THE 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS - CESD

POLITICALMiddle East and North AfricaALGERIAbouteflika, his excellency president abdelazizBouteflika is the incumbent president of Algeria. During his ten years of presidency, Bouteflikahas succeeded in ending a civil war that ran throughout the nineties and was one of the bloodiestcivil unrests of the 20th century in the Muslim world. Peace was reached through a process ofreconciliation and amnesty that was strongly supported by the Islamist and Nationalist belligerents.haddam, anwar nHaddam is the president and co-founder of the Movement for Liberty and Social Justice (MLJS).He was elected to the Algerian parliament under the Islamic Front for Salvation in 1991. A leadingactivist, he is an initiator and signatory of the National Contract for a Peaceful and PoliticalSolution to the Algerian Crisis.EGYPTelbaradei, dr mohamedFormer director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Dr ElBaradei has beenrecognized globally as a contributor to world peace through his work on non-proliferation andnuclear power regulation with the UN. In the run-up to the 2011 Egyptian presidential election,ElBaradei leads a reform movement to allow independents to run in the forthcoming election.He is widely-endorsed as a potential candidate himself, but has made no public acceptance of thenomination. He currently leads the newly-formed National Association for Change, a non-partymovement that calls for general reforms to Egypt’s constitution.mubarak, his excellency president muhammad hosniMuhammad Hosni Mubarak is the fourth and current President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.Trained as a fighter pilot in the 1960s and 1970s, he was appointed by then-president Sadat as vicepresident in 1975, becoming the vice chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP) in 1978.Mubarak has effective control over all aspects of Egyptian government. Egypt, a notable soft powerplayer in the region, is one of the cultural hubs of the Islamic world, and is host to a number ofhistorically significant institutions, not least of which is Al Azhar University—the second oldestuniversity in the world, founded in 975 CE. The choice of Cairo for Obama’s speech to the Muslimworld was not accidental.IRANahmadinejad, his excellency president mahmoudAhmadinejad is president of Iran and a former University of Science and Industry lecturer. Hesupported the Iranian Islamic Revolution and was a founder of the students’ union that occupiedthe US Embassy in 1979. Ahmadinejad served as governor of Arbadil province and mayor ofTehran. As president, he has enfranchised the politics of the nation’s large conservative, workingclass population, which makes him incredibly influential. In doing so, he also marginalized Iran’srising middle class, a fact that curtails some of his influence on Iranian society.ebtekar, her excellency dr masoumehEbtekar was the first female vice president of Iran in 1997 and has remained at the center of therevolutionary movement in Iran, since 1979, and has occupied the highest political office to bereached by a woman in the country. She is a considerable force in the reformist movement in Iran,and one of the founding members of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front.107