The Association of Muslim Social Scientists has announced that it has awarded its 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award to Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime MInister of Malaysia. According to the AMSS press release:
The AMSS UK is pleased to announce that its prestigious 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award has been awarded to: Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, former Deputy Prime Minister, MALAYSIA in recognition of long and distinguished service in the field of politics and economic thought, the promotion of the cause of good governance and committment to the principles of freedom, tolerance and justice. The Award will be presented at a ceremony to take place soon.
AMSSUK is the U.K. partner of the American organization by the same name which is headquartered at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The AMSS was founded in 1972 as an outgrowth of the Muslim Student Association by important members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood including Jamal Barzinji, currently a leader of IIIT, and the late Ismail Faruqi, a pivotal figure in the “Islamization of Knowledge” project. The AMSSUK Advisory Board includes other individuals tied to the global Brotherhood including:
- Mustafa Ceric (Grand Mufti of Bosnia)
- Charles Butterworth (University of Maryland)
- Khurshid Ahmed Pakistani (Jamaat-d-Islami)
- Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)
- Lord Ahmed of Rotherham
As previous posts have illustrated, the AMSS generally gives its wards to individuals tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
Anwar Ibrahim has many known ties to the global U.S Muslim Brotherhood including helping to found the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) where he currently serves as a director, representing Asian youth and serving as a trustee for the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, and appearances at numerous Brotherhood-linked conferences. Another post also discussed Ibrahim’s appearance at a Saudi economic forum. Western media coverage on Ibrahim tends to ignore this history which may be explained by a recent article from the Malaysian media on how Ibrahim has reinvented himself:
DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who started as a firebrand Islamic student activist, reinvented himself as a Malay nationalist after joining Umno in 1982 while continuing to promote and defend Islam. In 1999 after he was sacked, jailed and desperately fighting to save his political career, he had a difficult and momentous choice to make between forming a Malay-only nationalist party or a multi-racial party as his future political vehicle. Considering the need to show a united, strong political face – both to Malaysians and his legions of foreign supporters, Anwar chose a multi-racial platform. It was a “politically correct” decision and successfully piled the pressure to free him and return him to the political mainstream. But in the process Anwar lost the two main planks he had rode to come within a whisker of becoming Prime Minister – as champion of Malay nationalism and promoter and defender of Islam. Now, as a leader of a multi-racial party, he cannot speak exclusively about Malay nationalism or about Islam but has to present himself as a Malaysian leader and stand on a platform of equality, justice and fairness for all Malaysian races.
A post from 2008 reported that Dr. Ibrahim had won a seat in parliamentary elections