We all know how to work with those who are similar to us, but it rarely leads to breakthroughs. To make a difference, however, we need to learn how to work with those who're different, to form alliances & build coalitions. Radicalism, dogmatism, & polarization will doom all of us
Standing with the Swedish democracy and freedom of speech. What someone says or does in Sweden is not the responsibility of the gov, the government's job is to ensure they -and you- have a safe space to say whatever you want.
You can't have democracy if you can't see or hear
🧵
1/13
American progressives are facing an intellectual dilemma. For years, they focused on criticizing US foreign policy. In part because of the anti-capitalism perspective, but also because they, undeliberately, bought into both imperialism & American-supremacy. I'll explain:
1/THREAD 🇮🇷
In my previous life, I was a civil society activist & strategist. I invested a long time in the literature of protest movements. I have some thoughts to share with my Iranian friends. Syrians can't tell you how to win, but we can share lessons we learned the hard way:
7/13
They ended up being where they exactly didn't want to be: American-centered. Many progressives ignored horrible and unprecedented human suffering caused by Russia (Syria) and Iran (Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon) because there was nothing there to criticize the US for.
12/13
Progressive millennials and gen Z are facing a big intellectual challenge. They should find a way to reconcile their world views to be aligned with their inclusive values of democracy, freedom, and self-determination, and not only when it overlaps with criticizing the US.
11/13
Looking at Ukraine as a country where Putin has the right to dictate its future is the most imperial notion in the 21st century. Ukrainians made THEIR democratic decision to ally with the west because THEY found that in their economic and national security interests.
Meanwhile, the gov of China is systematically oppressing millions of Muslims, holding them in detention and indoctrinating camps, and even rewriting the Quran. How many protests have we seen in Muslim countries against the CCP? How many Chinese flags have we seen being burned in
10/13
Some say it's the West's fault because Ukraine is within Russia's sphere of influence. Okay, let's talk about that: sphere of influence is the claim by a state to exclusive or predominant control over a foreign area or territory. In other words: imperialism.
2/THREAD 🇮🇷
Keep in mind you are in a marathon, not a sprint. This means: A) your path is much longer and more complex than expected. B) Your path has much more potential than you think. Long-term planning is essential and has different requirements than just protesting.
8/13
Progressives advocated for isolationism. A view they share with Trump & Rand Paul (clearly for different reasons). Another mistake entrenched in their views was depriving non-Americans of their agency in global events & interpreting them as always being American influenced:
3/THREAD 🇮🇷
Build your own civil society think-tanks. Create strategy groups where the task is just to thank and plan. You are not the strongest player– your only chance to survive is by being the smartest. Strategizing is way more important than protesting.
6/13
Progressives' stances have been absent on big issues like the annexation of Crimea, Assad's war crimes, and Iran's interventionism. The focus was on where they saw the US policy being wrong, like Yemen, Israel/Palestine, and Cuba.
Assad addressing the Arab-Islamic Summit on Gaza. Assad killed over 500,000 people, gased children using chemical weapons, displaced over 12,000,000 people, killed tens of thousands of people under torture, around 100,000 of the people he arrested are still forcibly disappeared,
13/13
This thread doesn't claim to offer the full picture. It's just one piece of a complicated puzzle. It aims to discuss how geopolitics and post-cold-war American dominance shaped progressive-millennials world views.
9/13
They saw the war in Syria as a pure foreign power intervention, ignoring the main role of Assad and how much Syrians didn't want to live under him no matter what. In Ukraine, many argue that it was the west's fault ignoring that Ukrainians made their decision to look west.
5/13
Putin's Russia has been one of the most imperial forces in the world, but it's anti-American dominance too. For a long time progressives didn't feel threatened and they focused more on the ani-American side of Putin and widely ignored his imperial ambitions. Same with Iran.
2/13
American-progressive millennials never experienced a threat from another great-power. They grew up in an American-dominated global scene. Their world views were shaped under Bush (41), Clinton, and Bush (43), where the US almost did whatever it wanted.
4/13
The sense of guilt, coupled with a distorted view of global politics where the US is always secure and dominant, resulted in progressive millennials buying into two notions they loath: American supremacy and tolerating imperialism as long as it's anti-US dominance.
8/THREAD 🇮🇷
Don't fall into the trap of "Iran is different ''. It is not. Learn from others. Movements from Nicaragua to Serbia to Iraq and Hong Kong have many similarities. Just like physics there are laws that apply to protests, change, and power dynamics.
14/THREAD 🇮🇷
Take care of your mental health. I can't stress this enough. If you have access, it is a priority. Create access for others. Don't romanticize pain. Create groups for ppl to talk & support each other emotionally. This is something for Iranians inside/outside Iran.
15/Last THREAD 🇮🇷
Those are some thoughts that might be helpful to someone somewhere inside or outside Iran. Take what you think is useful. May we all live in peace, dignity, and equality.
4/THREAD 🇮🇷
Those civil society think tanks should include this question: what are the worst-case scenarios that could happen? Be as pessimistic (for the exercise) as possible and plan accordingly. Remember, you can't avoid what you can't see.
