ABSTRACT
The legalization and subsequent proliferation of Islamic banks, which were exempt from Sudanese taxes and could readily transfer funds abroad in the absence of Sudanese oversight, facilitated the spread of state corruption and further undermined the legitimacy of the regime. Islamism, as a contemporary phenomenon, is a reaction to the continued Western dominance of the Sudan, exemplified by the reactionary partnership between internal collaborators and exploiters and their American patron. By the time the Reagan administration came to office, the US had begun to view the Eritrean struggle as crucial to the containment of the Ethio-Soviet military partnership. The solidarity between the regime in Khartoum and various regional Islamist groups, coupled with the rapidly evolving partnership between Iran and the Sudan, made the crystallization of Islamism a real possibility. The symmetrical views of the United States and the Sudan on the resistance movements within Ethiopia and Eritrea made it possible for the Sudanese security forces to become part of “Veil.”
