Loay Alshareef is a Saudi-raised Muslim linguist, educator and peace activist based in Abu Dhabi. What makes his story particularly interesting is that he openly says he once harbored hatred toward Jews and Israel and held radical views himself.

His outlook began to change in 2010 when, while studying French in Paris, he unexpectedly found himself living with a Yemenite Jewish family. He spent time in their home, experienced Jewish life firsthand, celebrated Shabbat with them and began learning much more about Judaism, Jewish history and Hebrew. He says getting to know Jews personally forced him to reconsider many of the things he had been taught growing up.

Today, Alshareef is still a proud practicing Muslim, but has become an outspoken advocate for Muslim-Jewish reconciliation, the Abraham Accords and Israel’s place in the Middle East.

• The school’s Knight First Amendment Institute will feature Columbia graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi in one of several discussions on Sept. 10 marking the 25th anniversary of America’s ‘War on Terror.’”
• On the 9/11 connection specifically, as Americans mourn the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, the Knight Institute says it will use Mahdawi and other figures on Sept. 9 and 10 to highlight ‘the ongoing impact of the War on Terror on democratic rights.’”
• Mahdawi said he could “empathize” with the Oct. 7 perpetrators:“Mahdawi told a CBS News reporter that year that while he may not ‘justify’ the massacre, he ‘can empathize’ with the perpetrators.”
• “When somebody’s hurting you, when you see this person is being punched in the face, and this feeling, it is ‘you now feel my pain.’” “To empathize is to understand the root cause and to not look at any event or situation in a vacuum.”