User:Anas Wellsson

Fidaaldin Al-Sayed Issa (Arabic: فداء الدين السيد عيسى‎) born January 15, 1985 is a Swedish Syrian citizen who lives in Sweden. Fidaaldin is also a humanitarian activist in the Syrian question. He is passionate about educating and helping the Syrian youth to be able to re-establish their lives.

Fida is the former chairman of the Youth Coalition of March 15 and former spokesperson for the Facebook page "The Syrian Revolution". Fida is together with Syrian activists in Sweden and Europe, one of the founders of the Office of the Damascus Declaration in Sweden back in 2008. Because of his activity in human rights issue in Syria, He has been named as infidel on Syrian TV (which is the official TV channel of the Syrian regime) several times. In this television program, the journalist directed direct orders to supporters of the Syrian regime in Sweden to go to Fidaaldin's house, and teach him and his family a hard lesson because of his opposition to the Syrian regime. The Syrian regime has also withdrawn his Syrian citizenship.

Fidaaldin is a graduate of innovation science and also has a master's degree in (leadership) from Mälardalen University. He has participated in several courses in PMP, leadership, strategic planning, 6 Sigma Yellow Belt, business administration, diploma in national strategic planning.

Background
Fidaaldin is the eldest child. Fidaaldin's father has been an active opponent of the Assad regime. At an early age, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Syria's largest opposition movement (read more: https://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/61724 ). It made his father a target for the regime that has a law to judge all members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death. Fidaaldin's childhood has been a constant escape from country to country until the family came to Sweden in the early 2000s. Fidaaldin's father worked mainly with aid issues in Syria. In 2012, he was elected as a member of the Syrian opposition council, which acted as a shadow parliament and was the official representative of the Syrian opposition. After 2010 Stockholm bombings he appeared in various local media in which he renounced terrorism and said that what happened in Stockholm was an evil act and evil acts can never be justified

"The Syrian Revolution"
Fidaaldin, along with other Syrian activists around the world created the page "The Syrian Revolution" on Facebook that has been identified as the most influential social networking tool in the mobilization of protestors during the Syrian uprising.

In an interview on Nyhetsmorgon at TV4, Fida explained that when he started the page before the "revolution," people laughed at him and said that there will never be an uprising in Syria, while others supported the initiative. He pointed several times that it is a peaceful movement for freedom and democracy. He said that they did not have to do any marketing for the page, as the situation in Syria was marketing itself. He said he no longer administrates the page alone, he only founded it, and he now has the help of hundreds of young people in Syria.

BBC Arabic showed in a special report how Fidaaldin run the page from his apartment in Eskilstuna. Fidaaldin explained that 75% of the administrators who run the site today are from within Syria. Fidaaldin also told that it is a difficult process before a video is approved and posted on the site: the event must have been filmed and sent by various independent sources, even sometimes needed to be confirmed by filming the date on a local newspaper, or that some of the protesters show big signs where you can clearly see the week's campaign name.

He called Sweden in interview with SVT to expel the Syrian ambassador. He said he has friends who were murdered because of an image or a video that they have sent to the page. 65% of the readers of the site are surfing from Syria.

On the question of military intervention in Syria, he replied "the people of Syria do not want military action. They want political and economic penalties on al-Assad's government, as well as tougher statement from the UN, EU and the larger organizations. They want the EU countries to expel Syrian ambassadors and recall their ambassadors from Damascus".

He said he receives daily threatening letters in Swedish and Arabic. In response to the question of how long he intended to continue fight for freedom, Fidaaldin answered "until I die".

"The murder of his dad"
When the Arab Spring began and the people of Syria ventured out into the streets to demand the brutal regime's fall, Fidaaldin's father packed his bag and went home to idleb again. He wanted to do everything in his power to see his hometown again.

Fidaaldin's father (Tarif) worked mainly with aid issues in Syria. In 2012, he was elected as a member of the Syrian opposition council, which acted as a shadow parliament and was the official representative of the Syrian opposition. But he wanted to be even closer to the people and left his post to permanently settle in Syria. When the fight for Idlib's liberation began, he chose to join the armed resistance to personally experience the liberation of his hometown. It was a motley crowd that participated in the fight for Idlib's liberation. Some groups with direct support from the West, some with support from various Arab countries and unfortunately some with close links to Alqaeda. All these groups were otherwise each other's enemies. After Idlib's liberation, the extremists in Alqaeda who feared a foothold in the city. Tarif's clear position has been that, regardless of the number of militant groups, Idleb would be governed by civilian rule after liberation, something that Al Qaeda extremists opposed by all means. At times, Tarif needed to leave Idleb to avoid concrete death threats from among others Alqaeda. But Tarif has continued to work on forming Idleb's civil council, which consisted of men and women from different political and religious directions. Tarif was not Al Qaeda's first target and unfortunately did not become the last. 3 people from the Council were kidnapped and executed after Tarif, which led to the dissolution of the Council. Now only Al Qaeda dominates.

Tarif was one of Idlib's foremost oppositionists who made many choices in a very complex reality. Aron Lund from the think tank Carnegie Middle East Center made 2015 an interview with Tarif where he got to account for some of these choices (read more here).

Since the liberation of the city of Idlib in Syria, a number of enthusiasts have taken the initiative to create a people-elected civilian leadership whose mission is to maintain order and keep the disintegrating infrastructure in town.

This initiative met many enemies, partly armed groups who do not believe in democracy and partly the regime that does not want the opposition to succeed in regaining order. The civil committee had many threats, several armed groups were able to interfere with their meetings, seize various members and make life harder for them.

Tarif, a member of the committee and one of the initiators, was subjected to an attempted murder in the form of a bomb directed at his car. He had just finished delivering school books and material to the few schools that remain in the city. He has been fighting for his life in a very critical condition for a few weeks, and at the end he died in the hospital.

Career and Activity
Fidaaldin is a multi-faceted organizer with broad experience in leadership, project management, organization and coaching. Fidaaldin has been involved in structuring organizations from scratch, developing activities and holding courses on various topics for different groups. He works with leadership, project management, organization and coaching. In addition to Training and coaching, Fidaaldin is working on developing new courses adapted for both individuals, organizations and companies, with a focus on Leadership, Strategy Planning and Innovation. As well as he has held courses in various subjects for different groups in several countries and in different languages.

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