Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani is in the running for one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Al Thani is joined in the shortlist by a diverse list of politicians, musicians, activists and journalists, including Hillary Clinton, Beyonce and NPR’s Ira Glass, as well as more controversial figures such as India’s Narendra Modi.
Here’s what Time had to say about the 60-year-old Emir:
His little Gulf country has punched way above its geopolitical weight in the past year.
Al-Thani helped broker a landmark peace deal between the warring Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas. He secretly deployed Qatari commandos in Libya during the war against Muammar Gaddafi. And Qatar led the Arab League in its U.N. efforts to put pressure on Syria.
Al-Thani may be cut from the same cloth as the other oil-rich potentates in the Gulf, but he has an altogether different style and agenda.
Time, which included former Al Jazeera English reporter Ayman Mohyeldin in its 2011 list, is asking people to vote for their favorite nominee by Friday.
The person with the most votes automatically makes it to the top 100, but editors will likely take the numbers into account when deciding on the other 99.
So far, 80 percent of those who weighed in said the Emir “definitely” deserved to be on the list, with 20 percent voting “no way.”
How will you vote?