Religious Authority

Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaidan (b. 1931 in Qassim in Saudi Arabia) is a Saudi religious scholar. He served until 2009 as the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, the most prominent and highest judicial body in Saudi Arabia.  He has been a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars since its establishment in 1971.

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Sheikh Muhammad Ali al-Jawzo is the mufti of Mont Lebanon.

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Sheikh Hafiz Salama (b. December 6, 1925 in Suez) is a Salafi figure in Suez city in Egypt. He is known as the leader of the popular resistance in Suez and played an important role in the Suez governorate during the Egyptian revolution against the former Mubarak regime. Salama also participated in the resistance movement during the Suez war in 1973.

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Dr. Abd al-Rahmaan al-Birr (b. 1963 in Egypt) is a professor of Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) at al-Azahar University and a member of the guidance office of the Muslim Brotherhood. He completed a Bachelor's Degree in theology in 1984 at the school of theology and advocacy in Egypt. He earned his MA in Hadith at the school of theology in Cairo.

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Mustafa al-‘Adawi (b. 1945, in Egypt) is an Egyptian Salafi preacher. He studied engineering in 1977, and then moved to Yemen to study the Qur’an. After that, ‘Adawi returned to Egypt where he established a small mosque and began teaching Saheeh al-Bukhari and Muslim. He published several books in the Fiqh and Hadith.

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Sheikh Mahmoud Amer (b. February 4, 1957, Egypt) is an Egyptian Salafi preacher. Amer earned a Bachelor's degree in Shari’a at the Islamic University in Medina, Saudi Arabia and a Bachelor's in Advocacy (Da’wa) from the Advocates Institute for collage students at Muslim World League in Mecca.

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The Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammad Ishaq al-Fayyad is considered the second most prominent Shi’ite cleric in Iraq after the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

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Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim is the head of one of Iraq’s most prominent Shi’ite Islamist parties, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI). He took over the ISCI’s leadership in 2009 after his father, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the former leader and founder of the party, passed away.

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Shi’ite cleric Ali al-Sistani is said to be more influential than any Shi’ite politician.  As a Grand Ayatollah, he holds the highest rank in Iraq’s Shi’ite community.

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Mohamed Aman Al-Gamy (b. 1930, Tagha Tab village, Habasha, Ethiopia) started his schooling in Mecca in 1949. He received his high school degree from the Scientific Institute (Al-Ma’had Al-‘elmy) in Riyad and received his Bachelors degree in Shari’a in 1960.

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