Nasser Weddady ( ar, ناصر ودادي) is a Mauritanian-American activist known for his social

media activism Claudia Romina Sánchez Del Real Media activism is a broad category of activism that utilizes media and communication technologies for social and political movements. Methods of media activism include publishing news on websites, creating video ...

during the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...

Biography

Weddady is the son of a Mauritanian diplomat who served as Mauritania's ambassador to Ethiopia, Nigeria, Libya, Benin, and Syria. Consequently, Weddady grew up primarily in Syria and Libya. He speaks fluent Arabic, English, French, Spanish, and Hebrew. When his parents returned to Mauritania in the 1990s he became involved with the country’s opposition movement. In 1999, Weddady left the country and sought asylum in the United States.

Career

In 2007, Weddady joined the

American Islamic Congress Founded late in 2001, the American Islamic Congress (AIC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the United States. AIC is a non-religious, civil rights organization whose stated goal is to build interfaith and inter-ethnic understanding ...

as Director of Civil Rights Outreach. In 2009, he aided prosecutors in the

Tarek Mehanna Tarek Mehanna is a pharmacist convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, providing material support to terrorists (and conspiracy to do so), conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, conspiracy to make false statement ...

case who were seeking to understand the sources of radicalization in the Islamic community. He left the AIC in April 2014. In 2011, during the events of the Arab spring Weddady used Twitter, Facebook and blogs to train activists in the Middle East and draw media attention to critical issues and developments.

SocialFlow SocialFlow is a social media optimization platform for leading brands and publishers. The company uses the Twitter firehose, click data derived from its proprietary link proxy, along with proprietary algorithms, to optimize the delivery of mess ...

, the social media tracker, ranked him as one of the top four most influential Twitter users during the uprisings. Weddady has also been credited with contributing to the release of numerous imprisoned activists and bloggers in the MENA region. In 2012, Weddady co-edited with journalist

Sohrab Ahmari Sohrab Ahmari ( fa, سهراب احمری, translit=Sohrāb Aḥmarī, translit-std=ALA-LC; born February 1, 1985) is an Iranian American columnist, editor, and author of nonfiction books. He is a founding editor of the online magazine ''Compact ...

the anthology ''Arab Spring Dreams'', a collection of the best essays from the

Dream Deferred Essay Contest A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

. Weddady has been published in the New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Baltimore Sun and has appeared on numerous media outlets. Nasser Weddady has stated in his bio that he is involved with law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, and advised on "radicalization" activities.http://www.empowerpeace.org/documents/W2W2010SpeakerBios.pdf

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weddady, Nasser People of the Arab Spring Living people American people of Mauritanian descent Year of birth missing (living people) African-American Muslims American Muslims