A Syrian Dissident Speaks

Ammar Abdulhamid was one of only 219 Syrians who voted against Bashar al-Assad's regime in 1998 "elections." In 2004, after being outspoken in his belief that Assad ordered Hariri's assassination, the regime kicked him out of the country. Now, he organizes the Syrian opposition from Washington DC. Check out this interview of Abdulhamid.

Abdulhamid has formed an umbrella organization called the National Salvation Front, which includes Muslim Brotherhood dissidents. Though a secular, liberal fellow himself, he knows that he needs to work with the Brotherhood if he wants to achieve real change. I sympathize with his plight -- on both sides he finds people whose own values are light-years from his. Here's what he says about working with the Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow the Assads:

"We simply cannot ignore the Islamists. We are talking about change, about democracy, about elections at one point in time. So it's really good to sit down to realize with whom we can talk and how much they can moderate their language, and what sort of deals we can arrive at. Because either we do this or we have two other options: Either we talk to the Islamists and find moderates and work together for change at the risk of being betrayed. The other options are to stick to the status quo but then the status quo cannot hold a lot with the Assads."[emphasis mine]

Best of luck, Mr.Abdulhamid. I hope we don't look back on that paragraph years later and wonder how everyone could have been so naive.