Hassan Hassan

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Hassan Hassan
Hassanhassan.jpg
Hassan Hassan discusses his work on extremism at the Wilson Center
Born1982
Al-Shaafah, Syria
Alma mater University of Nottingham University of Damascus
Occupation(s)Author, journalist, scholar

Hassan Hassan (born 1982) is an American author and journalist of Syrian origin. He co-wrote the 2015 New York Times bestseller ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror with Michael Weiss. [1] [2] [3] [4] He has written on Islamist groups in the Middle East. [5] [6] He frequently appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, [7] Amanpour [8] and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, [9] and has written for The New York Times , Foreign Policy , The Guardian , The Atlantic , Foreign Affairs , Financial Times , and The Daily Beast , among others. [10] Hassan is the founder and editor-in-chief of New Lines Magazine, a global affairs magazine. [11]

Contents

Background

Hassan is from the town of Al-Shaafah in Al-Bukamal District, Deir ez-Zor Governorate, in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. [12] In 1996, he moved from ash-Sha'fa to the city of Al Bukamal for high school.

In 2000, he moved to Damascus to study English literature at Damascus University. [13] In 2006, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he completed an MA in International relations at the University of Nottingham. [14]

Career

Journalism

After graduation, Hassan moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2008 to work as a news reporter for the then newly-launched English-language daily The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi, covering domestic and Gulf affairs. [14] After the onset of the Arab Spring uprisings, he joined its opinion section as a weekly columnist, and later became the department’s deputy editor. [11]

In particular, Hassan covered the Syrian conflict since the uprising began in 2011. [15] His research on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) included extensive interviews with members of the organization since its rise in his home region in June 2014. [15]

After moving to Washington, D.C., in 2016, Hassan continued writing for The National, [11] and was also a regular contributing writer to The Atlantic. [16] In addition, Hassan has written for The Guardian, the New York Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs and the Daily Beast. [10]

Academia

In Washington, D.C., Hassan has been involved in policy research, in parallel to his journalistic work. [11] He specialized in the study of Sunni and Shia militant organizations, as well as Iraq, Syria, and the Persian Gulf. [14]

His research was commissioned by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, [17] European Council on Foreign Relations, [18] [19] Chatham House, [20] Royal United Services Institute, [21] Brookings Institution, and [22] University of Oxford's Gulf studies forum. [23]

He previously worked as an associate fellow at Chatham House, [20] a senior fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, [24] [14] a senior researcher at George Washington University, [10] and a director at the Center for Global Policy. [25] He was also a research associate at the Delma Institute in the United Arab Emirates. [26]

Hassan is currently a director at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a think tank in Washington D.C. [10] He was responsible for founding the institute’s Human Security Unit, before establishing New Lines Magazine.

Testifying in Congress

Hassan has advised officials in the United States and the Middle East. In June 2016, Hassan testified before the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the extremist ideology of ISIS, [27] [28] a widely covered hearing. [29] [30] [31] [32] In February 2017, he testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on defeating terrorism in Syria. [33]

Publications

Books

In 2015, Hassan authored a book with Michael Weiss on the rise of the militant group ISIS, titled ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. [34] His book was chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of 10 must-read works on the evolution of terrorism in the Middle East, [35] one of the London Times ' Best Books of 2015, [36] and The New York Times Editors' Choice in April 2015. [37] The book was reviewed favorably twice in The New York Times, [38] [39] The Guardian, [40] and The Wall Street Journal. [41] The Times' chief book critic, Michiko Kakutani, said the book gave readers "a fine-grained look at the organization’s evolution through assorted incarnations." [42] It has been translated into over a dozen languages. [11]

On December 24, 2019, Hassan published his translation of a speech of Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian militant group Tahrir al-Sham, the successor organisation of the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. [43]

New Lines Magazine

Hassan founded New Lines Magazine, a global affairs magazine, in October 2020. Since then, he has acted as its editor-in-chief. [44] The magazine was initially launched by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy to showcase the best writing from the Middle East. Hassan told the Reuters Institute in 2021 that the magazine was launched in response to Western journalists’ reliance on outdated views of the Middle East, which pervades coverage of the region. [45]

