[2] Baghdadi is considered a key thinker for pro-democracy movements during the Arab Spring[3] and an expert on Islam and political liberties.

[5][6][7] A stateless Palestinian who was born in Kuwait and raised in the United Arab Emirates, he was a political refugee in Norway until he received citizenship in 2023.

The next day, May 1, UAE immigration authorities in his town, Ajman, told him that he faced a choice: either he could be imprisoned for an indefinite amount of time or he could accept immediate deportation.

On June 8, after a sustained campaign by friends and activists, the Malaysian government permitted him to enter the country on a passport issued by the Palestinian embassy as an "exceptional case.

[9] In a 2014 article for Foreign Policy, "ISIS Is Sisi Spelled Backwards," he warned against the notion that Arabs are "forced to either support the ruling autocrats in return for safety and stability, or to side with Islamist radicals in order to throw off the tyrants' yoke and avenge their transgressions."

He argues that both nationalist fascism and Islamist radicalism are failures for true change in the Arab world, as tyranny and terrorism feed off each other in a worsening cycle.

Based on his observations of individuals' experiences with different radical ideologies, the model outlines seven steps: He later developed the 'Populist Grand Narrative,' which seeks to explain the process of collective radicalization and outlines the structure of populist narratives in four steps: His 2021 book with Ahmed Gatnash, The Middle East Crisis Factory, argues against monocausal analyses of geopolitical crises in the MENA region.

The book's policy recommendations include empowering grassroots activists, constraining coercive autocrats, and inspire youths to retain a modicum of hope for the future.

He argues that a two-state solution is both unworkable and undesirable, suggesting that the only way forward is for Palestinians and Israelis to coexist as equal citizens within a single state.

[32] Under Kawaakibi, he created "The Jamal Khashoggi Disinfo Monitor" to analyze disinformation networks and strategies used by governmental and non-governmental entities, aiming to educate the public about these threats.

[38] In May 2019, Baghdadi was informed by Norwegian security services that a credible threat existed against his life due to his outspoken criticism of the Saudi Arabian government following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

[40] Nicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch described Baghdadi's case as "symptomatic of the UAE's paranoia and its fear of critical thought and free speech."

H. A. Hellyer, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, praised Baghdadi's "consistency in criticizing various political forces, dependent on principle, rather than partisanship.