The Muslim500——————————————— THE WORLD’S 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS ——————————————— � 2016 � The Muslim500——————————————— THE WORLD’S 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS ——————————————— � 2016 � · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · © 2015 The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre The Muslim 500: 20 Sa’ed Bino Road, Dabuq The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims, 2016 PO BOX 950361 ISBN: 978-9975-428-37-2 Amman 11195, JORDAN · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · http://www.rissc.jo Chief Editor: Prof S Abdallah Schleifer All rights reserved. No part of this book may be re- Editor-at-Large: Mr Aftab Ahmed produced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanic, including photocopying or Editorial Board: Dr Minwer Al-Meheid, Mr Aftab recording or by any information storage and retrieval Ahmed, Ms Zeinab Asfour, Mr Moustafa Elqab- system, without the prior written permission of the bany, and Ms Farah El-Sharif. publisher. Researchers: Aftab Ahmed, Lamya Al-Khraisha, Views expressed in The Muslim 500 do not necessarily Simon Hart, Zeinab Asfour and Moustafa Elqabbany. reflect those of RISSC or its advisory board. Typeset by: Simon Hart Calligraphy used throughout the book provided courtesy of www.FreeIslamicCalligraphy.com Set in Garamond Premiere Pro & Myriad Pro Printed in The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 2 Contents 5 Introduction 7 Foreword 9 Introduction - A Regional Survey 21 The House of Islam 33 The Top 50 101 Honourable Mentions 109 The Final 450 111 Scholarly 122 Political 130 Administration of Religious Affairs 137 Preachers & Spiritual Guides 143 Philanthropy, Charity & Development 146 Social Issues 154 Business 159 Science & Technology 163 Arts & Culture 169 Qur’an Reciters 170 Media 173 Celebrities & Sports Stars 175 Extremists 177 Obituaries 181 Guest Contributions 184 Kurdistan: Pivot of West Asia? by Dr Robert D. Crane 189 Notes on Religion and Culture by Dr Caner K Dagli 192 In Search of the Right Synergy between Technology and the Sharia for the Sake of a Healthy Umma by Dr Osman Bakar 195 When Worldviews Collide: The Encounter of Traditional and Modern Worldviews by John Herlihy 3 200 Science and religion: why setting new foundations for the dialogue should matter for Muslims. by Bruno Abd-al-Haqq Guiderdoni 204 The Refugee Crisis: Europe’s Humanitarian Imperative by Farah El-Sharif 206 What is Islamic Music? by Sami Yusuf 209 The Year of Living Dangerously: Canada’s Conservative Government panders to fears by Targeting Muslims by Faisal Kutty 212 America’s Oldest Muslim community: exploring the contributions of African American Muslims by Muddassar Ahmed 214 The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) by Maha Akeel 216 British Muslim Stars Rising by Shenaz Bunglawala 218 Getting Married: British Muslim Style by Dr Fauzia Ahmad, Mizan Raja, Dr Mustafa Omar 223 Issues of the Day INTRO- 235 Major Events Timeline 241 Appendix I (Population Statistics) 249 Appendix II (Social Media Statistics) 255 Glossary DUCTION 259 Index The Shahadatayn Calligraphy by Hasan Kan’an © FreeIslamicCalligraphy.com INTRO- DUCTION “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful” Calligraphy by Mothana Al-Obaidy © FreeIslamicCalligraphy.com Foreword elcome to the seventh an- • Science and Technology Wnual issue of The Muslim 500: The • Arts and Culture World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims. • Qur’an Reciters There are 1.7 billion Muslims in the world today, making up approximately 23% of the world’s popu- • Media lation, or one-fifth of mankind. As well as being • Celebrities and Sports Stars citizens of their respective countries, they also have • Extremists a sense of belonging to the ‘ummah’, the worldwide Muslim community. This publication sets out to ascertain the influ- How to measure this influence is of course the ence some Muslims have on this community, or on most challenging aspect of the publication, and the behalf of the community. Influence is: any person one where opinions diverge the most. Influence can who has the power (be it cultural, ideological, fi- sometimes be gauged on a quantitative basis, the nancial, political or otherwise) to make a change number of people influenced, the number of books that will have a significant impact on the Muslim written, the amount of sales etc., but more often it world. Note that the impact can be either positive is related to the qualitative and lasting effect of that or negative, depending on one’s point of view of influence. The achievements of a lifetime are given course. The selection of people for this publication more weight than achievements within the current in no way means that we endorse their views; rather year. People who are trailblazers, or the lone voice we are simply trying to measure their influence. in a remote area are also taken into account. This The influence can be of a religious scholar directly means that our list of names