Iyad el-Baghdadi (Arabic: إياد البغدادي) (born June 17, 1977) is a writer, intellectual, and human rights activist who attained international prominence during the Arab Spring. He is the author of The Middle East Crisis Factory, a book on the Middle East and North Africa and Western foreign policy in the region,[1] and is considered a key thinker for pro-democracy movements during the Arab Spring.[2] He founded the human rights organisation Kawaakibi Foundation.[3]
Iyad El-Baghdadi | |
|---|---|
| إياد البغدادي | |
| Born | June 17, 1977 |
| Nationality | Palestinian |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, activist |
A stateless Palestinian who was born in Kuwait and raised in the United Arab Emirates, he was a political refugee in Norway until he received citizenship in 2023.[4][5]
Early life
editBaghdadi's father Ismail was born in Jaffa in what is now Israel. As an infant, he and Baghadi's paternal grandparents were displaced by the onset of the Nakba and settled in Egypt. Ismael moved to the United Arab Emirates in 1970. Iyad, born in Kuwait, was raised in the Emirates and lived in the town of Ajman before his deportation in 2014.[4]
Until the Arab Spring, he had a career as a computer programmer and startup consultant.[6]
Arab Spring
editDuring the Arab Spring in 2011, Baghdadi began tweeting about the ongoing Egyptian revolution. He provided English translations of Arabic-language statements, chants, and videos. His tweets, many of which not only reported on the latest developments but also provided mocking commentary about the region's dictatorial leaders, gained an enormous following. He is the creator of the widely spread hashtag #ArabTyrantManual.[7]
A February 2011 You Tube video of Egyptian activist Asmaa Mahfouz's call for Egyptians to protest in Tahrir square in Cairo, featuring translation by Baghdadi, was viewed over a million times. Many observers have credited this call with helping to bring down the presidency of Hosni Mubarak.[8]
His Oslo Freedom Forum talk was published in November 2014 by Foreign Policy under the title "Why I Still Believe in the Arab Spring." In the talk, he suggested that his own chief contribution to the Arab Spring had been "in the realm of ideas." From the start he had insisted on the importance of having "a statement or manifesto" and a plan for what to do after one's revolt succeeded[9][10]. He is an outspoken critic of both Islamic and secular authoritarianism, and has set himself apart from many other activists through his use of humor and sarcasm.[11]
Deportation and exile
editOn April 30, 2014, he tweeted about his close friend, the Egyptian activist Bassem Sabry, who had just died. The next day, May 1, UAE immigration authorities in his town, Ajman, told him that he faced a choice: either he could be imprisoned for an indefinite amount of time or he could accept immediate deportation. The government provided no official reason for this action. It did not formally charge him with a crime and did not offer him an opportunity to appeal the decision. One official said, "You should try and remember if you said anything that might cause something like this." Baghdadi, who was 36 at the time, chose deportation.
He then spent 13 days in al-Sadr prison in Abu Dhabi, after which he was deported. As a stateless Palestinian, he was flown to Malaysia with Egyptian travel documents in hand; he had been told that Malaysia would permit him entry as a refugee.
Upon his arrival in Kuala Lumpur on May 13, his documents were not recognised and was denied entry; he was confined to the airport for 26 days. On June 8, after a sustained campaign by friends and activists, the Malaysian government permitted him to enter the country on a passport issued by the Palestinian embassy as an "exceptional case."[12]
On June 17, Baghdadi’s birthday, his wife gave birth to a son. He was named Ismael, after Baghdadi's father.[4][13]
For six months, Baghdadi was out of the public eye. On October 22, 2014, he re-emerged in Norway, where he delivered a talk at the Oslo Freedom Forum. He said he had only been able to spend three days with his son.[11] He spent several months in a refugee camp in Norway, before relocation.[4][14]
In June 2023, he became a Norwegian citizen.[5]
Views and work
editIn a December 2014 article for Foreign Policy, "ISIS Is Sisi Spelled Backwards," he warned against the notion that Arabs are "forced to either support the ruling autocrats in return for safety and stability, or to side with Islamist radicals in order to throw off the tyrants' yoke and avenge their transgressions."[15]
His 2021 book with Ahmed Gatnash, The Middle East Crisis Factory, argues against monocausal analyses of geopolitical crises in the MENA region.[16] It instead argues that a trifecta of terrorism, tyranny, and foreign interventions is to blame for the region's recurrent crises. The book's policy recommendations include empowering grassroots activists, constraining coercive autocrats, and inspire youths to retain a modicum of hope for the future[17].
