Luai Ahmed

Luai Ahmed
Luai Ahmed
Born (1993-09-05) September 5, 1993
Sanaa, Yemen
OccupationsJournalist, columnist and influencer

Luai Ahmed (Arabic: لؤي أحمد; born September 5, 1993) is a Yemeni and Swedish journalist, columnist, and influencer. Ahmed is active on social media and is considered a critic of radical Islam and antisemitism in Islam.[1] Ahmed is openly gay.[2][3]

Biography

Ahmed was raised in the capital of Yemen, Sana'a. He grew up in his home with the values instilled in him by his mother, Amal Basha, a peace and women's rights activist[4] and winner of several honors, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto.[5]

Following his mother's feminist activism, the Al-Qaeda organization threatened his family in 2013[6][7][8] in an open letter to the population in Yemen to receive his family's address.[1]

In 2014 Luai Ahmed got an opportunity to hold a lecture at the invitation of the "Olof Palme Foundation" in Sweden. His family members urged him to seek asylum there.[1] He came to Halmstad and since then and for the next four years, he lived there. He asked for and received political asylum, and later also Swedish citizenship.[4][1] After that he lived in Malmö and in Stockholm. He sympathized with the anti-immigration political party Sweden Democrats, and wrote against the Swedish society’s contempt towards the party’s policies.[9]

Ahmed is active on social networks with accumulatively more than 600k followers, on X[10] with 200,000 followers, 300,000 on Instagram, 75,000 on TikTok, and 11,000 on Facebook. His videos get millions of views on average. During October 2023, his videos went viral on the network, and in the months since October and November 2023, he added about 100,000 followers.[11] He condemns what he says is the hypocrisy of the Middle East, the hatred of Jews that is instilled from a young age,[12] the servitude to religion and the Muslim world's delay in social and technological progress.[10]

In addition, he was a columnist for the conservative Swedish newspaper Bulletin, where he writes articles against antisemitism and hatred of Jews as well as articles in which Islam, integration and immigration policy are recurring topics. In Yemen he wrote for the newspapers Yemen Today, the Yemen Times and the youth magazine YoO. According to him, he does not agree with the concept of Islamophobia,[13] because phobia (according to him) implies an extremely irrational and exaggerated fear. The fear of liberals, and especially free women in Islamic societies, of prison or the death penalty, is a rational and legitimate fear – so Ahmed said in an interview with the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.[10]

In 2021, he published his book "A Paradoxical Journey of a Refugee from the Sharia of Yemen to the Rainbow in Sweden", which tells about his first five years in Sweden, with a humorous critique of extreme Islam, but also of Sweden, where he currently lives.[8]

Work and Advocacy

Ahmed visited Israel in November 2023 during the war with Hamas, and his impressions of his visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque, which according to him the fact that non-Muslims are not allowed to enter, is actually apartheid.[14][15]

On February 27th, 2025, Ahmed delivered a speech at the UN Human Rights Watch, where he condemned the organization’s purported silence on the ongoing crises in Yemen, Syria, and Sudan, and claimed that they are consistently overshadowed by the UN’s primary focus on Israel.[16]

Ahmed has made media appearances such as Piers Morgan,[17] Sky News, as well as Swedish national television SVT, and Israeli television channels.[18]

His story has been profiled in a variety of international publications, such as Charlie Hebdo,[19] The Jerusalem Post,[20] and The Times of Israel.[21] He has also been featured in Germany’s Die Welt, Sweden’s Hallandsposten, and Israel Hayom.

Education

Ahmed studied international business at the Lebanese International University in Yemen. He also studied International Migration and Ethnic Relations at Malmö University.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d Kullberg, Joakim (August 11, 2022). "Luai Ahmed – en Kontroversiell Tyckare Med Halmstadrötter". Hallandsposten (in Swedish). Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  2. ^ Debatt (2023-06-20). "DEBATT: Den stora invandringen gör att vi bögar väljer SD". www.expressen.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  3. ^ Olsson, Konrad (2022-08-11). "Omstridde krönikörens resa började i Halmstad". Hallandsposten (in Swedish). Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  4. ^ a b Yemini, Ben-Dror (November 24, 2023). "The land of very limited possibilities". Ynet.
  5. ^ "UofTGrad17: Three things you should know about honorary grad Amal Basha". University of Toronto. June 15, 2017.
  6. ^ Apparently, following an aggressive confrontation she had in public with Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar – head of the second largest tribal federation (Hashid) in Yemmen, in the conference hall of the National Dialogue Conference in Yemmen. This was against the background of his withdrawal from the support of the feminist Nabila al-Zubayr to chair the body that decides on the future of the controversial Saada city.
  7. ^ Al-Muslimi, Farea (April 16, 2013). "Negotiating chaos – Yemmen's National Dialogue is already faltering". Executive.
  8. ^ a b Ahmed, Luai (2021). Asylum: A Refugee's Paradoxical Journey from Sharia Yemmen to Rainbow Sweden... Lava Förlag. ISBN 9789189261259.
  9. ^ Janouch, Katerina (2018-11-15). "Luai Ahmed: "Sluta mobba Sverigedemokraterna – vi är lika mycket värda som alla andra" | Katerina Magasin". katerinamagasin.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2024-06-22.
  10. ^ a b c Redaud, Lorraine (November 17, 2023). "Luai Ahmed, réfugié yémménite en Suède : "La Suède a accueilli l'islamisme à bras ouverts"". Charlie Hebdo.fr, (in French).
  11. ^ "The Yemmeni network influencer who became an Israel fan: "Now I feel like a Jew"". Mako. November 23, 2023.
  12. ^ "Luai Ahmed, a Swedish journalist who emigrated from Yemmen explains .... (in Hebrew – the interview in English)". 13Newsil. November 2023.
  13. ^ Watch a discussion with Gareth Cliff on this issue at "Gareth's Guests: Luai Ahmed" from December 5th, 2023.
  14. ^ Ahmed, Luai. "A Yemmeni Muslim blogger who traveled to see for himself the "apartheid regime" of the Zionists met with reality at Al-Aqsa Mosque". Beyadenu.
  15. ^ Ahmed, Luai (November 21, 2023). "Day One in Israel". X (Tweeter).
  16. ^ "When Arabs kill Arabs, no one bats an eye: Pro-Israel influencer Luai Ahmed slams UNHRC". The Jerusalem Post. 1 March 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  17. ^ Luai Ahmed [@JustLuai] (24 January 2024). ""If Hitler was alive today and started bombing Israel they would all call him a hero." Thank you @piersmorgan for inviting me on your show and allowing me to talk about the Houthis and antisemitism" (Tweet). Retrieved 4 September 2025 – via X (formerly Twitter).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ "'Shocked to the core': Pro-Israel Arab 'speechless' from the left's support of Hamas". Sky News Australia. 5 July 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  19. ^ Redaud, Lorraine (7 November 2023). "Luai Ahmed, réfugié yéménite en Suède: «La Suède a accueilli l'islamisme à bras ouverts»". Charlie Hedbo (in French). Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  20. ^ Merlin, Ohad (11 February 2024). "Yemeni-Swedish journalist defies death threats, champions Jewish-gay rights". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  21. ^ Pacchani, Gianluca (27 December 2024). "'Houthis are simply insane': In Tel Aviv, Yemeni activist explains current conflict". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
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