The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist Tawakkol Karman ranked eighth among the most influential figures in the Arab world during 2017.

According to the Swiss Research Center "Global Influence, the Saudi poet Mohammed Alrotayan came first in the list of the most influential Arabic thought leaders 2018, which included 112 public intellectuals from different walks of life in the region. 

The second was the Syrian Faisal al-Qassem, serving as presenter of “The Opposite Direction” on Al-Jazeera – arguably the toughest talk show in the Arab world. 

The list included also the human rights activist Raif Badawi, imprisoned in Saudi Arabia (5th place), the Tunisian Rached Ghannouchi (6th place). 

Swiss center aims through ranking at discovering who are the most influential in shaping societies’ awareness and ideas. 

The first Thought Leader analysis was carried out in 2012, analyzing 70 thinkers from the English-language blogosphere. They were chosen using best-of lists, Amazon bestseller lists and expert surveys.

The evaluation doesn’t include figures whose influence is based more on their position than their thinking.