Imam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi (leader of Sudan's Umma Party; Imam of the Ansar; two-time elected PM) — essay "National Awareness and the Incubators of Extremism" (his official website / World Forum for Wasatiyya): "dictatorial rule, whether civil or military, is a form of extremism"; the universal Caliphate is "outdated... not a condition for realizing the principles of Islam in governance."

الحكم الدكتاتوري مهما كان شكله مدنياً أو عسكرياً هو شكل من أشكال التطرف لأنه يخضع المجتمع لإرادة أحادية قاهرة

الخلافة الجامعة والإمامة الجامعة تطلعات تجاوزها الزمن، وهي ليست شرطاً في تحقيق مبادئ الإسلام في الولاية

[Source is Arabic — al-Mahdi's OWN official website (alsadigalmahdi.com), an essay/paper for the World Forum for Wasatiyya (Moderation); tier-1 authored writing, confirmed verbatim against the fetched page. PROVENANCE FLAG: the essay is undated on the page; al-Mahdi died in November 2020, so it predates that; published_date left null.] English: — "Dictatorial rule, whatever its form, civil or military, is a form of extremism, because it subjects society to a single coercive will." — "The universal Caliphate and the universal Imamate are aspirations that time has surpassed; they are not a condition for realizing the principles of Islam in governance." CONTEXT: Declared positions of Imam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi (1935–2020) — leader of Sudan's Umma Party, hereditary Imam of the Ansar (the Mahdist Sufi movement; great-grandson of the Mahdi), Sudan's last democratically elected Prime Minister (1966–67 and 1986–89, overthrown by Omar al-Bashir's Islamist-military coup in 1989), and a prominent Islamic thinker who chaired the World Forum for Wasatiyya (Islamic "moderation/centrism"). He articulates a distinctly ISLAMIC-DEMOCRATIC project: equating authoritarianism itself with "extremism"; rejecting restoration of the Caliphate as an outdated, non-binding aspiration and affirming the modern NATIONAL STATE as legitimate within the objectives of Islamic Sharia; and grounding Islamic governance in human rights, public freedoms, pluralism, participation, accountability, transparency, and the rule of law — explicitly separating Islam from fanaticism, violence, corruption and despotism, and opposing BOTH jihadist-caliphate extremism AND authoritarian repression. This Sufi-rooted, democracy-embracing, national-state-accepting moderate Islam is a distinct strand from the Muslim Brotherhood's organizational political Islam, from jihadism, and from secular nationalism. [Axes: religion-state (moderate Islam + religious pluralism; Islam compatible with the national state and human rights; anti-caliphate), democracy (anti-dictatorship; participation, accountability, rule of law), regime-stance.]