7/THREAD 🇮🇷
Don't overlook mistakes or wrongdoings by protestors and never cover them up. Many movements lose their moral superiority when they say "we will get to that later, let's focus now on the shared enemy". Focus on yourself first and foremost.
5/THREAD 🇮🇷
Discuss what you want, not only what you don't. Popular protests are coalitions of different groups with a shared enemy: how much do they have in common? how to work on these differences? How is the regime working on them? How could they be strengths or weaknesses?
6/THREAD 🇮🇷
Critique yourself. The more internal critique a movement has the better survival chances it gets. The more you analyze yourself the longer you can survive. Find your weaknesses before the regime finds them. It is a matter of time.
3/13
The main global event for progressive millennials was the invasion of Iraq. While they spent their adult life criticizing it, it left them with a deep sense of guilt and shame. They became very introspective and self-critical, but that is not the full picture.
12/THREAD 🇮🇷
Let people be part of the change, whether they are protestors, who have been silent (or even sympathizers at some point), or the diaspora who haven't seen Iran for years. Don't issue permits for who can say what. Don't censor anyone. Be the Iran you want to see.
10/THREAD 🇮🇷
Document all violations, small and big, by everyone. Do not give passes to anyone. You own your uprising. Your uprising soon will try to own you. Don't let it. Stay in control, stay in charge, and change course whenever needed, no matter how painful.
11/THREAD 🇮🇷
Face the Gray Dilemma which is the issue of those who were sympathizers with the gov but are changing now, and those who are still in the gray area: be as inclusive as possible, encourage ppl to change & welcome them, & accept that not every1 has the same capacity.
13/THREAD 🇮🇷
There is a role for everyone. Find ways to organize your supporters, activate the silent ones, and deactivate the gov supporters. Create ways for people to join based on the level of risk they are willing to take. Never alienate anyone and never shut the door.
9/THREAD 🇮🇷
In such big moments of history, things quickly get ugly, very ugly. Leaders of civil society should prepare for that. What is our plan B? Are we focusing too much on winning that we are preparing for other scenarios? What will we do if this wave totally fades out?
"Ms. Merkel, your well-being pleased us"
A graffiti from Idlib to Merkel after she tested negative for COVID-19, showing how grateful they feel towards Germany. Germany hosts around 700,000 Syrians. Ppl don't forget those who opened their doors for them when they needed a refuge
I attended a congressional hearing on the humanitarian crisis in Syria in 2019. Ilhan showed up late with her coffee, almost in the last 1/3, spoke for a few minutes about Somalia, did not ask the panel questions or show a real interest in Syria, and left.
Ideology is one key factor in the sympathy with Gaza. This is not to belittle or invalidate Gazans’ immeasurable pain, on the contrary, a call to actually see them as humans away from ideological battles and to inspect and analyze why many Arabs and leftists tolerate crimes if
This day, in 1962, the Syrian gov carried out an arbitrary census in NE Syria to identify "alien infiltrators" — the direct result was stripping around 120,000 Syrian Kurds of their Syrian citizenship. They were left stateless, and with no claim to another nationality.
Today is my dad's 74th birthday. In 2018, he traveled with my mom from Damascus to Beirut with an invite from
@harvard
to attend my graduation
@Kennedy_School
. At the US embassy, they were rejected, for no reason but the ban.
Happy birthday, Dad. Hope is a possibility again. 🕯
I made this a few weeks ago, and I didn't intentionally choose the colors of 🇺🇦. When my friend
@achkhikvadze
mentioned it, however, I kept thinking of Ukraine every time I looked at it. Thanks Ukraine and all of those who 'rage against the dying of the light.'
No one in the Middle East has shown solidarity with Ukraine the way many Syrians have. The pain Putin inflicted on Syrians is very similar to what he is doing in Ukraine. Sometimes by, literally, same pilots and fighter jets.
Today Assad's regime informed the family of Yahya and Ma'n Shurbaji that they both were killed prison. They were arrested with Ghiath Matar by the Air Force Security on September 6, 2011. All of them were leading nonviolent activists. A very sad day for Syria and humanity.
The type of Palestinian that many in the pro-Palestine movement in the US do not want to see or hear.
@HowidyHamza
speaks truth to power, and power is not only Israeli or Western governments.
Listen to
@HowidyHamza
tell us about the brave “We want to Live” protesters in Gaza, and how they were imprisoned and tortured by Hamas.
Be their voices. Tell their stories. Mainstream media never will.
Full conversation here:
Quarantine came from Arabic Al-Arbainiya(the 40th); a method of isolation for 40 days to prevent contagion, developed by Ibn Sina(Avicenna) in the 11th century. An Arabic word, used by a Persian polymath, adapted by Italians, then translated to English. This can't get more global
On Int'l Labour Day, I salute the Syrians who revolted against the Assad regime to demand their economic and political rights & shame on the Global Left that abandoned them & embraced Putin and Khamenei's propaganda instead. (Pic from Hama 2011)
Two documentaries about Syria nominated for Oscars tonight. Both directed by Syrians, & both document stories of very courages Syrian women. Good luck
@forsamafilm
and The Cave!! Thank you for carrying the Syrian voice to the red carpet and for inspiring people around the world!
