THE 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS - CESD

32Her Majesty QueenRania al AbdullahQueen of the HashemiteKingdom of JordanCountry: JordanDate of Birth: 31 August 1970Source of Influence: Philanthropy,Women’s Issues, Media, PoliticalInfluence: Over 1.3 million followerson Twitter, about 200,000 fans onFacebook and 27,000 subscribers onYouTube channel; Queen of JordanSchool of Thought: Sunni in a ModernStyleRank: 2010:32Her Majesty Queen Rania al Abdullah isthe wife by marriage of HM King AbdullahII, but is also in her own right an educationalactivist with global appeal. Throughsheer hard work, she has developed thebiggest virtual following of any Muslim inthe world, and she defends and humanizesIslam and Arab causes in-and to-the Westas effectively as any Muslim scholar in theworld.Educational AmbassadorHM Queen Rania is the initiator and keyleader behind the launch of educationalinitiatives such as the Jordanian Madrasati,‘My School’, a five-year project for the developmentof Jordan’s public school system.She is also the co-founder and global chairof the ‘1 Goal: Education For All’ campaignwhich is based around the 2010 FIFA WorldCup and calls for the complete primaryschooling of all boys and girls in the worldby 2015.Intercultural DialogueQueen Rania has an amazingly popularYouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/QueenRania) and website (www.queenrania.jo). In April 2010, Queen Ranialaunched her children’s book ‘The SandwichSwap’ (which made the New York Timesbest-sellers list) through the United NationsBookshop in an initiative to promote crossculturalunderstanding among youth.33His ExcellencyPresident AbdullahGülPresident of the Republic ofTurkeyCountry: TurkeyDate of Birth: 29 October 1950Source of Influence: PoliticalInfluence: Leads government of 77.4million Turkish citizensSchool of Thought: Traditional SunniRank: 2010:33 · 2009:28 Abdullah Gül is the 11th president of theRepublic of Turkey and the first modernTurkish head-of-state from an Islamistbackground. Facing intense secularist oppositionto his political career, Gül hasmaintained a focus on democratic reform.As prime minister, and subsequently asforeign minister, Gül pursued a pro-activeforeign policy and largely succeeded instriking a balance between Turkey’s traditionalWestern-anchored foreign policypriorities and its new interests in the MiddleEast and the Muslim world.Influence through Pragmatic LeadershipGül’s political influence in Turkey andabroad derives from his ability to reconcilethe demands of a predominantly religiouselectorate with those of the entrenched secularismof the Turkish Republic. Togetherwith Erdogan, Gül has worked to expandthe sphere of democratic rights in Turkey,which in turn have benefited the predominantlytraditional and religious segmentsof Turkish society. Gül continues to playa significant role in the current efforts tofind a lasting solution to Turkey’s Kurdishissue. Gül was also the first Turkish politicianto visit Armenia.81