Recently, the Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University published a list of the 500 most influential Muslims of 2009. Inevitably, any undertaking as ambitious as this will be nitpicked to death, and the usual Internet punditry did not disappoint. In reality, the title of the document is something of a misnomer, as only the Top 50 are actually ranked and the remaining 450 are simply indexed by category.
The rankings and methodology behind the list came under heavy criticism. Given the center’s source of funding, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia was unsurprisingly given the coveted status of the most influential Muslim in the world, and the remainder of the Top 50 was populated almost exclusively by other heads of state and religious leaders. Foreign Policy in particular heavily criticized the list, accusing it of a significant bias towards the Middle East and towards people who represent more conservative forms of Islam. Ultimately, Foreign Policy concluded that “this report tells us very little about the world’s most influential Muslims, and a great deal about what Georgetown’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding believes constitutes a good Muslim.”
However, if one includes the unranked 450 Muslims, the list is extremely geographically diverse. Included are 71 Muslims from the United States and 67 from the European Union, 32 of whom are from the United Kingdom. Additionally, 5 Danes and 2 Swedes made the cut, highlighting the importance these countries’ growing Muslim populations play in the global Muslim community. It will be especially informative to see how the list changes from year to year, and how different regions and categories of leaders gain or decline in relative importance.
The most useful purpose these sorts of lists serve is to prompt discussion and reflection. Today, Islam plays an important cultural and religious role in the international community, and this list is a useful primer for anyone who wants to learn more about Islam.