Saeed Saleh , one of
#Dayton
Victims, was an immigrant from Eritrea who left to Sudan, Libya, then Malta before arriving to US in 2016.
38 years old, father of 3 children, worked 7 days a week, 12-16 hrs a day. RIP
A friend asked me about the fallout of having a new foreign minister in Syria; here is my answer:
Changing a faucet in your kitchen is more consequential than changing the minister of foreign affairs in the Assad regime.
I’ve heard from Iranians I trust how the anti-Palestinian sentiment is rising in Iran due to the perceived association between the Palestinian cause and the unpopular Iranian Islamic regime. Today the Iranian president appeared at the Gaza summit wearing the Palestinian Kufiya.
I've come to realize that what make a democracy a great one are not victory speeches, but concession speeches. When I look for some inspiration in the future I'll just listen to one of the concession speeches of these brave, decent, and loyal leaders.
#Election2020
Ever wondered what a policy paper approved by Assad at an American "think-tank" would look like? Here is an example. It's a collection of misinformation & misleading points aim to normalize Assad at the expense of millions of Syrian civilians. The author *met* with Assad in 2015.
"Course Correction: Preventing State Collapse in Syria," calls for abandoning the goal of regime change and focusing instead on two broad, achievable objectives: preventing a failed state in Syria and avoiding escalation between Israel and Iran.
How oblivious is
@busboysandpoets
to say "Make Peace with Iran" (what does that even mean) while the regime is violently cracking down, detaining, & executing its own ppl who are actually calling for peace & equality, let alone how it has sown bloodshed & chaos across the region.
Glad to share that I recently joined the part-time faculty of George Washington University. This semester I’m teaching Comparative Politics in the Middle East. Students at GW are not only very curious, but many of them have been active and engaged on and off campus. I look
All you've been trying to do is build a bomb. Your own economy is in shambles because of that ambition. You turned hundreds of thousands of the region's youth -from Afghanistan to Lebanon- into radical ticking bombs. Your "ideological views" are more lethal than nuclear weapons.
FM
@JZarif
to
@CNN
: Iran does not seek a nuclear weapon. If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon we could have done it some time ago. But we decided that nuclear weapons will not augment our security and are in contradiction to our ideological views.
12 years of brutality of Assad/Russia/Iran/barrel bombs/bombardment/chemical attacks/airstrikes/ torture to death/displacement/sieges/terrorism/earthquakes, and Syrians still fill whatever pockets they have to commemorate their revolution/chant/dance demanding freedom & dignity.
FSA fighters (in the video) proudly say they are heading towards "the battle of Afrin". Why would someone be that happy when they are going to probably kill and die in a battle that's not even their battle...
After Assad described the invasion as "correcting history", msgs(most likely by Syrian intel) appeared on WhatsApp demonizing Zelenskyy, describing him as a Zionist, a collaborator with Nazis, & claiming that: he is an Israeli citizen along 10 other Jewish-Israelis in his cabinet
I'll be forever proud that I was born in the land of Yahya Shurbaji, and that we shared same revolution, dreams, values, and pain. The society that produced Yahya shouldn't be ruled by criminals like Assad. RIP our beloved and inspiring icon.
It has never been unreasonable to say that the people who ordered the killing of Yahya Shurbaji should be removed from positions of power - we would expect nothing less if this happened in the UK.
سأحاور السياسية البارزة 🇱🇧
@PaulaYacoubian
في مؤتمر هارفارد للعرب. ما هي الأسئلة التي تقترحون أن أطرحها عليها؟
-موعد الجلسة: السبت 27 آذار/مارس 9:30AM–10:30AM توقيت الساحل الشرقي| 3:30pm-4:30pm توقيت بيروت.
للتسجيل (مجاناً) والإطلاع على برنامج المؤتمر:
Horrible video (I'm not sharing it) verified by the The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights shows Syrian Turkish-backed fighters strip and mutilate a body of dead Kurdish female fighter near Afrin. Those mercenaries should be stopped and held accountable.
As a Middle East analyst and a native of the region I'm floored by your blatant double standard on resisting Russian/Iranian aggression and war crimes and Assad repression in Syria.
Many people do forget, but not that quickly.
As a Ukrainian-American I am immensely proud of the bravery of Ukrainians and of the support being shown by Americans.
As a Middle East analyst I am floored by the blatant double standard on resisting occupation and repression.
Syrians paid a high price for this deal when Obama overlooked their tragedy to protect the deal. Now, I'm afraid Syrians will again pay a high price for Trump's exit from the deal without a clear strategy.
@elgindy_
Syria. Add to all this horrible war an industrial torture facilities, sectarian militias, and indiscriminate barrel bombs. This is not to belittle the suffering of Gaza but also to honor the right of Syrian victims to at least be remembered.
The number of those who learn Arabic with a Khaleeji accent keeps increasing. We used to mainly hear classic, Egyptian, or Levantine accents. One of many indicators on how the center of cultural gravity in the region is moving towards the gulf.