The leader of the Islamic State is in the final running for Time magazine’s 2015 “person of the year,” the news publication announced Monday.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, 44, “has inspired followers to both fight in his self-declared caliphate of Iraq and Syria, and also stage attacks in countries like Tunisia and France,” Time said in an article published Monday morning.
The U.S. State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to al-Baghdadi’s capture or death.
The leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has offered a reward of $25 million.
As ISIS continues to surge across the Middle East, committing acts of genocide against both Christians and Muslims, the insurgent terrorist group has also organized attacks on targets in the United States and Europe, including an attack in Paris that left 130 dead.
Other contenders chosen by the magazine’s editors include Black Lives Matter activists, 2016 GOP front-runner Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
If al-Baghdadi wins the distinction of being 2015’s “person of the year,” it wouldn’t be the first time that the magazine has chosen a violent dictator for the honor.
Adolph Hitler was named by Time magazine as the “man of 1938.”
“The dynamics of dictatorship are such that few who have studied Fascism and its leaders can envision sexless, restless, instinctive Adolf Hitler rounding out a mellow middle age in his mountain chalet at Berchtesgaden while a satisfied German people drink beer and sing folk songs,” the magazine said, questioning whether the German leader would be content to sit idly by as neighboring countries took stock of his actions and joined an “armaments race.”
“There is no guarantee that the have-not nations will go to sleep when they have taken what they now want from the haves. To those who watched the closing events of the year it seemed more than probable that the Man of 1938 may make 1939 a year to be remembered,” it added.
