Described by WIRED as a "formidable speaker" and by a former celebrity fellow musician as being "like a 300-year old sage who is wise beyond his years," AssertiveU™ founder Amir is a writer, artist, veteran of intelligence and frameworks creator, president, and your host, strategic advisor and integral leadership coach.

He is a former Member of the Board and International Council of the New York based Human Rights Foundation, organizer of the Oslo Freedom Forum, and committee member of the International Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.

As AssertiveU™ CEO, his name and identity as Amir Ahmad Nasr, like what the journalist Clark Joseph Kent is to Superman, is his Earthly professional business persona for who he is as the loud musical otherworldly soul blues rockin' singin' and guitar slingin' artist, Drima Starlight.

He is a lover of the best of Canada - the land of maple syrup, fearsome hockey players and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, on guard for thee - and NATO leader, the United States as our greatest hope for the persistent freedom of humanity.

A poet at heart, when Amir was a nearly seven year old playful boy in early 1990's in Doha, Qatar, he was secretly and methodically tortured, tormented, and subjected to extreme sexual violence, nearly to death in a small Al-Mamoura neighborhood mosque by two Islamist Egyptian terrorists disconnected from their humanity. Only a few had an inkling of what happened.

After the publication and banning at age 26 of his new provocative debut memoir My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind and Doubt Freed My Soul, recommended in Ken Wilber's The Religion of Tomorrow and by Foreign Policy magazine among 25 books to read in 2013, he became recognized as a foremost world authority on tech's and A.I.'s impact on the evolution of religions. He is now actively updating it with new material for release as a new edition on the 12 year anniversary of its publishing in June, 2025.

He agrees with Jack Dorsey's assessment that we must be wise to not sacrifice the degree of free will we currently enjoy and live by.

A spiritual being first and foremost having a human experience, in Earthly cultural terms, he identifies as a Nubian Khartoum-born, Japanese and American influenced, British high school O' Levels educated, Malaysian-raised, English and Arabic speaking Canadian British Columbian man of the world. In due time, he plans to also have a home somewhere in the deserts of Arizona or California.

As the Nubian son of Sudanese-American parents, he traces his lineage to the fourth cataract of the Nile of Karima, Meroe and Korti in Sudan and up to Wadi Halfa in south Egypt. Amir has been instrumental to innovative Fortune 500 teams and executives, six to nine-figure and billion dollar founders, online brands and thought leaders, NYT and WSJ best-selling authors, Forbes 30 Under 30 and Inc. 500 entrepreneurs, Grammy and Emmy Award recognized storytellers, and many, many coaches, speakers, trainers, consultants and experts in owning their true leadership voice influentially and fast-tracking their growth resiliently.

Evidently, his origin experiences, understood rightly, inform his worldview and life's work.

The heinous acts he experienced as a kid happened not long after one of the two Islamist imams had taken over as the leader of the neighborhood mosque with a theocratic antisemitic agenda, and they discovered in a class Amir attended that he's the son of an American educated father and professor and parents who had left Khartoum, Sudan to the University of Wisconsin–Madison of early 1970's America.

Facing an impending onslaught, Amir stood his ground but could not physically stop them. Worse, they tricked him into believing "Satan" is within him and that "God" would tell them if he dared utter a word and they would kill him and his parents for it. Both terrorists belonged to the rogue global organization the Muslim Brotherhood whose members were tortured in the prisons of secular Arab Egyptian nationalist, President Jamal Abdel Nasser under his orders after an attempt on his life by a Muslim Brotherhood member. Amir coped the best he could.

It was a pitiful vengeful act, cowardly inflicted upon Amir by two of the least and lowest of so-called men, also out of empty envy for being a better reciter and caller to prayer whose parents lovingly as best as they could raised Sudanese-American. Gratefully, feeling in this world but not of it, it wasn't in vain as he did not have the freedom or luxury to wallow in victimhood or cynicism in those difficult years. Even after the horrors of 9/11, he refused to give up on America as a state of mind, and neither on the Divine nor himself and his dreams as a little boy.

As fate would have it, it was after a brief yet most profoundly indelible in-person experience on September 30th, 2015 in Washington DC at Harman Center for the Arts and then later that day in the US Senate chamber with torture survivor, US Senator John McCain that Amir's life was never the same again. Three years later, after that fateful experience left a lasting impact, former US Presidential candidate Senator McCain passed away from brain cancer in his home state of Arizona at the age of 81 on August 25th, Amir's 32nd birthday.

