Top 100 includes religious figures

Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people is out, and contains several religious persons.

• The Dalai Lama is included. "To me, the most mystical thing about him is also the most ordinary: the Dalai Lama is happy," writes Deepak Chopra.



• Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim is noted as "A global voice for moderate Islam," by Paul Wolfowitz.



• Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I "...has turned the relative political weakness of the office into a strength, grasping the fact that is allows him to stake out a clear moral and spiritual vision that is not tangles up in negotiation and balances of power. And this vision is dominated by his concern for the environment," writes Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.



• Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr is also listed. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez writes "By turning up the level of violence at will, he is able to control the coalition war-fighting environment, disrupt Iraq's political process and affect American public opinion."



• Presbyterian minister Richard Cizik is noted along with professor Eric Chivian for works in environmental activism.

I thought it was interesting that there were 5 out of 100, but also that they are all noted for being influential outside of the realm of spirituality.