Al-Khatib
originally studied applied geophysics and worked as an engineer for six years.
He is a member of the Syrian Geological Society and the Syrian Society for
Psychological Science. He was previously President and remains Honorary
President of the Islamic Society of Urbanization.
Early Life and Career
Born
in 1960, Khatib comes from a well-known Sunni Muslim Damascene family. His
father, Sheikh Mohammed Abu al-Faraj al-Khatib, was a prominent Islamic scholar
and preacher.
Khatib
originally studied geophysics. He spent six years working as an engineer. He is
also a member of the Syrian Geological Society and the Syrian Society for
Psychological Science, and was president of the Islamic Society of
Urbanization. His status as the former imam makes him a key figure in Syria's
religious establishment.
He
later became prominent as an Islamic preacher, and became the preacher of the
Umayyad Mosque in the early 1990s. After he was banned from preaching during
the rule of Mr Assad's father, the late Hafez al-Assad, Khatib began to teach
Islam secretly.
Khatib
also established the Islamic Civilization Society, and taught Sharia (Islamic
Law) at the Sheikh Badr al-Din al-Husni Institute in Damascus, and Daawa (Call
to Islam) at the Tahzib Institute for Sharia Sciences. He traveled
internationally to teach including Bosnia-Hercegovina, the Netherlands,
Nigeria, Turkey, the UK and the USA.
The
Syrian journalist and writer Rana Kabbani, a long time friend of Khatib, said
"Over the years, we have had a very intense political conversation about
what needed to be done in Syria, long discussions about what was wrong with the
society and what could be done about it. He was my window into Syria at a time
when I couldn't physically go there." Kabbani continued to say"He
comes from an area in the old city of Damascus, a part of the city that was
noted for its advocacy against French colonialists, producing freedom fighters.
It was a traditional Damascene Muslim scene, a devout Sunni area with a long
history of resistance. "He cared very deeply about the victims of the 1982
massacre [in the Syrian city of Hama]. He was always seeking for ways to house
or educate those [survivors] that the state wanted killed or banished."
From: www.wikipedia.org