Abdullah bin al-Hussein of Jordan

Abdullah II bin al-Hussein has been the King of Jordan since his father's death in 1999. While his uncle had been designated the Crown Prince for over 30 years, Abdullah was selected as the successor two weeks before his father's death. The son of Hussein and his second, English-born wife, Abdullah was largely educated in the West, and he speaks English fluently.

Mohammed VI of Morocco

Mohammed bin Hassan has been the King of Morocco since his father's death in 1999. While his father committed many human rights abuses, Mohammed has sought to create a freer Morocco, though the kingdom is far from democratic. As king, he has reformed Moroccan family law and expanded women's rights. Since the Arab Spring, he has liberalized the constitution while retaining a substantial amount of power.

Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been the President of Algeria since 1999.  A veteran of Algeria's War for Independence, he was a key government official for nearly two decades after independence.  When President Houari Boumedienne suddenly died in office, Bouteflika was considered a likely successor, but the military instead chose a compromise candidate; soon after, he was charged with corruption and went into exile for six years.

Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas has been the president of the Palestine Liberation Organization since 2005. While Hamas disputes his claim on the Presidency, worldwide consensus supports Abbas' position. Born in Palestine, he moved as a teenager to Syria during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and attended Syrian, Egyptian, and Soviet universities; his doctoral dissertation concerned supposed links between Nazism and Zionism. He joined the Fatah party soon after its founding, eventually becoming prime minister under Arafat in 2003.

Michel Suleiman

Michel Suleiman has been the President of Lebanon since 2008. After a lengthy military career culminating in a ten-year tenure as Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, Parliament elected him as president during negotiations that outlasted the previous president's term by six months; talks frequently stalled as the two main factions remained intransigent on several critical issues. Suleiman is widely seen as neutral politically; when he became president, he requested that the military disregard politics.

Nouri al-Maliki

Nouri al-Maliki has been the Prime Minister of Iraq since 2006. He has been an active member of the Shi'ite Islamic Dawa Party since the 1960s; when Saddam Hussein began executing party members, he went into exile in Damascus and Tehran, returning after the 2003 invasion. When he was in exile, he was known publicly as Jawad, but he reverted to his given name of Nouri upon his return to Iraq.

Palestinian diaspora

About 5 million Palestinians live in the Middle East outside Israel and Palestine. While over half live in Jordan, significant communities also live in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and the Gulf states. Palestinians desiring to leave their homeland encounter many problems as citizens without a state, and the response from different governments varies significantly. Surrounding Israel, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians still live in refugee camps.

Guest workers in the Gulf

Approximately 15 million expatriates live in the Arab states on the Persian Gulf, from a total population of under 40 million. While many are from other Arab countries, the single largest country of origin is India. The region's local elites are rapidly building infrastructure, importing labor for jobs in construction, housework, and other fields, including skilled labor in oil, education, and engineering.

Copts

There are at least 10 million Copts in the world today; estimates vary widely.  Copts are Egyptian Christians, and they traditionally belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church.  To the casual observer, the Coptic Orthodox Church differs only slightly from the doctrines of the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches.  Some Copts also belong to the Coptic Catholic Church or various Protestant denominations.

Berber people

There are about 10 million Berbers; they call themselves Imazighen, meaning "free men". While some Berbers live in the West, most live in Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. While Berbers  are increasingly asserting their identity, education remains primarily in Arabic or European languages.

Kurdish people

Approximately 30 million Kurds live worldwide; more than half live in Turkey, with many in Iran and Iraq and a significant diaspora community.  The Kurds are the most numerous people without an independent homeland, but the portion of Kurdistan in Iraq is autonomous.

Ali Abdullah Saleh

Ali Abdullah Saleh has been President of Yemen since reunification in 1990; he was President of North Yemen from 1978.  An adherent of Zaydi Shi'ism, he received minimal schooling, but joined the military and rose through the ranks to be commissioned as an officer. He was appointed military governor of Ta'izz; when the president was assassinated the following year, he became a member of the provisional executive council, and was subsequently elected President by Parliament.

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has been the ruler of Bahrain since 1999.  Originally the Emir, he declared himself King in 2002.  After receiving his basic education in Bahrain, he obtained his higher education at universities in Britain and the United States.  Upon his ascension to the throne, he made sweeping reforms, freeing the nation's political prisoners, liberalizing its laws, and permitting the return of many exiles.

Beji Caid Essebsi

Beji Caid Essebsi has been Prime Minister of Tunisia since February 2011.  Emerging from retirement to assume the position, he was Tunisia's foreign affairs minister in the late 1980s and served as President of the Chamber of Deputies in the beginning of the 1990s, but retired from public life in 1994. Born to an upper-class family descended from the mamelukes who once ruled Tunisia, his political career has spanned several generations.

Mustafa Abdul Jalil

Mustafa Abdul Jalil has been the chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council since February 2011. Previously Gaddafi's Minister of Justice, he defected to the rebels' side a week into the civil war when Gaddafi sent him to negotiate with the opposition. Previously lauded by NGOs as an official who criticized the government's human rights violations, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi selected him as justice minister to cast the regime in a more reform-minded light.

Mohamed Hussein Tantawi

Mohamed Hussein Tantawi has been the de facto ruler of Egypt since Mubarak's departure in February 2011.  A field marshal, he is the chairman of Egypt's armed forces.  A veteran of the Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Gulf War, he has been Egypt's Minister of Defence since 1991 and was a close Mubarak ally.  He controls the military government that is in place until elections can install a successor.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been the president of Iran since 2005. Previously the governor of Ardabil province and then mayor of Tehran, he is ultraconservative, known for repealing the reforms of his predecessors. A man of humble origins, he was a civil engineering professor before he entered politics, and he held various political positions in Northwestern Iran. He was appointed to every position he held until he campaigned for president in 2005.

Binyamin Netanyahu

Binyamin Netanyahu has been the Prime Minister of Israel since 2009. The son of Zionist activist Benzion Netanyahu, his brother Yonatan was killed during Operation Entebbe by Palestinian activists. A member of the conservative Likud Party, he also served as Prime Minister from 1996 to 1999, after which he left politics amid a corruption scandal, but soon returned on Ariel Sharon's cabinet. When Sharon formed the Kadima party in 2005, Netanyahu was elected to lead Likud.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been Turkey's prime minister since 2003. Once a football player, he became mayor of Istanbul in 1994. Admired for his reforms and lack of corruption, his term ended with his imprisonment for reciting a poem deemed too Islamic by authorities. This prison sentence barred him from assuming public office, but the law was changed so he could become Prime Minister.  

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been King of Saudi Arabia since 2005.  As a son of Ibn Saud showing political promise, he was long regarded as a potential king; this became official when his half-brother Fahd became king in 1982, naming Abdullah crown prince.  When Fahd was incapacitated by a stroke in 1996, Abdullah assumed many of his duties.  At age 87, he is among the world's oldest monarchs.

Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad has been the President of Syria since his father's death in 2000.  While their father had been grooming his older brother Basil as heir apparent, Basil's death in 1994 caused Bashar to become next in line.  Trained as an ophthalmologist rather than as a politician, Syrians hoped that Bashar would reform his father's policies; while his first months in office saw some reforms, these reforms have not proven lasting.