Name Jamal al-Dhari | Role Military officer | |
Born 1965 Abu Ghraib district, Iraq Occupation President of the Peace Ambassadors for Iraq and a senior Iraqi tribal leader. | ||
Sheikh Jamal al-Dhari is one the leaders of the al-Zoba tribe in Iraq, and is the nephew of the late Islamic Scholar and religious leader sheikh Harith al-Dhari.
Jamal was born in the Abu Ghraib district of Iraq on July 16, 1965. He grew up within the al-Zoba tribe and in the 1970s he attended the Hafsa School.
In 1984 he was conscripted into the Iraqi Army to fight in the Iran-Iraq War. During his time on the frontline, he fought alongside both Sunni and Shia officers and friends, in the Iraqi Republican Guard.
In 1987, Jamal together with his fellows in the army were accused to be against the Ba’athist regime, and 1988 were sentenced in a military court to serve time in jail. In 1990, they were released when Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait, as he badly needed Sunni tribes to support his family and regime.
Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by coalition forces, he was a strong proponent of Iraqi nationalism and self-rule. In 2005, he and his family fought against al-Qaeda’s occupation of Iraqi territory and consequentially lost 70 members of his family in the struggle.
In 2014, he helped establish the nonprofit think tank Peace Ambassadors for Iraq, to explain to Western audiences the present situation in Iraq, how to fully eliminate ISIS/Daesh and other terrorist forces from Iraq, and to build international support for an all-inclusive Iraq.
Presently, Jamal al-Dhari is working for a renewal in Iraq by forging a non-sectarian and inclusive settlement for all Iraqis.