For immediate release: Feb. 24, 2012

BLOOMSBURG — Political activist and scholar Radwan Ziadeh, of Syria, will speak on “Arab Spring and the Road to Democracy” Wednesday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m. in BU’s Carver Hall, Kenneth S. Gross Auditorium.

Part of the International Faculty Association’s Scholar Speaker Series, the program is open free to the public.

Ziadeh is the founder and director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights in Syria and co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C. He is also the managing editor of the Transitional Justice in the Arab World Project.

Ziadeh has written more than 10 books including “Political Islam in Syria,” “Decision Making and Foreign Policy in Syria” and “The Intellectual Confronts Power: Dialogues of Syrian Civil Society.” As part of a group that would play a key role in Syria’s future, Ziadeh dreams of returning to his homeland to form a democratic political party.

The Arab Spring is a cultural and political movement that changed the governments of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Facilitated through the use of social networking and media websites, the movement focuses on establishing free societies that value liberty. Zaideh will explain why democracies are reluctant to support what he calls “the most liberal and Western-friendly of the Arab Spring uprisings.”

For more information, contact Mehdi Razzaghi, professor of math, computer science and statistics and president of BU’s International Faculty Association.

Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. BU serves approximately 10,000 students, offering comprehensive programs of study in the colleges of Education, Business, Liberal Arts and Science and Technology.