In September 2022, Hassan announced that the magazine was broadening its coverage to publish stories from around the world. [46]

Harvard University’s Nieman Lab describes New Lines Magazine’s mission as “to serve audiences that want to read long-form, narrative journalism,” with an emphasis on "local reporting from journalists and experts". [47] The magazine has featured regular contributions by journalists like Clarissa Ward, [48] Arwa Damon [49] or Hala Gorani, [50] and public figures like former U.S. diplomat Robert Ford, [51] Syrian intellectual Mustafa Khalifa [52] or musician Alex Skolnick. [53]

Related Research Articles

State-sponsored terrorism is terrorist violence carried out with the active support of national governments provided to violent non-state actors. States can sponsor terrorist groups in several ways, including but not limited to funding terrorist organizations, providing training, supplying weapons, providing other logistical and intelligence assistance, and hosting groups within their borders. Because of the pejorative nature of the word, the identification of particular examples are often subject to political dispute and different definitions of terrorism.

Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Islamic Nation Will Pass, also translated as Administration of Savagery, is a book by the Islamist strategist Abu Bakr Naji, published on the Internet in 2004. It aimed to provide a strategy for al-Qaeda and other extremists whereby they could create a new Islamic caliphate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic State</span> Salafi jihadist militant Islamist group

The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and a former unrecognised quasi-state. Its origins were in the Jai'sh al-Taifa al-Mansurah organization founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, which fought alongside Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn during the Iraqi insurgency. The group gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. IS is well known for its massive human rights violations and war crimes. It engaged in the persecution of Christians and Shia Muslims, and published videos of beheadings and executions against journalists and aid workers. By the end of 2015, it was internationally considered to be one of the biggest terrorist organizations of all time and it ruled an area with an estimated population of twelve million people, where it enforced its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.

The Axis of Resistance is an informal Iranian-led political and military coalition in West Asia and North Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahrar al-Sham</span> Syrian Islamist military and political organization

Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya, commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition of multiple Islamist units that coalesced into a single brigade and later a division in order to fight against the Syrian Government led by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War. Ahrar al-Sham was led by Hassan Aboud until his death in 2014. In July 2013, Ahrar al-Sham had 10,000 to 20,000 fighters, which at the time made it the second most powerful unit fighting against al-Assad, after the Free Syrian Army. It was the principal organization operating under the umbrella of the Syrian Islamic Front and was a major component of the Islamic Front. With an estimated 20,000 fighters in 2015, Ahrar al-Sham became the largest rebel group in Syria after the Free Syrian Army became less powerful. Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam are the main rebel groups supported by Turkey. On 18 February 2018, Ahrar al-Sham merged with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement to form the Syrian Liberation Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military of the Islamic State</span> Military unit

The Military of the Islamic State is the fighting force of the Islamic State (IS). The total force size at its peak was estimated from tens of thousands to over two hundred thousand. IS's armed forces grew quickly during its territorial expansion in 2014. The IS military, including groups incorporated into it in 2014, openly operates and controls territory in multiple cities in Libya and Nigeria. In October 2016, it conquered the city of Qandala in Puntland, Somalia. It conquered much of eastern Syria and western Iraq in 2014, territory it lost finally only in 2019. It also has had border clashes with and made incursions into Lebanon, Iran, and Jordan. IS-linked groups operate in Algeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and in West Africa. In January 2015, IS was also confirmed to have a military presence in Afghanistan and in Yemen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkey–Islamic State conflict</span> Conflict since 2013 between Turkey and the Islamic State (ISIS)

The Turkey–Islamic State conflict were a series of attacks and clashes between the state of Turkey and the Islamic State. Turkey joined the War against the Islamic State in 2016, after the Islamic State attacks in Turkey. The Turkish Armed Forces' Operation Euphrates Shield was aimed against both the Islamic State and the SDF. Part of Turkish-occupied northern Syria, around Jarabulus and al-Bab, was taken after Turkey drove the Islamic State out of it.

