Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Palestinian protest icon Ahed Tamimi have been respectively declared ‘Man of The Year 2019’ and ‘Woman of The Year 2019’ by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan. This centre publishes every year a list of what it considers as the world’s 500 most influential Muslims.
“Twenty-five years after the signing and almost immediate betrayal of the Oslo Agreement, this is a time that is witness to the Trump-Netanyahu alliance kicking away the crutches of a defeated, but still defiant, Palestinian people. But, now after decades of setbacks and defeats – there is a hero on the field. Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager who dared to slap an Israeli soldier. She is The Muslim 500 Woman of the Year 2019”, the centre said. The video made of that act of defiance “went viral and raised the spirit of millions of Palestinians and the millions more across continents who grieve for Palestine”, it added.
Announcing the selection of Dr Mahathir Mohamad as The Man of the Year 2019, the centre said, “at 93, Mahathir is now the world’s oldest sitting head of government.” “This quite extraordinary man has had a dynamic political career spanning 70 years and yet at the same time been the author of 17 published books. Aside from two memoirs, all of them are direct narrative responding to the immediate problems confronting Malaysian governance and economy, a concern often extended to Asia as a whole and the global economy and his plans for rectifying those problems”, it added.
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