Syria’s main opposition group chose a prime minister Tuesday who was educated in Indiana, lived in Indianapolis and worked for a pair of Islamic organizations based in Plainfield.
Ghassan Hitto, 50, is a Syrian-born naturalized American citizen who lived in Texas until moving recently to Turkey, where the government in exile formed. But, from the late 1980s through the early 1990s, Hitto and his wife, Suzanne, called the Far Westside home.
Hitto earned math and computer science degrees from Purdue in 1989 after studying at Purdue’s IUPUI campus. He earned an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan in 1994, although it’s not clear from which campus.
Hitto and his wife worked for the Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North America — he in the technology department, bookstore and convention planning; she as an assistant in the development office. Hitto also worked for the North American Islamic Trust, which was then-based in Plainfield and holds deeds to mosques across the United States.
“Both of them are very energetic and charismatic,” said Sayyid Syeed, a leader in the Plainfield-based Islamic Society of North America.
“I’m glad that (Syria) found him,” Syeed said. “You will expect integrity and honesty and hard work and dedication, compassion. That is what Syria needs at this time — and high administrative skills.”
Syria is mired in a civil war that followed what began two years ago as peaceful political protests against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The government responded with a brutal crackdown that has escalated. By some estimates, 70,000 people have been killed in Syria and more than one million have fled the country.
While Hitto’s love of his native Syria was clear, his ascension to leadership in the rebel coalition was unexpected.
“I was not aware of his involvement in the opposition.,” said Ahmed El-Hattab, executive director of the Islamic Society’s fundraising foundation."Any Syrian who is watching what is happening and cares for what is happening will look for a role to play. But it was a good surprise to see him with this kind of capacity and energy serving in this high position.”
While the United States has long condemned the Syrian government for its brutal crackdown of political opponents, there also has been concern about what might come next, whether rebel groups would bring with them Islamic extremism.
Those who know Hitto from his Indianapolis days say that shouldn’t be a concern. “He is mainstream, very balanced in his views, who will be fair and just in his leadership,” said El-Hattab.
“If they have chosen Ghassan, that means they are committing themselves to a practical, moderate and balanced understanding of Islam,” Syeed said. “His training here, his involvement here is an indicator in that direction.”
His wife, Suzanne, is an American-born Muslim convert whose parents are non-Muslims, Syeed said.
They have four children born in the United States including a 25-year-old son Obaida, who has been aiding rebel fighters inside Syria.
As the first prime minister for the interim government in exile, Hitto faces some monumental tasks. He must help get aid to rebel groups in areas where the Syrian government has air supremacy and establish authority over areas in northern Syria controlled by opposition groups. Some of those groups are looking skeptically at a government run by an American with no military experience.
Hitto may be suited to the task. Even as a young man, working for the Islamic organizations in Plainfield, he impressed leaders for his work ethic, his willingness to roll up his sleeves and take on jobs that needed to be done.
“He is a man who does things, a man of action, a man of service,” Syeed said. “He is a good organizer, a good administrator.”
Hitto was born in Damascus but is of Kurdish descent. In a video posted on YouTube announcing his candidacy, Hitto called for “a government of institutions and law.”