RIYADH, Jan 11 (KUNA) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was awarded on Monday with the King Faisal International Prize for his service to Islam for the year 2010, while four other scholars won the prize for their studies in various domains.
However, as for Studies Dealing with Religious Endowments (Waqf) in Islam the prize for this year was withheld due to lack of the necessary requirement to win such Prize.
The Secretary General of King Faisal International Prize Abdullah Al-Othaimeen announced the winners in a press conference earlier today.
According to King Faisal International Prize, Erdogan's achievements, in politics and administration, have set an example of judicious leadership in the Islamic world.
Nationally, Erdogan has pioneered a major campaign of economic, social and cultural reforms that paved the way for substantial national development and placed Turkey among the world's leading countries, economically and industrially, without compromising his ideals of democracy and justice, King Faisal Prize said in a statement.
Other winners included Professor Abderrahman El-Houari Hadj-Saleh (Algeria), Professor Ramzi Mounir Baalbaki (Lebanon), Professor Enrico Bombieri (USA), Professor Terence Chi-Shen Tao (Australia), IBM von Neumann Professor Institute for Advanced Study Princeton University, Professor Reinhold Ganz (Germany), Professor Jean-Pierre Pelletier (Canada), Professor Johanne Martel Pelletier (Canada), Chairman Emeritus, Orthopedics Department, University of Bern.
A team of selected committees held meetings in the past to select the winners in the award's branches of Islamic Studies, Arabic Language, Literature, Medicine and Sciences.
The Prize subjects for the Arabic Hijra calendar the year of 1431 included Islamic Studies, economic and social sides of the Islamic World during 10-13 Hijra centuries, Arabic Language, studies on tendencies of innovation in Arab poetry up to the end of the seventh Hijra century, medicine, stem cell treatment studies, and sciences, in chemistry. (end) od.mb KUNA 120052 Jan 10NNNN