About 

Iyad el-Baghdadi is an internationally recognized Arab Spring activist and an expert on the topic of Islam & liberty. A former career entrepreneur and startup consultant, he rose to prominence in the aftermath of the Arab revolutions of 2011 before being summarily arrested and forcibly exiled from his home in the UAE in April 2014.

Today he is recognized among the most influential and prominent Arab voices online. He lives in Oslo, Norway, where he has been granted political asylum, and writes regularly for both Norwegian and international media, and his Twitter account received over 180 million views in last year.

Iyad is the founder of Kawaakibi Foundation, an accelerator for thinkers and doers with a focus on the future of liberty in Muslim communities and in the Arab world. He is also founder and editor-in-chief of the Arab Tyrant Manual, a platform for the study of authoritarian behaviour and tactics. Iyad is a fellow at Norwegian liberal think tank Civita and board member at Munathara, the Arab debate NGO. His first book, the Vicious Triangle: Terrorists, Tyrants and the West, will be published in late 2019.