Fouad Ajami, In Memoriam

           Arab Muslim scholar, opponent of Islamism and promoter of liberty Fouad Ajami died Sunday at the age of 68. 

           

            Born in Lebanon in 1945, Ajami was a Shi’ite Muslim.  He emigrated to the United States in 1963, where he studied, becoming a recognized expert on the Middle East. 

            Ajami made the cogent case for the world to uphold the principal of sovereignty by opposing Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.  He supported the War on Terrorism against Islamists like al-Qaeda and other global terrorist networks.  Ajami supported removing the terrorist-sponsoring Baathist regime of Iraq from power and liberating the Iraqi people from oppression and did not waiver from his position.  Although liberal critics dismiss his prediction that Iraqis would greet the American and allied soldiers with jubilation, it was nonetheless true that some Iraqis were able to summon the courage after having lived in the Republic of Fear to greet their liberators warmly.  He supported President George W. Bush’s goal of spreading freedom, which he was manifest in the Arab Spring and was a critic of President Barak Obama’s weak foreign policy, up to his Administration’s current failures in Syria and Iraq.

            Ajami, who was a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, was the author of several books about the Middle East and hundreds of essays and was a frequent guest on television news programs.  He won several prestigious awards for public service, journalism and the humanities.

           Ajami was a strong ally in the cause of liberty.  His writings and broadcast statements will long be a fount of insight about the Arab and Islamic World and the global threat of violent Jihad and will continue to offer sound advice on how to defeat Islamism by promoting freedom as an alternative.