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Mohammed Alaa Ghanem is Syrian academic, human rights activist, pro-democracy campaigner, and a former editor at the digital platform that issued the original call for peaceful protests in Syria. He currently serves as the policy chief for the American Coalition for Syria, an umbrella group of nine specialized, multi-faith organizations. His writings have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post among many others. A native of Damascus, he is a former assistant professor at the University of Damascus.
Alawites in Syria breaking silence?: Criticizing the dictatorship from within
Recently, a notable trend has emerged among Alawites in Syria’s Assad regime-held areas, including those from powerful families. Writers, journalists, and rank-and-file Alawites have taken to social media platforms to express their deep frustration with the regime’s economic policies and the centralized nature of the dictatorship under President Bashar al-Assad, as well as his wife Asma al-Assad’s outsized influence and corruption linked to her secretive “economic council.”
