.
In the 1990s, Sudan gave Osama bin Laden shelter and helped set up terrorist training camps. The Clinton administration failed to apprehend or strike bin Laden at this time before he moved to Afghanistan. In less than five years, bin Laden’s operatives attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 innocent Americans. The subsequent Global War on Terror cost a million lives.
By working to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and end the war in Sudan, President Trump is making America and its allies safer. He is dealing with the root causes of terrorism. Sudan today is again sheltering enemies of the West. By understanding the three macro drivers of danger in Sudan—alignment, annihilation, alliances—Trump can end the war, make America safer, and bring regional order that helps our Arab and Israeli allies.
Seven countries share borders with Sudan, a nation of almost 50 million people. Egypt has the deepest cultural and religious ties with Sudan. The Muslim Brotherhood and its ideology of perennial religious warfare, destruction of Israel, and political rule by an Islamist politburo spread from Egypt to Sudan in the 1950s.
In 1989, an Islamist army leader, Omar al-Bashir, led a coup and instituted an Islamist government in Sudan. Bashir took the country in an anti-American direction, and sheltering bin Laden was part of that attitude. Bashir and the Brotherhood ideologues introduced a harsh version of Islamic law against women, including amputations and stoning for sexual impropriety. The International Criminal Court has indicted Bashir on five counts for war crimes and genocide. To weaken this anti-American government, the United States imposed sanctions. They paid off.
In 2019, a popular uprising against Bashir led to the formation of a new civilian government led by Abdalla Hamdok. To align with the United States and end the influence of the old Bashir-led deep state, Hamdok did three things: imprisoned the corrupt officials of the old guard, normalized relations with the United States, and put Sudan on a track to economic prosperity by deepening ties with US-allied regional finance hubs, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The seriousness of the Hamdok government to re-orient Sudan was evidenced most convincingly when he rebutted the Bashir-led Islamist ideology of anti-Israel, anti-American culture, and Hamdok joined the Trump-led Abraham Accords. Along with Morocco, Bahrain, and the UAE, Sudan under Hamdok was an important fourth leg of the accords that changed Israel’s destiny with its neighbors.
But the old guard of Islamists struck back. In 2021, a coup against Hamdok saw him exiled. Sudan stalled the implementation of the Abraham Accords, and the old way of bin Laden found a new expression. Alignment with America was not favored by the Brotherhood’s bastion inside the military. Annihilation culture took over.
The 2021 coup was led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. He claimed to be the sole leader of Sudan and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) but was seen by many as too close to Bashir’s networks. In this crisis of legitimacy, Mohamad Dagalo, known widely as “Hemedti,” broke away from the Sudanese army and led the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Both factions today stand accused of war crimes. Both have civilian blood on their hands. They each seek the other’s total annihilation. The Trump peace plan here is to nullify this intent of annihilation and push for a ceasefire. The RSF has previously agreed to end violence, but the SAF has not.
This annihilation culture has already been exported from Sudan to Israel, for instance. Sudan has a direct connection to the Hamas terrorism of October 7. Days after the attack, the Biden administration designated prominent Sudanese businessman Abdelbasit Hamza as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for his direct work as a financier of the Hamas military structure. Shockingly, Hamza was not only released but rehabilitated after Burhan’s coup in 2021, and he openly supported the terror wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades. This unit led the October 7 terror operation in Israel.
Another important figure linked to this enabling environment is Khalil Al Haya. He is now a senior leader in Hamas, targeted in Doha by Israel, and a mentee and successor of Yahya Sinwar, the October 7 mastermind. In the 1990s, Al Haya studied in Khartoum and became further radicalized at a time when Sudan was one of the leading centers of Islamist activity in the region. His years in Sudan gave him insider access to the same networks that connected the Brotherhood, bin Laden, Hamas, and terrorism financing. Another Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, had a Sudanese passport. Sudan’s stalled implementation of the Abraham Accords after 2021 was not an accident. The rot is deep.
Iranian logistical and diplomatic channels, for example, have placed their support for the SAF and transported Houthi terrorists from Yemen to Sudan. Houthis have attacked American vessels, vow destruction of Israel and America, and now have a presence further upstream on the Red Sea trade route through which 15 percent of global seaborne trade passes.
The instability in Sudan can become Iran’s new breeding ground. This mindset of total annihilation—domestic, regional, international—must be uprooted now before it metastasizes. Trump’s special adviser, Massad Boulos, is trying to bring peace. Still, General al-Burhan and the Sudanese army have rejected a ceasefire and attacked Boulos as biased for trying to remove the Brotherhood from power in Sudan.
Hamdok stood with the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, and the United States in supporting the Abraham Accords and opposing the Bashir regime. For his loyalty to peace, UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed honored him in Abu Dhabi after the Sudanese civilian government fell. Loyalty matters. The 2021 coup and the subsequent annihilationist mindset of both the SAF and the RSF must put down their arms and come under the control of a civilian government.
In this, Trump has an ally in Hamdok, who recently called for both sides to surrender and enter dialogue to seek support from regional and international friends. With US leadership, Sudan will have friends from the Abraham Accord nations and beyond.
History does not repeat, but it rhymes. Thirty years later, Sudan rhymes again with a pre-9/11 enabling environment as it shelters supporters of Hamas, Houthis, and their terror financiers. President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are avoiding Clinton’s mistake: Sudan must return to civilian rule immediately, hand over Abdelbasit Hamza, ban the Muslim Brotherhood, and other terrorist financiers must be expelled or put back in prison.
The Sudanese prime minister, who supported America, sought prosperity by normalizing relations with America and Israel, and deserves to be backed by America and our Arab allies. This is a roadmap that can help Sudan, America, our Arab allies, and Israel, too.
About the Author: Ed Husain
Ed Husain is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he teaches classes on global security, Arab-Israeli peace, and the shared intellectual roots of the West and Islam.
Image: Abd Almohimen Sayed / Shutterstock.com.
