RELIGION

Muhammad Al-Issa

Secretary general, Muslim World League

A former justice minister of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Al-Issa was appointed secretary general of the influential Muslim World League (MWL) in August 2016. In that capacity, he has embarked on an unprecedented campaign of outreach to the world Jewish community, bearing a message that Islam respects the right of the Jewish people to "live in dignity." In an exclusive interview with The Algemeiner in February, Al-Issa spoke of Islam as a humane and tolerant religion, urging, “We must increase our closeness, our knowledge of one another, and our cooperation.” Al-Issa has been particularly active in combating the widespread Holocaust denial in the Muslim world, visiting the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC in May 2018. Those who deny the facts of the Holocaust, Al-Issa reflected after his tour of the exhibition, are themselves complicit "in the continuation of this crime against humanity." (Photo: Reuters / Clotaire Achi.)