Collaboration with the Islamic State refers to the cooperation and assistance given by governments, non-state actors, and private individuals to the Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War, and Libyan Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Weiss (journalist)</span> American journalist and author

Michael D. Weiss is an American journalist and author. He is contributing editor at New Lines magazine, senior correspondent for Yahoo News, director of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation and the coauthor of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.

<i>ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror</i> 2015 non-fiction book

ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror is a 2015 non-fiction book by the journalists Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan. The book details the rise and inner workings of the terrorist group ISIS.

Abdullah al-Muhaysini, is a Saudi Arabian Salafi cleric who is known for having served as a religious judge in the Army of Conquest in the Syrian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tahrir al-Sham</span> Syrian Islamist military and political organization

Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political and armed organisation involved in the Syrian Civil War. It was formed on 28 January 2017 as a merger between Jaysh al-Ahrar, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haqq, and Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. The unification process was held under the initiative of Abu Jabir, an Islamist commander who had been the second emir of Ahrar al-Sham.

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is an Iraqi living in Britain who specialises in the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War and the Islamic State. He has been consulted as an expert by major media outlets including Al Jazeera,The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, and others. He authored a major report published by the New York Times in partnership with George Washington University in their 2020 series, "The ISIS report". He has faced criticism over his alleged sympathies towards ISIL in his work, as well as his conduct and alleged close relationships with ISIL fighters.

Al-Barakah is a Syrian administrative district of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised proto-state. Originally set up as al-Barakah Province to govern ISIL territories in al-Hasakah Governorate, the province shifted south after 2016 due to the territorial losses to the YPG/YPJ. Having been demoted from province to district in 2018, al-Barakah administered a small strip of land along the Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate until the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, since then the "territory" has turned into an insurgency.

The origins of the Islamic State group can be traced back to three main organizations. Earliest of these was the "Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād" organization, founded by the Jihadist leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Jordan in 1999. The other two predecessor organizations emerged during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces. These included the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" group founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and the "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his associates in the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign fighters in the Syrian civil war</span>

Foreign fighters in the Syrian civil war have come to Syria and joined all four sides in the war. In addition to Sunni foreign fighters arriving to defend the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or join the Syrian rebels, Shia fighters from several countries have joined pro-government militias in Syria, and leftists have become foreign fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces.

