Imagine if a conservative American religious leader – say, the Rev. Pat Robertson or the late Rev. Jerry Falwell – suddenly started promoting feminism, became a champion of affirmative action, or started hanging out with Snoop Dogg.

Now, imagine the shock many Sudanese felt when the nation's top Islamic scholar, Hassan al-Turabi, publicly stated in 2006 that Muslim women didn't need to cover their hair with a veil. Or when he advocated the use of traditional music and dance for Islamic worship. Or when he encouraged the people of Darfur to oppose the government of President Omar al-Bashir.

All this from the man who invited Osama bin Laden to reside in Sudan in the 1990s, inspired a coup by Islamist officers, and imposed Islamic law.

Does Mr. Turabi have a keen sense of the modern Sudanese mind-set, or is he off on his own tangent?

"[Turabi's] one of the most influential men in Sudan today," says Khalid al-Tijani, editor of the independent Khartoum weekly newspaper, Elaff. "He is also a religious leader, with so many ideas about the role of women, about democracy, and so he has influence outside Sudan as well. He's one of the great thinkers of Islam today."

Keeping Islam current?

In an interview, Mr. Turabi himself says he is just helping keep Islam current with the times.

"The gates of ijtihad [interpretation] in Islam are always open," says Turabi, in the parlor of his large home in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

"In Islam, the government is based on consultation and consent," he says. "We don't have a church. We don't have angels who come down to govern. When we imposed Islamic law [in 1991], we wanted to introduce religion so that it could supplement law, to mobilize religion in every citizen, because God is close to you and can guide your actions. To uproot corruption, people want to be democratic, they want to be equal under the law."

It's an argument that Turabi now uses against the military rule of Mr. Bashir – a regime he once backed – one that he argues has betrayed that vision of Islamic government. "It is just a dictatorship. The Darfur conflict is just a fight against a state that denied justice. That is all there is to it."

From hard-liner to reformer

The journey of an Islamist hard-liner – a man whom the 9/11 Commission Report says orchestrated a truce between Al Qaeda and the Shiite Islamic regime in Iran to "fight against a common enemy," Israel and the US – into a democratic reformer is one of the most dramatic in Sudanese history.

Some Sudanese question whether Turabi is merely a populist with a Karl Rove-like eye on the public mood, able to change his views in whatever way keeps him politically relevant.

Others see his recent statements as an attempt to overthrow the government of Bashir, a one-time ally who later jailed Turabi for his meetings with Southern Sudanese rebels and opposition leaders in Darfur.

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