Ammar Abdulhamid on Syria’s uprising

Rights activist says the international response to violence in Syria is merely “symbolic” and “rife with hypocrisy”: an interview on Al-Jazeera online:

Rights groups have estimated that at least 1,600 people have died since the start of the uprising in Syria in March, but that number might increase considerably by the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Since Sunday alone, at least 150 people have been killed in Deir ez-Zor, Hama and Al-Buka-mal – a bloody progression from battles and sieges in other cities and towns such as Deraa, Homs, Latakia and Jirs al-Shughur. But how long can the protests – and the severe crackdowns on them – continue? Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian human rights activist and founder of the non-profit Tharwa Foundation (which promotes democracy and development in in Syria as well as the broader region). He told the foreign affairs committee of the US House of Representatives in the spring of 2008 that, “Change in Syria is not a matter of ‘if’ anymore, but of ‘when’, ‘how’ and ‘who’.” Three years later, he still feels the same, and the questions seem closer to being answered by the nation of Syria itself. Abdulhamid tells Al Jazeera what he thinks of the of the international response to the unrest and how he sees the government and protesters arriving at their end games. Continue reading “Ammar Abdulhamid on Syria’s uprising” →

Ammar attends President Obama’s speech on U.S. Policy in MENA

After weeks of demanding a strong statement by President Obama on the tragic developments in Syria, I was invited to attend his speech on U.S. policy towards the MENA region in view of the changes currently unfolding there. His references to Syria were encouraging, but were still below expectations, as he failed to call on Assad to leave. Nonetheless, one cannot expect President Obama to take such drastic step until the opposition got its act together. After which, I was interviewed at some length by The Washington Post. Continue reading “Ammar attends President Obama’s speech on U.S. Policy in MENA” →

Normalcy in Syria, a mere façade

Underneath the façade of normalcy that Syrian authorities are good at orchestrating for the benefit of their foreign visitors, the human rights situation in the country is in constant deterioration on account of continuous and intensified crackdowns. Indeed, Syrian jails now host the world’s oldest dissident (Haitham Al-Maleh, 80) and the world youngest (Tal Al-Mallouhi, 19). Indeed, the latter has not been seen by anyone since her arrest less than a year ago, and is rumored to have died under torture. Despite a massive international campaign demanding her release, Syrian authorities continue to withhold all information regarding her whereabouts and condition. Meanwhile, European and American leaders are busy engaging Bashar Al-Assad in the misplaced hope of breaking his regime’s long-term strategic alliance with Iran, and for this, they are willing to put up with the man’s murderous practices in Syria and across the region. Syria is an authoritarian state and the Assad regime is corrupt and repressive. The world should not be made to forget this fact, and the world’s free press should continuously highlight it. CNN needs to do a report to bring a semblance of balance to coverage related to Syria.

Asking all the wrong questions

First posted on my short-lived blog Tharwalizations.

Ever since the Danish Cartoon Controversy, a spate of alarmist articles and reports on Islam and the Muslim communities in western societies appeared in various newspapers and journals across the world, all warning against the danger posed by Islam as such and all asserting that Islam as a faith is inherently violence. Continue reading “Asking all the wrong questions” →