Supported by: Bechtel International Center, the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation, the Human Rights Center at Stanford Law School, the Arab Students Association at Stanford, and Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine

A panel discussion about the historical background and recent developments in the ongoing conflict in Syria. Join us for dinner, dessert, and much-needed conversation. People of all levels of awareness and backgrounds are welcome.

Moderator

Alexander Key is an Assistant Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at Stanford, carrying a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies. His interests and research span literature, history, political thought, and philosophy in the Arabic-speaking, Persian-speaking, and Western worlds. In Winter, he will teach a course entitled “Ethics of Jihad,” focusing on ways people have chosen, rejected, or redefined jihad while evaluating norms in moments of ethical and political choice.

Alexander will make introductory remarks on the last few years in Syria, the recent rise of ISIS, and how people have been talking and thinking about both.

Razan will discuss the situation on the ground, including discourse about Syria and neighboring states, multiple perspectives within Syria concerning the strikes, issues pertaining to women, and the role of other states, nonprofits, and individual actors.

Sana Khatib is a Syrian-American activist, community organizer and aspiring poet. She was inspired by the Syrian call for freedom when the Revolution began in 2011. As the daughter of a former political prisoner whose family fled Syria in 1979, Sana has been supporting the Revolution from its inception and is an active voice in bringing attention to the conflict and to the human rights violations that occur at the hand of the Syrian Regime.

Sana Khatib will share her personal perspectives developed while following the Syrian Revolution since 2011, including discussing what sparked a revolution in Syria and how it evolved from peaceful protest to a complex, multi-sided war. She will also address the relationship between Assad and ISIS and how the Syrian regime uses ISIS to weaken the opposition.

Ismael Nass is a prominent volunteer speaker from Islamic Networks Group, an American non-profit organization which works to build bridges of understanding, cultural literacy, and mutual respect between people of different faiths and backgrounds. He is also an expert computer scientist and software engineer; he is the president of EngineersWhoWrite, a consulting firm specializing in technical documentation and publishing tools.

ISIS has conducted grave human rights abuses and terrorist actions, while calling itself the Islamic State and declaring itself a caliphate with religious authority over all Muslims worldwide. Ismael Nass will shed light on the theology of Islam, practiced by over 1.5 billion people worldwide, and contrast it against ISIS' actions and ideologies.

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