Luai Ahmed: Yemini-Swede speaks out on Israel’s war against Hamas
More to the point, Luai Ahmed speaks out about responses to this war and what it shows about Islamic and Arab culture. I bring you the four most recent “X” posts available at the moment of writing this piece. I let Ahmed’s words stand for themselves.
I must admit that Yemen was not on my map as a contemporary enemy of Israel, as an active front in the war against Hamas. And then missiles they launched in our direction, taken out before they could reach us, thank goodness, put Yemen on that map.
Then, by chance, I discovered Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai). He describes himself as: “Yemeni by soil & upbringing. Swedish by passport & loyalty,” and is a columnist in @Bulletin_Nu, a Swedish online news site.
The posts are in order from earliest to most recent. I have copy-pasted the text that goes along with his videos to make it convenient for those who prefer to read rather than watch videos:
ONE:
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.
Just because I am an Arab, it does not mean that Jews should become less human to me. Just because my name is Ahmed, it does not mean that I should be celebrating Jewish blood spilled in Israel. Just because I am an Arab, it does not mean I am to support Arabian warfare unconditionally. Just because my name is Ahmed, it does not mean that my mind and tongue are devoted to Mohammed’s 7th-century battlefields and books. Just because I am an Arab, it does not mean that I cannot choose love and peace over hate and bloodshed. Just because my name is Ahmed, it does not mean that my mind should be programmed to think that Jews are crooks and Muslims are saints.
I am proud of who I am. But I’m not proud of my culture. I’m not proud of Islam. I am not proud of the Arab world, but that doesn’t mean that I hate them. That means I want them to do better, to choose peace instead of violence, to choose science instead of ignorance, to choose secularism instead of dogma. And I will die on that hill.
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.
Just because I am an Arab, it does not mean that Jews… pic.twitter.com/hSS0GwjY8F
— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) October 28, 2023
TWO:
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.
We, Arabs, have killed and oppressed a million times more of our people than the West and Israel can ever do.
It is not Israel that married off my mother when she was a child. It is my people who did.
It is not the West or Israel that has been bombing Yemen for the past decade and killed 400,000. It is us, Arabs, who did it.
It is not the Israel that implanted Islamic extremism in the East and the West. It is our mosques, it is the books we worship, it is the Imams we follow, it is what we learn and what we teach.
It is not the West that forces us to treat women like commodities. It is our people.
And most of all, it is not the West or Israel that doesn’t value Arab lives.
It is us, Arabs, who do not value human life.
If we do not admit to ourselves that WE are the problem, that WE are refusing to progress, and that WE need to change – then change will never happen, blood will keep flowing, and we will never know peace.
How do we expect the world and the International Community to respect us, when we don’t respect ourselves?
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.
We, Arabs, have killed and oppressed a million times more of our people than the West and Israel can ever… pic.twitter.com/SpGQHFFFuF
— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) October 30, 2023
THREE:
To those raising the Palestinian flag,
Where were you when ISIS was launched and beheaded tens of thousands of Arabs in Iraq, Libya, and Syria in the name of Islam? Why didn’t you take to the streets and raise their flags? Why didn’t you condemn the terror and call for a ”ceasefire”?
Where were you when Arab dictators and terrorists killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs in Syria and Libya? Why didn’t you take to the streets and raise their flags? Why didn’t you condemn the terror and call for a ”ceasefire”?
Where were you in the last decade when Saudi Arabia, backed by 8 Arab countries, killed 400,000 Yemenis, my own people? I didn’t see any of you take to the streets or raise the Yemeni flag. I did not see any of you condemning the terror and calling for a ”ceasefire” while Arab countries were slaughtering my own people.
This must lead to some self-reflection.
When millions of Arabs are slaughtered by other Arabs, you say nothing.
But when 7 thousand of Arabs are killed by Jews defending their right to exist, you revolt, you get angry, you storm the streets in the East and the West, you raise the Palestinian flag, you condemn the terror, you call for a ceasefire, you turn the world upside down.
Why is that?
Why were you so silent then but SO LOUD now?
Can it be that you are finally raising a flag and creating chaos because you only hate that the perpetrators are Jews?
Because you obviously don’t care when millions of Arabs are killed by other Arabs.
Can it be that you storming the streets is just you venting out your hatred towards Jews? The same hatred we learned in our mosques and schools?
You speak of ”numbers and proportionality.” But by the rules of proportionality, you should not be raising Palestinian flags.
Unless, there is another agenda at play: Jew-hatred. Or as I would call it: Hatred.
To those raising the Palestinian flag,
Where were you when ISIS was launched and beheaded tens of thousands of Arabs in Iraq, Libya, and Syria in the name of Islam? Why didn’t you take to the streets and raise their flags? Why didn’t you condemn the terror and call for a… pic.twitter.com/wGj56cHxjz
— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) November 1, 2023
FOUR:
Yemen, my poor country, has decided to bomb Israel.
My poor country is more concerned with killing Jews than feeding its starving population.
This is the problem with the Arab world.
Blind unforgiving hatred. Wrong choices. And psychopathic leadership.
More than 75% of the Yemeni population is living under poverty, and yet our tribal leaders are determined to jeopardize the safety of an already malnourished and vulnerable society.
Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis according to the UN. We cannot afford to feed half of our population, yet apparently, we can afford to fire missiles aimed at killing the Jews.
Yemenis persecuted Yemeni Jews for more than 1,400 years. When Israel was established, Yemeni Jews finally found a place they could call home and be safe in. So they fled. Every single one of them.
And now, the Yemeni Jews are under attack by Yemenis – again.
I have received hundreds of messages from Yemenis telling me ”You are not a Yemeni!”, “You are a Jew!”, “You are a shame to Yemen!!”
It is an honor to be a “shame” to my country today.
Let me know when we start feeding our starving population instead of bombing the Jews.
Let me know when we unlearn the Jew-hatred, the hatred, the misogyny, the homophobia, etc. etc. etc.
Only then would I be a proud Yemeni.
But not right now.
Yemen, my poor country, has decided to bomb Israel.
My poor country is more concerned with killing Jews than feeding its starving population.
This is the problem with the Arab world.
Blind unforgiving hatred. Wrong choices. And psychopathic leadership.
More than 75% of the… pic.twitter.com/hUjbYZJWNV
— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) November 3, 2023
Feature Image is a screenshot from these videos.
