AMMAN — Mahmoud Abuqalbain, a 26-year-old civil engineer and entrepreneur, has a radiant vision for a better future, and he plans to pursue by uniting
Palestinians from around the world.
اضافة اعلان
Abuqalbain began his engineering career at multibillion-dollar firm
Gilbane and Granger Construction. He later partnered with Ahmad Badr to create Modern Lens Production, a photography and videography company. He also founded “
Mawtini Dabkeh Troupe,” a folk dancing troupe that has performed for presidential candidate and senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign, Google, and other notable clients.
“’Mawtini Dabkeh Troupe’ started out with the idea of making a troupe that travels around the states. Although we were aware that it would be a source of income, we did it mostly because we enjoyed it,” Abuqalbain told Jordan News in an interview, “At the time, I had gathered fifteen of my friends and suggested the idea to them, and they were all enthusiastic about it. We grew in popularity on social media over time, and we began to receive a lot of support.”
He is also a member of the New Generation for Palestine’s executive board and has assisted NGOs such as Muslims of the World, United Muslim Relief (UMR), and Muslim Aid USA in raising over $1,000,000 for people in need. The young leader was also an “Arab America Foundation 40 Under 40 Awardee.” He was nominated for the award by someone “he had never met” but who he said admired his accomplishments.
Although the young entrepreneur was born and raised in Jordan, his journey to success began after he completed 10th grade and moved to the United States. He then went on to complete a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering and then a master’s degree in civil engineering.
“The moment I arrived to the states, I realized I had a really good opportunity — especially considering the fact that I had American citizenship before I got here — so I did my best to bring out my best,” he said.
Abuqalbain said he noticed a significant shift in his personality and character when he was young, from not always being “academic and disciplined,” to quickly learning that the only way to improve was to seize the opportunities he encountered in life.
He continued to advance his career and also amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, with. Abuqalbain uses his social media to share his ideas, accomplishments, and various types of content, whether it’s amusing and causes viewers to laugh, or offering them advice and life lessons he has learned along the way.
Abuqalbain is also running for Al Jazeera’s electronic parliament where each candidate represents a country and an ideology they want to promote or issues and problems they want to address. His aim is to “represent Palestine” and introduce the concept of an electronic platform to unite “Palestinians around the world”.
“We have about 13.5 million Palestinians around the world,” he said. “Through this electronic parliament that we will build for the Palestinian forum, we hope to influence some of the decisions that are being made for the Palestinian people.”
Abuqalbain hopes that by taking this measure, he will be able to “create a committee” to help shift Western attitudes toward Palestinians.
“Right now, if you ask Americans what they think about the Palestinian issue, they will most likely have no idea what you are talking about, and if they do, they will only imagine a Palestinian throwing a rock at an Israeli, despite the fact that the issue has nothing to do with religions and is rather a political issue disguised in the form of religion,” he continued.
H added that his main goal is to “change people’s view on the issue” and to get people to choose who best represents them.
“It takes time, but as Palestinians, we just have to think strategically,” he said, adding that the old form of resistance is “not working” and that “we must cultivate forms of resistance” and fight for the cause in a “strategic manner”.
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