To this day, Amir remains a firm believer in the historic major net positives of Pax Americana and the wisdom of the late Senator McCain that "America's greatest strength has always been its hopeful vision of human progress... Our shared values define us more than our differences. And acknowledging those shared values can see us through our challenges today if we have the wisdom to trust in them again."

It took Amir many years to pierce the veils of illusion, let alone regain his joy and freedom in living by being able to express the fullness of his story. Among the best decisions he made are embracing timeless and spiritual character-driven leadership development practices as well as somatic body work that freed him to thrive while fighting back as an incisive strategic intelligence analyst and advisor.

Amir is a firm believer in the benefits of "verbal fasting" and teaching curious leaders how to harness the power of the inner voice of wisdom and "stillness that speaks" to unlock one's human potential. We believe that in a complex, noisy and risky yet exciting world of opportunity, unlocking your values-based ability to accurately and productively self-reflect and be self-fulfilled and self-expressed with key frameworks for more impact, is a superpower. Progress is not linear.

As a global brand, AssertiveU™ is inspired by an ethos drawn from Amir's international upbringing as a humanist with a perspective and sensitive attunement to the cultural nuances of storytelling in different contexts. By the time he turned 10, he had experienced holidays outside of Qatar with his family and relatives in three countries: Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Czechoslovakia.

Starting at age 11, after leaving Doha, Qatar, he attended British and American international schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and grew up with a rich third-culture kid experience in his formative years and beyond. By adulthood, Amir had grown up in multiple settings with family and relatives in Sudan, Qatar, Malaysia, America, Canada, England and back to Canada alive and well with a calm red hot searing conviction.

According to the summary on Wikipedia, "third culture individuals (TCI) are people who were raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of their country of nationality, and also live in a different environment during a significant part of their child development years. They typically are exposed to a greater volume and variety of cultural influences than those who grow up in one particular cultural setting."

Now rooted in Vancouver, Canada in the Pacific Northwest, he is enthusiastically focused on growing AssertiveU™ as a tribute to humanity and to the leaders and storytellers who impacted and taught him the most on his mission through a renewed greater human story.

Throughout his journey as a seeker, he was fortunate to be warmly welcomed as a curious student practitioner by accommodating hosts and spiritual leaders at profound Hindu temples in Bali and Shinshoji Buddhist temple in Japan as well as in synagogues, churches and mosques with diverse interpretations, globally. Along the way he also learned invaluable lessons and experienced real growth after immersing himself in the Human Potential Movement regardless of its over-emphasis on "positive thinking" and denial of the tragic dimensions of the human condition at times. Notably, it was from within the timeless human spiritual lineages that he found the most potent principles and practices.

Of particular resonance to him is the univeralist Inayati music-honoring Sufi Muslim lineage of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and poetic texts referencing the angel of the veil Metatron. For the Sufi way in the words of Kabir Helminski is "a way of life in which a deeper identity is discovered and lived. This deeper identity, beyond the already known personality, is in harmony with all that exists." When one stays true to a desire toward universality, a more potent possibility shows up, accessible to all who become open to it as a realizable part of our potential.

Many have found and continue to find his lived lessons invaluable, and even life-changing. It was in 2006, after starting to share learnings, art and experiences with inquisitive close friends and colleagues, that the requests to teach his methods and strategies grew. In 2014, after landing in Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to seek protection and political asylum from persecution due to the banning of his debut book, crisis set in.

Then in September, 2015, after a week-long values and leadership development seminar he attended at the Aspen Institute, and in particular crucially after his experience with Senator McCain just days later in Washington DC, it started to make more sense for Amir to consider starting a new kind of educational endeavor.

Crucially, like the Aspen Institute it would not shy away from dealing with the global challenges of the human experience too often ignored by much of the "New Thought" and human potential movement. Moreover, like Esalen Institute, at its heart would be a potent transpersonal psychology-based, spirituality-informed approach infused into it.

After all, without peace and human rights, we cannot realize our human potential and express our human creativity.

Despite initial doubts, and in response to the increasing demands on his time and bandwith, in mid 2016, your strategic advisor and integral leadership coach, Amir, eventually founded a new formerly stealth venture now available in-person and virtually globally.

Today AssertiveU™ delivers and facilitates intensives for ambitious mission-driven thought leaders, entrepreneurs and executives, just like you, to own your true leadership voice, unlock your human potential beyond A.I. and fast-track your growth to the next level.

