Damascus University

I stayed in Syria.

I studied law at Damascus University and graduated in 2011.

That same year, the Syrian revolution started.

Something I always dreamed of, but thought was impossible.

And I spent my first time alone there was in the 1960s.

was in 1981 when I spent a year at the University of Damascus as a Fulbright student.

The Fulbright had just started up again, and Syria had been, and the United States had been estranged with no embassy and so forth for such a long time.

But then relations became much better.

And we have with us Professor Imam Daud Ahmed Abid.

Uh, Professor Abid, um, is a professor of Arabic at Jamia UK and studied at Jamia Ahmadiyya Rabwah in Pakistan, specialized in Arabic grammar, went to Syria for higher gr-- uh, studies, a graduate from Damascus University of Syria, served in Jamia Ahmadiyya Rabwah Pakistan, went to Sierra Leone, served as a principal at Jamia Tul Mubashreen in Sierra Leone, and is serving as a teacher in Jamia Ahmadiyya UK since 2010.

And, uh, special mention would be that he is also our Arabic teacher.

Indeed.

And the Assad regime chose the military option, which was using the army against us.

At that time, I was working as the head of the International Office of Damascus University.

And maybe as you can see, I speak very good English.

And I had that time some good experience, life experience, global experience.

They did not like this.

And when I refused to defend the regime narrative and I refused to appear on TV, I refused to go into any marching or do anything pro-Assad regime, They wanted to arrest me, so they started finding ways to arrest me.

And at a certain point, the president of Damascus University, and here I thank him very much, he saved my life.

I mean, he found a way to sneak me out of the country because it was so difficult for an official to leave the country.

Basilios received his PhD in political science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

He also holds a BA and an MA in classical and Islamic archeology from Damascus University.

Welcome, Basilios.

[clapping] Next, right next to me here is Marie Joelle Zahar, professor of political science at the Université de Montréal.