References

  1. ↑ "Hassan Hassan". The Guardian. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  2. ↑ Negus, Steve (April 2015). "ISIS:Inside the Army of Terror". The New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Hassan Hassan on How to Uproot ISIS in Deir Ezzor". News Deeply. October 27, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Book Discussion on ISIS Hassan Hassan, co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror". C-SPAN. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  5. ↑ Hassan, Hassan (February 7, 2015). "Isis has reached new depths of depravity. But there is a brutal logic behind it". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Eight Experts To Watch On Syria's Islamist Groups". Syria Deeply. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  7. ↑ O'Reilly, Bill. "Bill O'Reilly: The O'Reilly Factor – U.S. Ineffective in Fighting ISIS". www.billoreilly.com. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  8. ↑ U.S. and the West 'out of cards to play' in Syria – CNN Video, February 16, 2016, retrieved October 31, 2016
  9. ↑ Hassan Hassan (November 29, 2015), Hassan Hassan on the Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell , retrieved October 31, 2016
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Hassan Hassan - New Lines Institute". New Lines Institute. January 24, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "Hassan Hassan - New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. January 11, 2024. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  12. ↑ "Making Sense of ISIS: an interview with Michael Weiss". Fathom. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Sign Up | LinkedIn". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Hassan Hassan". The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  15. 1 2 "'Why Would Someone Participate in the Beheading of Their Cousin?' Talking With an Author Who Interviewed Dozens of ISIS Members". Daily Intelligencer. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  16. ↑ "All stories by Hassan Hassan - The Atlantic". The Atlantic. January 24, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  17. ↑ Hassan, Hassan. "The Sectarianism of the Islamic State: Ideological Roots and Political Context". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Syria: the view from the Gulf states". ECFR. June 13, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  19. ↑ The Gulf and sectarianism. November 13, 2013.
  20. 1 2 "Hassan Hassan Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme". Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank. Chatham House. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  21. ↑ "Understanding Iran's Role in the Syrian Conflict". RUSI. August 1, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Experts weigh in (part 7): Is ISIS good at governing?". Brookings Institution. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  23. ↑ "GCC Security Amid Regional Crises". www.oxgaps.org. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Understanding the Islamic State's Strategy: Hassan Hassan on Last Week's Terrorism Events". Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. November 19, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Hassan Hassan - Center for Global Policy". Center for Global Policy. January 13, 2021. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  26. ↑ "Hassan Hassan – The Cairo Review of Global Affairs". The Cairo Review of Global Affairs. February 2, 2024. Archived from the original on September 28, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Hearings". Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  28. ↑ Hassan Hassan (June 27, 2016), Hassan's testimony before the Senate's Homeland Security & Govt Affairs Committee , retrieved November 24, 2016
  29. ↑ "Experts: The next president will face a more dangerous ISIS". Washington Examiner. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  30. ↑ "Gains against Islamic State not yet enough, could backfire: U.S. officials". Reuters. June 22, 2017. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  31. ↑ Seldin, Jeff. "Yazidi Woman Pleads With US to Hold IS Accountable". VOA. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  32. ↑ "Syrian Refugee Subhi Nahas Gives Voice to LGBTQ Asylum-Seekers". NBC News. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  33. ↑ "Subcommittee Hearing: Defeating Terrorism in Syria: A New Way Forward". House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  34. ↑ Weiss, Michael; Hassan, Hassan (February 17, 2015). ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (First ed.). Regan Arts. ISBN   978-1-941393-57-4.
  35. ↑ Russell, Anna. "10 Must-Read Books on the Evolution of Terrorism in the Middle East". WSJ. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  36. ↑ Noble, Barnes &. "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (Updated Edition)". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  37. ↑ "Editors' Choice". The New York Times. April 10, 2015. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  38. ↑ Negus, Steve (April 1, 2015). "'ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,' and More". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  39. ↑ Kakutani, Michiko (April 2, 2015). "Review: 'ISIS: The State of Terror,' by Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger, and 'ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,' by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  40. ↑ Yassin-Kassab, Robin (March 28, 2015). "Isis: Inside the Army of Terror; The Rise of Islamic State – review". The Guardian . Retrieved September 18, 2016.
  41. ↑ Traub, James (March 14, 2015). "The Demonic Wellspring". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved September 26, 2016.
  42. ↑ Kakutani, Michiko (April 2, 2015). "Review: 'ISIS: The State of Terror,' by Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger, and 'ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,' by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  43. ↑ "Russia's relentless and vicious campaign in NW Syria, where millions of civilians and IDPs live and could be forced to flee en masse, continues. The leader of the force that dominates that area has a new speech. A new & dangerous chapter is looming. Details in following tweets". Hassan Hassan on YouTube. December 24, 2019.
  44. ↑ "New Lines Institute Annual Report 2020-2021 - New Lines Institute" (PDF). New Lines Institute. January 31, 2024. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  45. ↑ "Newlinesmag.com: a fresh voice from the Middle East - YouTube". YouTube. April 28, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  46. ↑ "New Lines Broadens Its Horizons to Include the Whole World | New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. September 12, 2022. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  47. ↑ "How New Lines Magazine built a home for long-form international reporting | Nieman Journalism Lab". Nieman Journalism Lab. January 4, 2023. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  48. ↑ "Clarissa Ward - New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  49. ↑ "Arwa Damon - New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  50. ↑ "Hala Gorani - New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  51. ↑ "Robert Ford - New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  52. ↑ "Mustafa Khalifa - New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  53. ↑ "Alex Skolnick - New Lines Magazine". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
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