THE 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS - CESD

AdministrativeCZECH REPUBLICsanka, vladimirVladimir Sanka is the vice president of The Islamic Centre in Prague. The Czech Republic is one ofthe least religious countries in Europe, however Sanka’s center bucks this trend, leading the fastestgrowingreligious community in Prague, and reflecting a larger movement throughout Europe.DENMARKpederson, abdul wahidAbdul Wahid Pederson is the vice president of Muslims in Dialogue, which promotes Islam withinDenmark. Pederson is also the principal of three elementary schools, vice chairman of the IslamicChristian Study Centre, foreign relations manager of the Muslim Council of Denmark, andsecretary general of the charity Danish Muslim Aid. He is the first imam to hold Friday sermonsin Danish.FINLANDdaher, okanOkan Daher is a leader of the Tatar Muslim population of Helsinki. Tatar Muslims have lived inFinland for centuries. He is influential in community relations with the Christian-majority societyof Finland by promoting ways to adapt flexibly while maintaining cultural heritage, and he is alsoinfluential through promoting relations with the various Tatar communities in Europe. Daher isalso head of the Islamic Community of Finland and an advisor to the President of the Republicof Finland.FRANCEmoussaoui, mohammed [new]Moussaoui is the president of the French Council on Muslim Faith. The CFCM was established in2003 by then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to be the ‘official’ representative body of the FrenchMuslim community. Council members are directly elected by French Muslims.ITALYpallavicini, imam yahya sergio yahePallavicini is an important figure in the religious life of Italian Muslims as well as in Europeanrelations with the Muslim world. He is vice president of CO.RE.IS (Comunità Religiosa Islamica;the Islamic Religious Community), Italy, the chairman of the ISESCO Council for Education andCulture in the West, and an advisor for Islamic affairs to the Italian minister of interior. Pallaviciniis also the imam of the al Wahid Mosque of Milan in Via Meda, where he organizes the trainingof imams in Italian. His father is Abd Al Wahid Pallavicini, the noted preacher and head of theAhamadiyyah Idrissiyyah Shadhiliyyah brotherhood in Italy.KOSOVOtrnava, his eminence sheikh naimNaim Trnava is the grand mufti of Kosovo. He is the leading religious figure in Kosovo, a newcountry, which emerged after an ethno-religious war that caused widespread loss of life anddestruction. Trnava is a key figure in the attempts of the country’s Muslim population to overcomethe horrors of war. He was instrumental in the creation of the Inter-Religious Council Organizationfor Interfaith Relations.PORTUGALvakil, abdool magid abdool karim [new]Abdool Magid Abdool Karim Vakil is the founder and president of the Islamic Community(Comunidade Islâmica de Lisboa), the co-founder and president of the Abrahamic Forum ofPortugal (Forum Abraâmico de Portugal) and a member of the Committee for Religious Freedomof the Ministry of Justice of Portugal. He is one of the leading economists from the region and hasrecieved several awards for his work from the Portuguese goverment.121