Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoganReuters

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has placed second on the list of The World's Most Influential Muslims, following Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz, who topped the list for the second consecutive year, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Prepared by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC), the report is issued annually in cooperation with Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in the United States.

The RISSC is an independent research entity affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, located in Amman, Jordan.

According to RISSC, nominations were evaluated on the basis of the influence that particular Muslims have had within the Muslim world as well as the international community.

The notoriously anti-Israel Turkish prime minister has claimed that Israel is a “terrorist state” and “violently massacres innocent children in Gaza.”

Shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the Saudi king, for his part, stated that, “The vicious campaign being waged against the kingdom in the Western media is nothing but the manifestation of a deep-rooted hatred directed against the course of Islam.”

“Commitment to Islam and the homeland is not up for debate,” he added.