Top 10 People that Most Changed the Middle East for the Worse

Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن, romanized: Usāma bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin, March 10, 1957 to May 2, 2011) was a stateless terrorist born in Saudi Arabia. He founded al-Qaeda, the organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks... read more

Ruhollah Khomeini

Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini, commonly known as Ayatollah Khomeini, was born on September 24, 1902, and died on June 3, 1989. He was an Iranian Shia religious leader and politician who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution. After the revolution, he became the Supreme Leader of Iran, a position he held until... read more

Real dictator.

Muhammad

Muhammad ibn Abdullah (c. 570-632) was an Arab religious, social, military, and political leader who founded Islam, one of the world's major monotheistic religions. According to Islamic belief, he was the final prophet, tasked with confirming the teachings of earlier prophets such as Adam, Abraham, Moses... read more

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was the leader of the Salafi jihadist militant organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS. He played a central role in expanding ISIS's control across parts of Iraq and Syria. Al-Baghdadi died during a United States military raid in Syria in 2019.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth president of Iraq, serving from July 16, 1979, until April 9, 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party's Iraqi regional branch, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism... read more

How is this guy not on here? He publicly killed thousands of civilians and even had people telling him to go to hell when he was being hanged.

Ali Khamenei

Ali Hosseini Khamenei (19 April 1939 to 28 February 2026) was an Iranian cleric and politician who served as the second Supreme Leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination in 2026. Khamenei previously served as the President of Iran from 1981 to 1989. His tenure as Supreme Leader, spanning 36 years... read more

Yasser Arafat

Bashar al-Assad

Bashar Hafez al-Assad, born on July 11, 1965, is a Syrian politician who served as the 19th President of Syria from July 17, 2000, until December 8, 2024, when his government was overthrown by Syrian rebels. He was also the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces, General Secretary of the ruling... read more

Donald Trump

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York) is an American businessman, television personality, politician, and the 45th and 47th President of the United States.

Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Donald J. Trump received an economics degree from the Wharton School of the... read more

I'm sorry if this seems like another overload of Donald Trump criticism, but in a way, I can't say he's really done more good than bad for the Middle East. He decided to proclaim Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and while I can see that this isn't inherently evil, this decision has only caused more turmoil between Israel and Palestine.

Mohammed Omar

Mullah Muhammad Omar was an Afghan militant leader and cleric who founded the Taliban in 1994. During the Third Afghan Civil War, the Taliban fought the Northern Alliance and took control of most of Afghanistan, establishing the First Islamic Emirate. Omar served as Supreme Leader from 1996... read more

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

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Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is an Israeli politician serving as the ninth and current prime minister of Israel, a position he has held since December 29, 2022. He previously served as prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history... read more

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician, government official, and businessman. He served twice as U.S. secretary of defense, first from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford and later from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. Rumsfeld was also White House chief of staff and a member... read more

Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce Cheney, commonly known as Dick Cheney, was an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He previously held roles such as White House Chief of Staff under President Gerald Ford and Secretary... read more

The devil himself!

Hassan Nasrallah

Hafez al-Assad

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born October 7, 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is currently serving as the president of Russia, a position he has held since 2012. He previously served as president from 2000 to 2008 and was prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from... read more

Herod the Great

Ibn Saud

Temür

Juhayman al-Otaybi

"Saudi King Khaled, however, did not react to the upheaval by cracking down on religious puritans in general, but by giving the ulama and religious conservatives more power over the next decade. He is thought to have believed that the solution to the religious upheaval was simple: more religion. First, photographs of women in newspapers were banned, then women on television. Cinemas and music shops were shut down. The school curriculum was changed to provide many more hours of religious studies, eliminating classes on subjects like non-Islamic history. Gender segregation was extended to the humblest coffee shop. The religious police became more assertive." ~ Wikipedia, Grand Mosque Seizure via Aftermath via Policies.
Once I read that, I had to put him in the top three on the list.

Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

Amin al-Husseini

Omar al-Bashir

Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Sudan's head of state under various titles. He led the country from 1989 until he was deposed in a coup d'état in 2019 and headed the National Congress Party from its formation in 1998. He was later imprisoned... read more

Henry Kissinger

Henry Alfred Kissinger was an American diplomat, political scientist, geopolitical consultant, and politician. He served as the United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor in the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford between 1969 and 1977.... read more