Saad Eddin Ibrahim is an Egyptian sociologist and author, and one of Egypt's leading human rights and democracy activists. He is credited for playing a leading role in the revival of Egypt's contemporary research-based civil society movement. A professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo, he is the founder of both the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo and the Arab Organization for Human Rights. Ibrahim has supported fair elections when they were viewed as incompatible with Egyptian politics, and has promoted international democratic alliances.