Dr. Haytham Khoury

Haytham Khoury is a physician and researcher, and works at Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada. He is also a political writer with an interest in Syrian affairs.

He was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1965. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Aleppo in 1988. Thereafter, he carried out a specialization in Hematology at the University of Rennes, France, and a fellowship in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation at the Leukemia/BMT program of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Also, Dr. Khoury has carried out Ph.D. degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He has published a significant number of research papers and review article in the field of leukemia.

In addition to his passion for Medicine, Haytham Khoury has noticeable interest in the Middle-East politics, particularly the Syrian affairs. Indeed, he is a founding member of the Syrian Democratic Forum (SDF), one of the opposition groups in Syria that promotes change in Syria through peaceful means.

For more please visit Toward Real Democracy in Syria - Vers une Démocratie Réelle en Syrie - من أجل ديمقراطية حقيقية في سوريا Haytham can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Immaturity as an Origin of Evil: Bashar al-Assad as a Case Study

Monday, 07 November 2011 00:57 GFP Columnist - Dr. Haytham Khoury

'...I knew Bashar when I was at the medical school. At that time, Bashar appeared nice and modest. Further, he looked happy or rather he had the habit of joking all the time...'

In my answer to the National Initiative for Change in Syria, which was based on the premise that Bashar would resign shortly after the start of the demonstrations, I explained to the signatories that Bashar would not resign easily and the war with the regime will take many months.

I based my judgement on my personal assessment of the real situation in Syria and also on my personal knowledge of Bashar’s personality, which is mainly characterized by his immaturity. The question that many may ask is “how psychological immaturity can lead a person to lose his or her own conscience, committing crimes and consequently destroying himself and many people around him?”.

One important characteristic of mature people is that they can understand and deal with complex social realities. These complexities arise mainly from the deepness of human psyche and the complexity of human relationships. Thus, mature people can understand and fulfill their own real needs, which are necessary for them to grow and flourish, and other people’s real needs, which are important for these people to fulfill their own potentials. Also, mature people have good understanding for the laws that govern human relationships and interactions, thus they lead life events to the best outcome for the people around them and for themselves.

Consequently, they learn how to be decisive and acquire the sense of empowerment. Indeed, as human beings we develop these faculties in the laboratory of life starting from early days of our lives. If for any reason we do not live an active life characterized by rich experiences that we can learn from, we can’t acquire these potentials. Further, all these capacities define, indeed, our conscience. Thus, they make us able to recognize benevolent from malevolent acts or, in other words, distinguish good from evil. Therefore, mature people are characterized by developed conscience, while immature people lack this precious faculty.

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Dr. Haytham Khoury

Immaturity as an Origin of Evil: Bashar al-Assad as a Case Study

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