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Sohrab Ahmari (; born February 1, 1985) is an Iranian-born American columnist, editor, and author of nonfiction books. He is a founding editor of the online magazine Compact. He is a contributing editor of The Catholic Herald, and a columnist for First Things. Previously, he served as the op-ed editor of the New York Post, an editor with The Wall Street Journal opinion pages in New York and London, and as a senior writer at Commentary.
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; The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos (2021) and Tyranny, Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty – and What to Do About It (2023).
Ahmari earned a J.D. degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. Between college and law school, Ahmari completed a two-year commitment to Teach for America in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas.
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.
In these positions, Ahmari wrote book reviews, op-eds, and conducted interviews with prominent politicians, activists, and intellectuals for The Journal's "Weekend Interview" feature.
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 Culture war". 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". The dispute escalated significantly after Ahmari published the essay "Against David French-ism" in the conservative religious journal First Things on May 29, 2019. In the essay, Ahmari argued that French was insufficiently socially conservative, and that his belief in individual autonomy was contributing to the overall Decadence of American society. 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 and the publication of numerous commentaries. 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., again prompting a flurry of commentaries.Further analysis:
The dispute centered on 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 Neopaganism of the other side". 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. 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. French, by contrast, advocates a conservative libertarian approach in which decency, civility, and respect for are emphasized, and argues that Ahmari's beliefs "forsake" the philosophy of classical liberalism that the Founding Fathers of the United States espoused. 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.
Ahmari's book, The New Philistines, about his belief that identity politics are corrupting the arts, was released on October 20, 2016, from Biteback Publishing. In January 2019, Ignatius Press published his spiritual memoir, From Fire, by Water, about his conversion to Roman Catholicism.
The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos was released in 2021.
His most recent book, Tyranny, Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty – and What to Do About It, was released in 2023.
Ahmari is married to architect Ting Li, with whom he has a son and a daughter.
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