A Yemeni-Swedish video blogger calls on his Arab sisters and brothers to be self-reflective.
“This a message to my Arab friends and followers who accuse me of being a ‘traitor,’ This is how Luai Ahmed begins one of his posts on X (formerly Twitter). With his views on Islam and Israel/Palestine, the video blogger holds up a mirror to other Muslim Arabs – and is widely hated for this.
“Yemeni by soil & upbringing. Swedish by passport & loyalty.” is how Luai Ahmed describes himself on X. With his gratitude and loyalty to his second homeland, he reminds me of a friend from Egypt who now lives in the Netherlands. He told me how it turns his stomach every time he hears Moroccan migrants talking among themselves in Arabic about the Dutch. They insult them, call them names, curse them and despise them.
Meanwhile in Berlin:
- Seyran Ates has just announced that she will (temporarily) close her secular Ibn Rushed-Goethe Mosque due to threats from radical Muslims. Ates, a lawyer of Turkish descent, has been living under police protection since the mosque opened.
- former MP Marcel Luthe had to cancel his anti-Hamas demonstration because of “massive security concerns.” He wanted to raise balloons with the inscription “Free Gaza from Hamas” in front of a Salafist mosque.
- police removed posters with photos of Israeli Hamas hostages from advertising pillars. A spokesman for the Berlin police said that this had been done “after their own determination of a violation of the press law.” An imprint would have been missing.
Note on the last point: Posters without imprints are hanging everywhere in Berlin and have never bothered the police. Was the purpose of the action possibly to avoid provoking angry pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas demonstrators because the police might be outnumbered if push came to shove? Something similar happened in London, where police officers removed posters of Israeli children abducted by Hamas. One X user can think of only one word for this: submission.
Back to blogger Luai Ahmed:
In addition to being an activist on social media, Luai Ahmed is also a columnist and podcast editor for the Swedish online medium “Bulletin.” There it says: Before moving to Sweden, Luai Ahmed was a columnist for Yemen Today, Yemen Times and YoO Youth Magazine, according to his homepage. He is the author of the book “Asylum: A refugee’s paradoxical journey from Sharia Yemen to Rainbow Sweden,” studied international business administration at the International Lebanese University in Yemen and took several courses in international migration and ethnic relations at Malmö University. Here are some of his posts on X:
“As Arabs, we need to understand that Israel and the West are not our oppressors or enemies. We, Arabs, are our own worst enemies. We, Arabs, are our greatest oppressors.”
“This a message to my Arab friends and followers who accuse me of being a ‘traitor,’ a ‘sell-out,’ who tell me that I am ‘a shame to Arabs’ and that I should change my name because of my views on Islam and Israel/Palestine.”
“I don’t understand how gays can defend Islam and Muslims while gays are KILLED in 11 Muslim countries and imprisoned in 45 Muslim countries. Are these privileged Western gays playing dumb, or are they actually stupid?”
One could criticize Luai Ahmed for spicing up his videos with a good dose of polemics. Probably it takes such provocation to be heard on social media and make people think. Ahmed also ignores the fact that Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are indeed oppressed by the Israeli state – in the form of Jewish settlers, police or military. And with regard to Yemen as a country of origin, Ahmed leaves out the massive arms supplies from the USA and Germany for Saudi Arabia. Material for future videos? In any case, I wish for more self-reflections of this kind – on all sides.
For more of Luai Ahmed’s posts, columns and podcasts, follow him on X at @JustLuai or via: linktr.ee/luaiahmed.