Ibrahim, Anwar

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Georgetown University; Washington, D.C. Anwar Ibrahim is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Georgetown University and the current Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia in the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding. He is also providing recommendations to the World Bank on how to enhance and improve its support of good governance and accountability in its development activities around the world. Formerly the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Malaysia, and the Vice-President of the United Malays National Organization, Ibrahim started the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) in 1971, the first mass-based NGO in the country to raise social and political awareness and emphasize social justice and human rights. His criticism of corruption and abuse of power within the Malaysian government and his vocal demands for reform resulted in his arrest and imprisonment in September 1998. Ibrahim, who led a new democratic movement in Malaysia from his prison cell, was released in September 2004. Ibrahim has also held lecturing positions at St. Anthony's College at Oxford University and at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He addresses audiences and university campuses around the world on the topics of justice, human rights, freedom, democracy, governance, transparency, and the rule of law.