Luai Ahmed, a Yemeni journalist, author and content creator who has been living in Sweden since 2014, gave an impressive keynote address at the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium. In his speech, he described his journey from hating Israel to fighting anti-Semitism and how to defend democracy on social media. He has since become a fierce critic of radical Islam and authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. The article has also been published on ZEIT Online.
My name is Luai Ahmed. I am a 31-year-old journalist and content creator from Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen. Today, I use my platform on social media to fight Islamic extremism, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia and sexism.
I am a part of an online movement called “Builders of the Middle East”. We have a channel in English, where I am a host, a channel in Arabic, and one in Hebrew. These channels are built to tell stories of humanity, and of human beings. Our team is made up of Arabs and Jews who are tired of extremism, violence and hatred, and we are doing everything in our power to deradicalize the Middle East.
Today, I have Jewish co-workers who I deeply love. I have Jewish friends who mean the world to me. But that wasn’t always the case.
read more “We combat extremism by showing the third narrative”
