THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF THE ISLAMIC BUSINESS ENTERPRISE IN THE SUDAN

This study is an attempt to provide analyses of the political dimensions of the Islamic business enterprise in the ~udan. In a historical approach the study attempted to show the interacting factors between the rise of the Islamic business movement and the rise and enforcement of political Islam in the Sudan represented by th~ Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood and its programme for government. The central theme of this study is that the Islamic business enterprises have political meanings and leanings as was evident fyom their evolution in the Sudan. The mutual interests of Islamic business and the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood have helped the political build-l!P of the Brotherhood, specially during the last eight years of the Numairi regime; and in the course of the 1980s and 1990s led to total assumption of power by the political Brotherhood. This development complicated the national problems of the country; especially with regard to the Southern qt1estion and issues of national unity, national identity and religious variation.