Bit by bit, with steady patience, Amir rediscovered his love for spirituality and Mystery of everything: an experience available to all of us who allow it.

This experience is referred to as Ma'at in the temples of the Nile Valley, the indestructible Unity of Existence, also the Beloved in the Sufi tradition and Source in New Age spirituality.

As the Sufi poet al-Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn Arabi said: "O Marvel! A garden amidst fires! My heart has become receptive of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles, a monastery for Christian monks, a temple for deities, the Ka'bah of the pilgrim, the tables of the Torah, and the book of the Qur'an. I follow the religion of Love. Wherever its camel mounts turn, that is my religion and my Faith."

Stated differently, he was referring to a state of being rooted and grounded in Emptiness consciousness and the "Unity of Being."

As a writer and storyteller, accounts of the story of Joseph's rise as accurate wise dream interpreting confidant to the King of the Nile, and then as ruler of Egypt, hold special meaning for Amir.

Full of practical actionable wisdom on patience, stewardship, assertive leadership, strategic foresight and good governance, Joseph's story richly informs Amir's journey and facilitations with everyone he's advised and coached. Unlike the story of Moses and the tyrant pharaoh in it whose reign was one of terror for those he oppressed, the King in the story of Joseph offers contrasting timeless lessons on leadership in good governance.

Amir's long track record as a writer, producing literary, intelligence and investigative journalism as a spiritual humanist and classical liberal has attracted praise from a global audience and influential readership. They include respected Academy and Emmy Award recognized Hollywood personalities, Marvel and Disney storytellers, White House officials, US Department of Defense, Five Eyes intelligence officers, national security professionals, celebrated entrepreneurs, Ivy League academics and tech investors, and many fellow artists, activists and entrepreneurs. Having traveled as a TCI writer to dozens of countries, Amir merges the best and most proven of timeless Eastern and Western philosophies, practices and storytelling traditions to serve you with greater understanding and versatility, amplified by A.I. in order for you to fast-track your growth with true resilience, real influence and profound R.O.I.

Most of all, Ken Wilber, the world renowned American integral philosopher of consciousness as well as respected scholar of transpersonal psychology featured in the classic Matrix trilogy movies, praised Amir's work as revolutionary.

He described Amir's debut book as "important and significant... especially at this time in our history... This is the right message, at the right time, from the right person."

Integral scholars strive to comprehensively organize, harmonize and merge the best most proven of humanity's wisdom traditions, experiences and sciences into an illuminating grand "theory of everything" about the nature of our reality and existence.

Amir has been featured in dozens of global journalism media outlets in over 13 languages telling stories about spirituality, human flourishing and our present with better alternative models of reality that free you to thrive.

From greening the deserts of planet Earth and achieving food security for all to making education ubiquitous, renewing freedom and democracy and living healthier longer life-spans assisted by humanoids. Together, we believe we can bring this alive, sooner, by leading with better stories of possibilities until perhaps some of us will one day live to space travel and witness humanoids growing palms from the Nile in lush gardens on Mars.

He is the formerly anonymous voice and blogger behind the 3-time Weblog Award nominated provocative blog, The Sudanese Thinker, and a featured personality in the Nick Nanton Emmy nominated documentary film Live Your Quest along with Tom Chi of Google X, Rev. Michael Beckwith of Agape, and the NYT best-selling authors Jack Canfield and Lisa Nichols, among others. Through strategic and open source intelligence, he remains engaged in constructive consultations and award-winning initiatives that support NATO alliance national security and human rights globally.

Likely to become a US citizen in due time like his parents, he is a happy permanent resident and soon to be citizen of Canada.

As the founder of AssertiveU™ he has pioneered facilitation methods drawn from the timeless wisdom traditions that resolve stubborn issues where others failed. When he is not facilitating, thanks to the valued encouragement of two respected producers, a Grammy Award winner and an Academy Award winner, Amir is deep at work as a writer and artist on his book trilogy as well as a screenwriter, singer-songwriter, director and producer on his debut upcoming cinematic concept album and documentary film.

A deep insightful listener and reflective artist whose personal values are transcendence, musicality and conviction, he guides conscious reality creators and experts in their fields, like you, to face their foremost fears as well as powerfully refine their true voice and be in their element.

As long as you too are reflective, self-responsible, committed and resonate with our values, welcome to the AssertiveU™ campus. To learn more about enrolling, sign up with your email to access your complimentary facilitation session and speak soon. - The Team 📞