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Ammar Abdulhamid
Ammar Abdulhamid
Born	May 30, 1966 (age 43); Damascus city, Syria
Residence	United States
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Occupation	Author and Activist
Spouse(s)	Khawla Yusuf
Children	Two

Ammar Abdulhamid (born May 30, 1966) is a noted Syrian dissident, author and founder of The Tharwa Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting democracy, development and diversity in Syria and the broader Southwest Asia/North Africa region. [1].

Prior to founding The Tharwa Foundation, Ammar served as a fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute and at the International Institute for Modern Letters in Las Vegas.[2]. He also co-founded Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance (HAMSA), an initiative to mobilize international grassroots support for democracy activists in the Arab world. Ammar also established DarEmar, an independent publishing house dedicated to raising the standards of civic awareness in the Arab World. [3]

The New York Times has recognized Ammar as “one of the important voices articulating the rising generation’s disenchantment” with the current Syrian Regime.[4] Newsweek Arabic edition named him as one of the most influential personalities in the contemporary Arab World. Ammar has briefed President of the United States, testified in front of the U.S. Congress and is a frequent expert media commentator. [5].

[edit] Foundations

[edit] DarEmar

In 2003, Ammar established DarEmar, a publishing house/ non government organization dedicated to raising the standards of civic awareness in the Arab World. In that same year, he also launched the Tharwa Project, a program designed to address issues of diversity in the Middle Eastern region. [6]

[edit] The Tharwa Foundation

In 2003, Ammar and his wife founded the Tharwa Project while still residing in Syria. After re-locating to the United States in 2005, the pair founded The Tharwa Foundation, an offshoot of the Tharwa Project. The Tharwa Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots organization that encourages diversity, development and democracy in Syria and the broader Southwest Asia/ North Africa. The Foundation derives its name from the Arabic word meaning wealth. Incidentally, "tharwa" sounds much like the Arabic word "thawra", meaning revolution. [11] [12]

Tharwa works to break the Assad government’s information blockade by enlisting a cadre of local activists and citizen journalists to report on sociopolitical issues in Syria. Ammar’s blog and writings are among the most provocative and popular in the region.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Ammar Abdulhamid was born on May 30, 1966 to Syrian actress Muna Wassef and the late Syrian filmmaker Muhammad Shahine in Damascus, Syria. After completing his undergraduate studies in the United States, Ammar returned to Damascus in September 1994.

Ammar is married to author, fashion designer and human-rights activist Khawla Yusuf. Due to his criticism of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and work to improve inter-communal relations, he and Khawla were forced to flee Damascus in September 2005. They currently live in Washington, D.C. with their two children Mouhanad (1990) and Oula (1986). [7] He is currently awaiting political asylum in the United States.

[edit] Education

Ammar Abdulhamid spent approximately eight years in the United States(1986-1994), studying Astronomy and History. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in History.

[edit] Views

[edit] Regional Minority Groups

Regional governments traditionally ignore religious and ethnic minorities, and conflict has been the result. If we continue to ignore minorities they will not disappear; they will become more alienated, and the walls between them and the majority population will grow thicker and thicker. These differences are now being hijacked as a pretext for intervention by outside powers. The U.S. intervened in Iraq in the name of democracy but also to bolster the majority Shi'a against the ruling Sunni. We cannot deny our diversity to safeguard our sovereignty. By tackling this sensitive issue, we will not only solve internal conflict but also remove any excuse for further foreign intervention in the region. [8]

Moreover, the Assad regime is afraid of these issues being raised at the popular level and being resolved at the popular level because it survives by exploiting the fears between the sects. [9]

[edit] Syrian Youth Empowerment

Arab states desperately need to empower their young. More to the point, they need to do so in the right way—that is, in a way that makes them feel they are an integral part of the world and more involved in the making of contemporary civilization—rather than pariahs or mere relics of things passed. [10]

[edit] Political Change in the Arab World

A mixture of Arab nationalism and atavistic longings in the garb of wahhabi- and salafi-like tendencies is invading the Arab psyche in many parts of the world. Secular longings are also being felt, because, in truth, and official rhetoric aside, they have never been fulfilled. This is making the underlying social, ethnic and sectarian cleavages much more pronounced than they have ever been before. [11]

[edit] Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Palestinians are in many ways doing everything the Zionists did to create their state. Their violence is neither unusual nor unique. Some would argue that it is even more "justified," since they are seeking to liberate part of their original homeland, most Palestinians having already accepted the right of Israel to exist. Can we blame the Palestinians for being as prone to violence as any other people in the same circumstances? I mean, personally, I do condemn violence, and I am not one of those people who condone suicide bombings for any reason. But the circumstances of the struggle, and the way the world is responding to it, are such that the Palestinians seem to be encouraged indeed to think of themselves and, hence, act as ultimate victims. [12]

[edit] Iraq War

Democracy is the assertion is the fruit of toil and sacrifice, that it is a thing we earn and build ourselves in response to some internal yearning, not something delivered upon request. Had the Americans come to support some Iraqi uprising for freedom and democracy, had they indeed supported just such an uprising when it did take place back in 1991, they would have had some much-needed credibility. But, the way things look today, the imperial logic behind their adventurism is all too visible and daunting to be ignored. So there it is plainly put: Democracy cannot be imposed by a foreign invader. The best they could do is to install another puppet regime, just like they did in Afghanistan, a regime whose authority will not go far beyond the borders of Baghdad, and will, in fact, have no control over the northern and southern parts of the country, thus creating a de facto division of Iraq laying the foundations for more turbulence in the near future.[13]

[edit] References

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