“Ammar Abdulhamid could perhaps be a Khalil Gibran for the 21st century.” Ken Ballen: author of Terrorists in Love.
“One cannot have a surer or
more honest guide to the inner-workings and conscience of Syria’s opposition
movement than Ammar Abdulhamid.” Joshua Landis, Director of the Center
for Middle East Studies – University of Oklahoma.
“From the depths of one of the
world’s least free countries he has miraculously emerged, the freest of free
spirits, a restless soul, and a true original.” Joshua Muravchik,
author of Trailblazers of the Arab Spring.
“One of the important voices
articulating the rising generation’s disenchantment” The
New York Times
“Going out on a limb almost
comes naturally for Ammar Abdulhamid.” The
Washington Post
Ammar Abdulhamid is…a thorn in
the Syrian government’s side.” Smithsonian
Magazine
“Leave it to others to devise
grand programs for bringing democracy to the Middle East: Ammar Abdulhamid
wants to lay the intellectual foundations of citizenship one book at a time.” The
Chronicle of Higher Education
“Ammar Abdulhamid’s views on
modernizing Syria sound more like revolutionary solutions for most of the Arab
world.” Epoch
Times
“[Abdulhamid] showed
increasing interest in expanding the framework of opposition fighting against
oppressive regimes beyond Islamist circles to include secular and liberal
voices. His struggle is beginning to have an impact on the status quo.” Newsweek (Arabic
Edition)
Meet
the Irreverent Activist, Syrian thinker Ammar Abdulhamid: “Ammar
Abdulhamid used to be a radical Islamist. Tall and thin,
Abdulhamid has become a renowned defender of minorities in the Arab and Muslim
world, a position he's built over the past two decades. He was an early user of
social media in defense of Muslim plurality and remains an online innovator and
a Syrian activist with a great deal of cachet and a number of powerful enemies.
Abdulhamid is also one of the only—if not the only—Syrian dissident who both
anticipated what would happen if the West did not back the right forces
fighting Syrian dictator Basha al-Assad (the democratic, religiously ecumenical
groups), and created the opportunities to say so to the United States Congress.
The
Daily Dot
Ammar Abdulhamid is a
Syrian-American pro-democracy and human rights activist who was exiled from Syria
in 2005 on account of his vehement criticism of the ruling Assad regime. He is
the founder of the Tharwa
Foundation – a nonprofit organization that played a key role in bringing
about the nonviolent prodemocracy protest movement that swept Syria in 2011. Despite
the violent crackdown orchestrated by the Assad regime and that gradually led
to the current proxy war, Ammar remains dedicated to democracy promotion in
Syria and throughout the world from his current home in Silver Spring,
Maryland, where he lives with his wife and two children. Through the years, Ammar
has created a number of influential blogs in both English and Arabic. He
currently maintains two English blogs: The Daily Digest of Global
Delirium and The Delirica,
and an Arabic blog: Hartaqah. Ammar has recently
created his own cartoon strip, The Cauldron,
and a website dedicated to his photography and digital art projects – The Amarji Art Studio. His
previous nonfiction writings can be found at Ammar.World.
His only published novel so far, Menstruation, can be found here.