will change gradually, addressing Muslims and influencing their beliefs, rather than dramatically, year-on-year. This list acts ideas and behaviour, or it can be of a ruler shaping as an opportunity to shed some light on the many the socio-economic factors within which people challenges and pioneering triumphs that are present live their lives, or of artists shaping popular culture. at the very crux of shaping the Muslim community. The first two examples also point to the fact that the lists, and especially the Top 50, are dominated by What’s In This issue? As well as the updated Top 50 and 450 lists, we religious scholars and heads of state. Their dominant have our regular House of Islam essay which gives and lasting influence cannot be denied, especially an overview of Islam and its branches. the rulers, who in many cases also appoint religious We have our distinguished chief editor sharing scholars to their respective positions. his annual regional survey of the major events in This doesn’t discount the significant amount of the Muslim world over the past twelve months. influence from other sectors of society. The publi- Our Guest Contributions section has twelve ex- cation selects Muslim individuals from a range of clusive articles covering a wide range of issues from categories of influence, 13 in total: geopolitics, to Islamic music, to Islam and modern • Scholarly science, to issues concerning British, Canadian, and American Muslims. • Political The Issues of the Day section compiles short • Administration of Religious Affairs reports on some contemporary issues. The ‘Major Events’ section provides a timeline of the major • Preachers and Spiritual Guides events that have taken place over the past year. Our • Philanthropy/Charity and Development two Appendices provide us with lots of statistics. • Social Issues Appendix I shows total population and Muslim population by country, for all the countries in the • Business world. Appendix II compiles a list of the highest 7 Muslim Facebook, Twitter and Instagram users, have also added write-ups within the main body of as well as the highest in the world. the text about major initiatives (see A Common To give a richer visual understanding of the Mus- Word on p. 114, Altafsir.com on p. 121, Free Islamic lim world we have not only increased the number of Calligraphy on p. 129). photographs in the Top 25 section but have added Our website [www.TheMuslim500.com] is a some in other sections as well. We have also includ- popular destination. We welcome your feedback ed several calligraphy pieces throughout the book, and will take nominations for the 2017 edition which we hope will serve as a beautiful reminder to through it. pause and reflect as you go through the book. We Al-Talaq 65, 12 Calligraphy by Hasan Kanan © FreeIslamicCalligraphy.com 8 Introduction A Regional Survey Prof. S. Abdallah Schleifer 2015 could be called, among other things, The crossing of the Mediterranean. But it is still dan- Year of Migrations. I have three in mind and all of gerous given the cheap rubber dinghies into which them begin or end up in war-torn Syria. they are crammed by the Turkish traffickers, and the The First and most startling Migration is the vast cheap, frequently useless life jackets the migrants and illegal movement of migrants, mostly Mus- purchase in Turkey prior to boarding. For most of lim, attempting to reach EU countries – some from the migrants, particularly the Syrians and others Afghanistan, some from Eritrea and sub-Saharan who can establish they have come from a turbulent Africa and even from Egypt, but increasingly from battle zone—like parts of Afghanistan or Iraq or Syria. In all cases the migrants are either attempting are in danger of arrest in Eritrea, a country with to cross the Mediterranean by boat from a number a particularly oppressive regime— and thus also of ports along Libya’s coastline to make land in Italy qualify as legitimate refugees, Italy and even more or crossing from Syria to Turkey and then by boat so Greece are not intended final destinations. They across the Aegean Sea to Greece. This second wave are viewed as but passageways to the most prosper- is overwhelmingly Syrian, They are refugees, techni- ous parts of the EU. cally illegal because they lack visas, but their status The movement of economic migrants is illegal is different unlike so many of the other migrants not just because no visas have been issued by any attempting to reach Europe who are “economic of the countries through which they pass enroute migrants” seeking a better life, and not directly to the EU or by any EU countries, but because no threatened by either an oppressive government or country is obliged, unlike the case of refugees, to by warfare. Both qualifying conditions are highly accept them. But at least until the Fall of 2015, upon relevant to a Syrian civil war that has cost approxi- reaching land in either Italy or Greece, and evad- mately 300,000 dead of which a high percentage ing detainment in a migrant/refugee center upon are civilian.