He is a fellow of Civita,[18] and has cofounded the Kawaakibi Foundation, named after Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi.[19] He also contributes to its podcast, the Arab Tyrant Manual.[20]. Baghdadi features in The Dissident, a movie following the aftermath of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, with whom he collaborated.
Security threats
editIn May 2019, Baghdadi was informed by Norwegian security services that a credible threat existed against his life due to his outspoken criticism of the Saudi Arabian government following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.[21] The threat had been revealed by the CIA to the intelligene service of Norway, who took Baghdadi into police protection.[21]
On December 26, 2015, a Russian news outlet confused Baghdadi with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Other media began echoing the mistake, and Twitter blocked him briefly. The confusion itself ended up becoming a major news story.[22]
Comments on Baghdadi
editNicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch described Baghdadi's case as "symptomatic of the UAE's paranoia and its fear of critical thought and free speech." H. A. Hellyer, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, praised Baghdadi's "consistency in criticizing various political forces, dependent on principle, rather than partisanship."[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ "The Middle East Crisis Factory: Tyranny, Resilience and Resistance". London School of Economics. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Iyad El-Baghdadi: 'We Are in a Time of Counter-Revolution'". New Internationalist. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
- ^ "Kawaakibi Foundation". Kawaakibi Foundation.
- ^ a b c d Jones, Sophia (November 2014). "Meet The Arab Spring Activist Deported By The UAE Who Is Now Speaking Out". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
- ^ a b "I was just notified that I have been granted Norwegian citizenship". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 2023-10-19.
- ^ "The Middle East Crisis Factory: The Iyad El-Baghdadi Interview". 7 April 2021.
- ^ el-Baghdadi, Iyad (29 March 2016). "Dubai and Abu Dhabi don't need a ministry of happiness – they need justice". International Business Times. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
- ^ "Meet Asmaa Mahfouz and the vlog that Helped Spark the Revolution". YouTube. February 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
- ^ "The Arab Spring Manifesto". Oslo Freedom Forum. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
- ^ El-Baghdadi, Iyad. "Why I Still Believe in the Arab Spring". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
- ^ a b "About Iyad El-Baghdadi (NO)". TEDxUHasselt. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
- ^ "Human Rights Activist Iyad El-Baghdadi Speaks Out on His Deportation from UAE". Global Voices Advox. 2014-10-30. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
- ^ Hussain, Murtaza (21 October 2014). "How the UAE Tried to Silence a Popular Arab Spring Activist". The Intercept. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
- ^ Hayek, Caroline (27 May 2019). "Iyad el-Baghdadi, a free voice in the Arab world". L'Orient Today. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
- ^ "Iyad el-Baghdadi". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
- ^ Anderson, Lisa (14 December 2021). "The Middle East Crisis Factory: Tyranny, Resilience, and Resistance". Foreign Affairs. 101 (1). Retrieved 1 September 2024.
- ^ Yom, Sean (Spring 2022). "Modern History and Politics: The Middle East Crisis Factory: Tyranny, Resilience and Resistance, by Iyad El-Baghdadi and Ahmed Gatnash (book review)". Middle East Journal. 76 (1): 136. doi:10.3751/76.1.312. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
- ^ Iyad el-Baghdadi, Fellow, Civita
- ^ "Kawaakibi Foundation". Kawaakibi Foundation.
- ^ "Islam and liberty". Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- ^ a b London, Stephanie Kirchgaessner Nick Hopkins in (2019-05-07). "CIA warns Arab activist of potential threat from Saudi Arabia". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
- ^ "Twitter 'confuses' Iyad El-Baghdadi with Islamic State leader". BBC News. January 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
