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Omar Imady
Omar Imady
Born	8 July 1966 Damascus, Syria
Nationality	Syrian - American
Occupation	Author

Omar Imady (Template:Lang-ar; also transliterated Omar Imadi) is a Syrian American novelist, poet, and scholar. He is a strong proponent of a spiritual/rational reformation of Islam which he articulates in his novel The Gospel of Damascus, first published by MSI in April 2012. It has since been translated to French (Edilivre, April, 2014), and is scheduled to be published in Arabic and Spanish in 2015.

Early life

Imady was born on the 8th of July, 1966 in Damascus to an American mother, Mildred Elaine Rippey (from Palisades, New York), and a Syrian father, Mohammed Imady. His parents met at New York University in 1956, and were married shortly after. Imady's mother is a published author. His father, a non-Bathist technocrat, is the longest serving Minister of Economy in modern Syria. Imady moved to Kuwait at the age of thirteen when his father became the President of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.

Higher Education (1984-1993)

After completing high school in June 1984, Imady left Kuwait and enrolled in Maclaester College, a liberal arts college in St. Paul, Minnesota. At Macalester, Imady majored in Middle Eastern studies, with a core in economics and a minor in history. In the fall of 1988, he enrolled in the graduate program of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (since changed to Arabic & Islamic Studies). He obtained his MA in 1990, and his Ph.D in December 1993, working with several Penn Scholars including Roger Allen, George Makdisi, and Thomas Naff. His Ph.D. dissertation was entitled Journals, Associations & Political Parties, and focused on how the institutions of civil society in Muslim countries evolved over the period (1871-1949).

Professional Career

UN Career (1994-2004)

Imady returned to Damascus in December 1993, and in March 1994 joined the United Nations Development Program in Damascus as a National Program Office and Head of the Program Support Unit. Abdullah Dardari had joined the UNDP a few months earlier as a National Program Officer and Head of the Program Unit, and together they helped design and oversee several important development projects in Syria. When Dardari left his position at UNDP in December 1997 for a job in the Arab Monetary Bank, Imady took on his responsibilities, and in February, 2000 was promoted to the position of Assistant Resident Representative. Imady's most important achievement at UNDP was Community Development at Jabal al-Hoss, a network of micro finance institutions in rural Aleppo, and subsequently, various other parts of Syria. In April 2001, Imady opted to leave his post at UNDP and to work instead as a freelance UN consultant, focusing primarmrly on poverty alleviation programs through culturally consistent microfinance initiatives. The model he designed in partnership with Dr. Hans-Dieter Seibel became a [1] regional pilot program, and was replicated in Jordan and Lebanon.

NYIT (2004-2012)

Disillusioned by how the Syrian government was interacting with development initiatives, Imady left Syria in 2004 and joined the New York Institute of Technology in Amman, the only American University in Jordan during that period, as an Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. In March 2008, he was promoted to an Associate Professor, and in September 2008, he was appointed as the Campus Dean or the highest academic authority at NYIT Amman.

St Andrews (2012 - present)

By 2012, Syrians working in Jordan began to sense a change in the professional context they were accustomed to, and by June 2012 Imady decided to move to the UK where he joined the Center for Syrian Studies (CSS) at the University of St Andrews, first as a Senior Fellow (November 2012), and subsequently as the Deputy Director for Outreach and Information `Dissemination (November 2013). In this capacity, Imady serves as the editor of Syria Studies, the Center's journal, manages Inspired By Syria, the Center's online platform, and speaks regularly to the media on matters related to Syria.

The Gospel of Damascus

Imady's attraction to Sufism began while still a child after his sister, Susan Sahar Imady, joined the Qubasis, a Damascene female naqishbandi order founded by Shaikha Munira al-Qubaisi. It wasn't until he met Shaikh Muhammad Bashir al-Bani (1911-2008) in December 1985, however that his formal Sufi education began. Al-Bani was the Orator of the Grand Mosque of Damascus, and the right hand of Shaikh Ahmad Kuftaro, both once students of Shaikh Amin Kuftaro, and important masters of the naqishbandi order in Damascus. Bani was also the uncle of Imady's brother-in-law, Dr. Owais Tarakji, and it was through this connection that their initial encounter took place. In the summer of 1990, and by the initiative of Bashir al-Bani, Imady was formally initiated into the naqishbandi order by Shaikh Ahmad Kuftaro; a spiritual ritual which permits the novice to practice zikr or God-focused spiritual meditation. After Bani died in August 2008, Imady began writing The Gospel of Damascus which was meant to articulate, through a fictionalized autobiography, the vision of Islam which Bashir al-Bani privately shared with Imady. Al-Bani believed that the world had now entered the very early phases of the ends of time and that a very dramatic change in how Muslims understood their faith was necessary. It is this vision of a reformist spiritual Islam which Imady includes in The Gospel of Damascus.

Current Projects

In addition to his responsibilities at St Andrews, Imady is presently working on several writing projects: Amongst the Lions, a political biography, The Fear of Being Fearless, a collection of short stories, and The Timeless Verses, a reformist Qur'anic compilation. His poetry is regularly posted on his personal blog.

References

Omar Imady Twitter Page The Gospel of Damascus Omar Imady Biography & CV Omar Imady Linkedin Page L'Evangile de Damas The Gospel of Damascus" Facebook Page Road to Damascus Omar Imady, Rasail al-Bashir (Letters to a Disciple). Damascus: Dar Tlass for Studies, Translation & Publication , 2005. Omar Imady, Ta’rikh Dimashq (Historicizing Damascus: Eight Centuries in the History of a Damascene Family). Damascus: Dar Tlas, 2004.