Moaz al-Khatib .. Ahmad Mouaz Al-Khatib Al-Hasani (Arabic: [...], born 1960) is the President of the National Coalition for Opposition Forces and the Syrian Revolution. He is a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
Khatib originally studied applied geophysics and worked as an engineer and manager for several large oil companies, including Royal Dutch Shell's Syrian division, for six years. He is a member of the Syrian Geological Society and the Syrian Society for Psychological Science. He was previously President and remains Honorary President of the Islamic Society of Urbanization.
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Early life and career
Born in 1960, Khatib comes from a well-known and notable Sunni Muslim Damascene family. His father, Sheikh Mohammed Abu al-Faraj al-Khatib, was a prominent Islamic scholar and preacher at the Umayyad Mosque, as were his paternal forebears.
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Khatib also established the Islamic Civilization Society, and taught Sharia (Islamic Law) at the Dutch Institute Sheikh Badr al-Din al-Husni in Damascus, and Daawa (Call to Islam) studies at the Tahzib Institute for Sharia Sciences. He traveled internationally to teach including Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Turkey, the UK and USA.
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Political and religious views
Al-Khatib has been described by The Guardian and The Economist as a moderate Islamist, though Al-Khatib has accused the West for propping up Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt, explaining that "the collapse of the Egyptian regime is the beginning of the international regional system's descent..." and that "the collapse of Egypt itself is an enormous Israeli desire [emanating] from its frightening project to split the region into repugnant sectarian entities." He also made claims that some European countries are committing ethnic cleansing of Muslim minorities.
Al-Khatib is a supporter of Qatar-based Egyptian Sunni Muslim cleric and preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi. He even placed al-Qaradawi on equal footing with the Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation marked beginning of the Arab Spring.
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He was imprisoned several times for his criticism of the Syrian government during the ongoing armed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad before he fled the country and settled in Cairo. Khatib himself is not allied to any political party and is often considered as a moderate Sunni Islamist who has called for political pluralism and strongly opposes sectarian divisions among Syrians during western-based interviews.
In October 2012, he was critical of the role Salafist militants had played as the civil war violence escalated, saying their prominence had allowed western and other countries to portray the uprising in Syria as "extremist".
Khatib is an active proponent of political plurality, including equality for women.
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Al-Khatib has not ruled out negotiating with President Bashar al-Assad, noting that dialogue did not mean "surrendering to the regime's cruelty" but was instead the "lesser of two evils."
After being elected President of the coalition, Khatib called on world powers to fully arm the Free Syrian Army.
Moaz al-Khatib has also called on the US to reconsider its Autumn 2012 decision to list the foreign and Syrian fighters of the Al-Nusra Front, as a foreign terrorist organization. Khatib condemned the listing of Al-Nusra as a terrorist organization, Khatib instead publicly stressed that the Al-Nusra Front, though Salafi and Islamist, is a major military force and ally in the rebellion to topple the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Divided Syrian opposition ponders leader's offer of talks with Assad
Outrage within coalition over Moaz al-Khatib's initiative underlines dilemma for rebels still lacking practical support from US and western backers
Ian Black, Middle East editor guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 February 2013 17.14 GMT Jump to comments (70)
Moaz al-Khatib, head of the Syrian opposition, was supposed to usher in a new era of unity when he became president of the coalition last November. Photograph: Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images
Now, after a flurry of tense consultations, Khatib and colleagues will meet in Cairo this weekend – with the UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi – for an emergency session to clarify the position.
Others hailed last week's initiative as reflecting the wishes of Syrians desperate to end a war that has killed 60,000 people. Activists of some of the Local Co-ordination Committees have given their qualified support. So has a commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTx49m6s6is . [my embed]
Khatib, a former imam of the historic Umayyad mosque in Damascus, was supposed to usher in an era of unity when he became SOC president in November .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/12/moaz-al-khatib-syria-opposition . The fractious Syrian National Council (SNC) was subsumed into the new body. Its performance was said by the western governments calling for Assad to go to have become more businesslike.
But the SOC is still divided into camps, like the SNC before it. "This initiative has taken us back to square one after all the efforts we made to convince the international community that the opposition was united," complained one activist. "It was handled completely unprofessionally. It was a wasted opportunity."
Kamal Labwani, an independent, warned of "betrayal" and a "fifth column" inside the opposition. "The regime understands only the language of force," he protested. But George Sabra of the SNC – the largest component of the SOC – was more nuanced: he first rejected the initiative but then softened his position, calling for unity and support for the FSA as fighters made new but probably temporary gains on the outskirts of Damascus this week.
Khatib, described as charismatic but a bad listener, is said to dislike foreign-based activists and intellectuals he considers out of touch – disparagingly known as "hotel warriors". Based in Cairo with his own loyal team, he has the support of powerful businessmen from Damascus who are alarmed by the rise of Islamist and jihadi groups in the armed opposition.
"People have criticised Khatib for naivety but there are forces telling him that this is the way to go," said commentator Malik al-Abdeh. "They tell him that if this carries on then everything they have achieved will come crashing down because of the backwoods fighters of the FSA and the jihadis who will destroy Damascus as they have large parts of Aleppo."
Others warn that Khatib's leadership, and that of the SOC, remains far more dependent on external recognition than any internal legitimacy.
The US, Britain and the EU gave Khatib's initiative a cautious welcome while insisting Assad must be held accountable for his crimes – a position that is unlikely to persuade him to step down voluntarily. Only Turkey publicly rejected it.
"We are positive but it would be useful to tie it into other diplomatic efforts," said one western official. Hopes are focusing on Khatib's visit to Moscow next month – and for a shift in Russia's stubbornly pro-Assad position at the UN.
Still, some opposition figures fear foreign pressure to cut a deal. "Lots of friendly countries or those who claim friendship for the Syrian people were waiting for this exact kind of initiative to justify their failure to deliver on military support for the revolt and the protection of civilians," warned Burhan Ghalioun, a former SNC president.
In one sense the whole dispute is a theoretical one since the official Syrian media dismissed Khatib's offer as "political manoeuvring" while Assad himself has said nothing. It still looks as if fighting, not impassioned debates and diplomatic initiatives launched in foreign capitals, will decide the course of this war as it nears its grim second anniversary.
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