“What we have unfolding in Syria now is a two-tiered revolution: an armed insurrection and nonviolent protest movement, and the champions of both are morally justified in their position and they need our support,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, a U.S.-based exiled Syrian dissident. He said external military intervention, including logistical and material support to the defectors, is a must to avoid a return to the status-quo. “Yes, we should fear civil war, we should fear the bloodshed resulting from militaristic adventurism, but we should fear a return to the status quo even more,” he wrote in his blog Friday.
Category: Activism & Advocacy
Syrian Thugs Try to Intimidate the U.S. Media
Quoted by Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post
The embassy’s clumsy, almost cartoonish, effort to intimidate its critics only serves to highlight the nature of the regime. Ammar Abdulhamid of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies had this take on the embassy’s cloddish attempt to silence dissidents: “The only element of déjà vu involved in this situation is the willingness of Syrian officials and diplomats to lie and distort facts with impunity. Embassies run by Assad officials have served for decades as centers of intimidation of exiled dissidents and their families and friends. Their increased activities in this connection at this stage comes as a cynical and desperate act to stem the tide of change. To no avail. Soon, the justice system of a free Syria will have its say in the matter, and this impunity will come to an end.”
Lord of Curation Series: Ammar Abdulhamid
Our Lord of Curation series presents to you some of the great curators on Scoop.it. They are here to share their insights and advice with you.
Ammar Abdulhamid is a liberal democracy activist whose anti-regime activities led to his exile from Syria on September 7, 2005. He now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his supporting family: his wife Khawla, and their two children: Oula (b. 1986) and Mouhanad (b. 1990). Ammar is the founder and director of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion in the Greater Middle East and North Africa region. Continue reading “Lord of Curation Series: Ammar Abdulhamid”
Media and Policy Makers Need to Connect to Online “Influentials”
Glad that my twitter activity was helpful in this very important study:
Building on such insights, Jorge Faytong Real and Nishant Patel, two graduate students at the University of Maryland working on a project in Prof. Ben Shneiderman course on Information Visualization, took a look at three slices of the Twitter universe to determine who have been “influentials” during the Middle East unrest. Faytong and Patel looked at the Twitter network of an extraordinarily-well linked U.S-based Syrian and Middle East activist who tweets in both English and Arabic: Ammar Abdulhamid—known to Twitter users as @tharwacolamus.[3] Continue reading “Media and Policy Makers Need to Connect to Online “Influentials””
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 