The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About the Syrian Civil War

Interviewed by Barry Rubin, PJ Media

Ammar Abdulhamid may know more about Syria’s civil war than anyone else in the world. That’s no exaggeration. An pro-democratic oppositionist living abroad, Abdulhamid has functioned on a virtual 24/7 basis as the source of news and analysis about events within Syria, always trying to be honest and accurate in his assessments regardless of his own preferences. Barry Rubin, PJMedia Middle East editor, interviewed Abdulhamid on the latest developments and trends. Continue reading “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About the Syrian Civil War”

Syria Needs US Intervention Now: Ammar Abduhamid

Interviewed by Ryan Mauro, Stop Radical Islam.org

Ammar Abduhamid is a liberal Syrian pro-democracy activist whose anti-regime activities led to his exile in September, 2005. He currently lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Khawla Yusuf, and their two children, Oula (b.1986) and Mouhanad (b. 1990). He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting democracy, and is currently a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. His personal blog is the Syrian Revolution Digest. Continue reading “Syria Needs US Intervention Now: Ammar Abduhamid”

Tweeting the Egyptian Revolution (2)

A selection of tweets related to the Egyptian Revolution, I have excluded most retweets as well as tweets in Arabic or tweets that simply link to articles and news reports. Most tweets reflect personal thoughts of information obtained from monitoring reports from the ground sent by in-country activists and journalists.

Some of the tweets below (4-6) reflect an early enthusiasm and hope that we might be able to tame not only the regime but the Islamists as well. In retrospect, that was naïve. But the early days were indeed dominated by more secular and pragmatic forces. The Islamist takeover of the Revolution in Egypt (and Tunisia) happened mostly on account of their relative cohesion and superior organization skills, not their larger numbers. Continue reading “Tweeting the Egyptian Revolution (2)”

Wet Dreams and Dry Realities!

The recentarticleby Shaaban Abboud on Islamic Movements in Syria highlights the fact that, in the final analysis and after all is said and done, these movements are formed along provincial rather than ideological lines, with personalities playing a huge role in this regard. Different sheikhs have different followers, disciples and devotees. They will compete with each other, and vilify each other, now somewhat quietly but tomorrow quite overtly, but they will eventually agree on one thing: the Shariah. Continue reading “Wet Dreams and Dry Realities!”