Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is the current emir (ruler) of Qatar. He deposed his father, Emir Sheik Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, in 1995 and has taken drastic steps to modernize the country.
He is best known in the West for providing a home to and funding the popular Al Jazeera news outlet. Because of this, Hamad has often been criticized by the United States government for allegedly "taking sides" in the war in Iraq and the Palestinian intifada.
