Sohrab Ahmari

Sohrab Ahmari
Ahmari in 2021
Born	(1985-02-01) February 1, 1985 (age 36) Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iranian-American
Alma mater	Northeastern University (J.D.)
Occupation	Journalist, editor
Employer	New York Post

Sohrab Ahmari (Persian: سهراب احمری‎, romanized: Sohrāb Aḥmarī; born February 1, 1985)^[1] is an Iranian-American columnist, editor, and author of nonfiction books. He is currently the op-ed editor of the New York Post, a contributing editor of The Catholic Herald, and a columnist for First Things. Previously, he served as a columnist and editor with The Wall Street Journal opinion pages in New York and London, and as a senior writer at Commentary.^[2]

Ahmari is the author of The New Philistines (2016), a critique of how identity politics are corrupting the arts; From Fire, by Water (2019), a spiritual memoir about his conversion to Roman Catholicism; and The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos (2021).

Early life and education[]

Ahmari was born in Tehran, Iran. In his 2012 book, Arab Spring Dreams, he writes that he was interrogated by security officials about his parents and faced disciplinary action as a child for accidentally bringing a videocassette of Star Wars into school at a time when Western films were officially banned in the country.^[3] In 1998, at the age of 13, Ahmari moved with his family to the United States.^[4][5]

Ahmari earned a J.D. degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.^[6] Between college and law school, Ahmari completed a two-year commitment to Teach for America in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas.^[7]

While in law school, inspired in part by the protests following the disputed June 2009 Iranian presidential election, he began working as a freelance journalist, contributing pieces to publications such as The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Commentary among others.^[8][9][10]

Career[]

After serving as a Robert L. Bartley fellow at The Wall Street Journal in 2012, Ahmari joined the publication as assistant books editor. He then served as an editorial page writer based in London, where he wrote editorials and commissions and edited op-eds for the Journal's European edition.^[6]

In these positions, Ahmari wrote book reviews,^[11][12][13] op-eds,^[14][15] and conducted interviews with prominent politicians, activists, and intellectuals for The Journal's "Weekend Interview" feature.^[16][17][18]

Dispute with David French[]

A high-profile dispute between Ahmari and National Review writer David French broke out over the summer of 2019 as a result of the publication of Ahmari's polemic "Against David French-ism",^[19] sparking numerous essays and commentaries in politically conservative publications like the National Review and The American Conservative,^[20] as well as in several left-leaning outlets like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.^[21]

The dispute began on May 26, 2019, when Ahmari expressed on Twitter his frustration with a Facebook advertisement for a children's drag queen reading hour at a library in Sacramento, California, which he described as "transvestic fetishism". In the tweet, Ahmari argued that there is no "polite, David French-ian third way around the cultural civil war".^[22] This prompted a response from French in a May 28 essay in National Review entitled "Decency Is No Barrier to Justice or the Common Good".^[22] The dispute escalated significantly after Ahmari published the essay "Against David French-ism" in the conservative religious journal First Things on May 29, 2019.^[19] The direct targeting of French and the impromptu creation of the "David French-ism" political philosophy led the essay to gain significant notoriety, prompting a response from French^[23][24] and the publication of numerous commentaries.^[20][21] On September 5, 2019, French and Ahmari engaged in an in-person political debate moderated by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.,^[25] again prompting a flurry of commentaries.^[26]

The dispute centered around their differing opinions on how conservatives should approach cultural and political debate, with Ahmari deriding what he calls "David French-ism", a political persuasion he defines as believing "that the institutions of a technocratic market society are neutral zones that should, in theory, accommodate both traditional Christianity and the libertine ways and paganized ideology of the other side".^[19] He argues that this belief leads to an ineffective conservative movement, and contends that the best way for culturally conservative values to prevail in society is a strategy of "discrediting...opponents and weakening or destroying their institutions", which he maintains is a tactic already utilized by progressives, leaving conservatives who adhere to the David French-style of politics impotent in what he views as a raging culture war in the United States.^[19] He argues that the political realm should be viewed as one of "war and enmity", and that the power of the government should be directly utilized to impose culturally conservative values on society.^[19] French, by contrast, advocates a conservative libertarian approach in which decency, civility, and respect for individual rights are emphasized, and argues that Ahmari's beliefs "forsake" the philosophy of classical liberalism that the Founding Fathers of the United States espoused.^[24][23] He placed particular criticism on Ahmari's desire for direct government intervention in the lives of individuals, which he argues is not only antithetical to liberty but is a politically ruinous tactic for conservatives, who would end up on the receiving end of progressive policies if the government were given greater license to interfere in the private lives of individuals.^[23]

Books[]

While in law school, Ahmari co-edited with Nasser Weddady the 2012 book Arab Spring Dreams: The Next Generation Speaks Out for Freedom and Justice from North Africa to Iran, an anthology of the top essays submitted by young Middle Eastern dissidents to the Dream Deferred Essay Contest. The Times Literary Supplement writes that Weddady and Ahmari "perceptively edited this collection of winning entries" from the Dream Deferred contest, and that "some of these young writers [featured in the anthology] possess more clarity than all the pundits combined."^[27] The book received endorsements from Polish Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa and feminist icon Gloria Steinem, who wrote the anthology's foreword.^[8]

Ahmari's book, The New Philistines, a critique of how identity politics are corrupting the arts, was released on October 20, 2016 from Biteback Publishing.^[28] In January 2019, Ignatius Press published his spiritual memoir, From Fire, by Water, about his conversion to Roman Catholicism.^[29]

His most recent book is entitled; The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos (2021).

Personal life[]

Ahmari converted to Roman Catholicism from atheism in 2016.^[30] In late September 2016, he wrote a three-page article about his conversion in The Catholic Herald, which was the cover story of the September 30, 2016 issue.^[31]

Bibliography[]

• (2021) The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos. Convergent Books.
• (2019) From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith. Ignatius Press. ISBN 9781621642022.
• (2016) The New Philistines. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 9781785901270.
• (2012) Arab Spring Dreams: The Next Generation Speaks Out for Freedom and Justice from North Africa to Iran (co-edited with Nasser Weddady). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230115927.

References[]

External links[]

• Sohrab Ahmari on Twitter
• Against David French-ism, by Sohrab Ahmari at First Things
• Appearances on C-SPAN