Al Qaeda and beyond: where do Arab dictatorships fit? – Discussion in London

For long, people have justified supporting Arab dictatorships as a way to deter extremism. But to what extent is this really the case? We are bringing four experts to talk about Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Iraq to show the hidden relationship between dictatorships and extremist groups.

The panelists:

• Baraa Shiban is a member of the Yemeni National Dialogue Conference, he has engaged in political discussions and negotiations with the Houthi movement prior to the Saudi led coalition. Baraa participated in the Yemeni Revolution in 2011 against the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
• Reem Assil is an activist who has participated in media and citizen journalism, human rights, civil society research, all the way long to peace building. She is a founding member of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement and was the head of its Media department. She is also a co-founder and co-manager of the Free Syrian Translators, and her most recent engagement has been with the Syrian Platform for Peace-UK in collaboration with International Alert, which she has been chairing for the last year. Reem was held for questioning twice in Damascus airport by the notorious Air Force Intelligence Branch and was kept for interrogation in the State Security Branch on account of her support and activism within the Syrian people’s uprising.
• Dr Muhanad Seloom is a research scholar, criminologist, and linguist who has an MA from the University of Bangor in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice. His main research focus has been on ethno-sectarian conflicts in the Middle East, terrorism, politics of designation, and mechanisms of securitisation. In his PhD thesis at the University of Exeter, his research thesis examines the relationship between designating violent groups “terrorist” and levels of violence in an ethnic conflict context.
• Dr Maha Azzam is a leading policy expert on the Middle East and political Islam. She is currently Head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council, a broad platform that promotes a democratic and civil state in Egypt, and is chair of Egyptians for Democracy, UK. She was Associate Fellow at the MENA program at Chatham House (2002-2015). She is an advisor on the MENA panel at the British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences, board member of the Council for Arab-British Understanding.