INTERVIEW WITH PEACE ACTIVIST LOAY AL-SHAREEF (Manama, Bahrain)

you know what that is the dreidel dreidel trail spenceman's pen will it land on a non a gamma hay or shen the miracle of hanukkah dwells within when the dreidel you spent spanish that i'm right now in the home of loyal sharif welcome to my home thank you so much we have been talking for a couple months now and we got to know each other a little bit but i don't know anything about your background i know what you're doing now i don't know where you come from can you explain that a little bit all right first of all welcome to my home what do you think about ivory the library is beautiful and you are an extremely knowledgeable person thank you so much my name is sharif and i love to introduce myself as a content creator i create content educational content for learning languages different languages including of course hebrew ibrit i teach hebrew for the beginners and english as well all levels uh so i love creating content for languages because i believe that when you create a when you learn a language you acquire another brain if you learn five languages you have five brains so you're more open to different cultures different backgrounds and you become more tolerant so this is what i do but of course originally i'm a software engineer yeah i know worked as a software engineer for a very long time and i believe that you know what's the real definition what's the simplest the simplest definition of an engineer the simplest a person who designs the solution okay so i learned from engineering to design solutions for so many things so on a really uh i thank god i thank god for um giving me these skills different skills in different uh knowledgeable areas because it's helping me in what i'm doing in uh in my life okay and can you tell us a little about where you're from where you grew up what your ancestry is like and all that it's a very complicated uh question but i'll start with morocco because my my origin my real real origin it goes to a city called fast because my name is uh yeah even i can vote i can go back to the 42 ancestor which is ali so ali is the first i have two family names sharif and lithus is a very well known family name descendants of the prophet muhammad they are originally from morocco okay and then family moved to egypt so we settled there for a very long time and then to saudi arabia and then now i moved to bahrain so morocco egypt saudi arabia bahrain i was born and raised in jeddah saudi arabia and now i'm living in bahrain and i'm so proud that i uh i contribute to my society here in bahrain and to the gulf states and to the arab world as well it's a very bit uh complicated but you know this is i have different backgrounds and i'm so proud of it okay and um can you take me back to your childhood what was it like growing up in jeddah in the 90s i you know whenever i go to jeddah i go i still go to places where i've been in school in in everywhere so i loved it i loved it growing up in jeddah is is very intimate it's very um it's very open compared to other cities in saudi arabia and in the gulf as well uh i love shiddhasong i still love jeddah my favorite city and when i was there it reminded me a lot of tel aviv when i walked through the carnation i was like i really shocked yeah i live by the way in my neighborhood it's called zara okay it's very close to the corner so it's always been a modern city even in the 90s and now riyadh is becoming more modern come on but you know judd has been that modern for a very long time so i loved so loyal to you okay and you went to what kind of school i went to uh a government school it's called a feder and then a private school it's called jila fesla graduated from there and because so many people ask me why do you have this accent american accent i learned english through movies by the way you see movies i owe hollywood a lot you know through through english i learned hebrew i learned french i learned lots of languages through english and and my degree the final degree i got is masters and software engineering from uh i didn't i have it i showed it to you yeah from pennsylvania state university so i'm a proud nittany lion we are penn state nice did they teach you any english at school they told us english but i i didn't depend on the english that i took in school because it was very preliminary it was very you know um but now it's different of course but it was very um basic english so i i relied more on movies and songs michael jackson madonna george michael my childhood heroes by the way okay so i used to listen to the song and then translate the lyrics and it really helped very well just like i did with hebrew with ofra with uh haddad with so many singers in um in the jewish world and when did you start taking your own path meaning the gulf is a very shall i say intimate place you know traditionally people have just been living here not having too much to do with outside world um we could definitely say that other parts of the world have modernized quicker and you're one of the leading people in the gulf who are promoting positive and healthy change and tolerance and acceptance and just you know widening everybody's horizons when did that all start uh it started when i first when i um when i first started to work you feel more independent when you uh when you work you have money you can travel everywhere you can read you can and you can find you can find the truth easily and the truth will set you free so for example i wanted to learn french so hard so i traveled to france in 2010 and it was my year of discovery before that believe me i wasn't the louis that you're talking to right now i wasn't that open towards different faiths and different religions i wasn't that open towards the jews i wasn't that open i was okay but not that open like uh i would repeat what everyone is saying and this is what were they saying like the jews are the enemies the jews are the enemy the jews the christians are the jews and christians are sitting on one table and conspiring against us how to take over the world imagine that i was saying that but you know this is what knowledge makes difference knowledge makes a great difference when you learn more about people when you learn their language when you learn their culture when you travel to their countries and cities you have a a a total different viewpoint of what these people really are so this is what i have it when i when i started to work i had my own money so i felt more independent and i traveled travel changed everything where were the places you traveled to europe america i love america so i traveled to the u.s 2011 2013 i graduated from pennsylvania and europe america canada canada and also uh i went to new zealand uh um uh singapore so many different uh last year i went to russia nice oh yeah for the world i don't know not last year 2018. i went to the olympics to the support yeah i have of course i shared it on instagram so uh support the saudi team and we lost ico sorry about that yeah it's a better luck next time yes of course okay so you started opening up to the world and then what happened when did you start the academy and so when i when i opened up to the world what happened what happened was a real clash inside my chest that i felt that what i was taught when i was young is totally different from reality so when i found out the truth the truth really set me free so i really started to engage more with people from different faiths from different religions i still make videos to promote peace between the jews the muslims and the christians and even the different faiths and different religions i started to learn the purpose of god better that we are both living under the uh uh under the uh the uh the uh um under the rule of god or under the command of god to to build our societies together and then god will judge us in the hereafter or inshallah it's the judgment for god but in life we should all work together despite our race religion sex ethnicity despite everything else that's not what i was having in mind when i was a kid and then i decided to teach people language through youtube 2013 it lasted for four or five years and then i decided to turn that into business and this is what the academy took place in 2019 alhamdulillah thank god it's working so fine so um it's working good so so far so alhamdulillah i'm willing to develop this more and more and this is my message i want to teach people languages because when you learn more than a language you learn more than a culture you are more open and tolerant towards the others okay and um i understand that there's uh one country in the world that you would love to visit someday can you tell me where that is other than singapore just kidding now i visited singapore uh of course i would love to visit you know let's be very rational i love the prophets okay i'm so attached to the prophets when my father allah used to bring the uh used to bring the stories of even kathie the stories of the prophets question so i was always intrigued to know more about eliyahu elias is so i i i really had this interest of learning more and more about the prophets and when i found out that their language was hebrew i loved hebrew more and more so i would love to visit i would love to visit israel the state of israel for my love and passion for the prophets of god or because of my love for the prophets and and the and the heritage of the prophets one of the cities that i really want to visit so bad is the city where a prophet who's very glorified in the quran is mentioned his name is elias you know where he's from he's from haifa is saying that you think that's every sabbath right yeah exactly so i want to visit i want to visit the eternal capital of king david jerusalem i want to visit the city of david i want to visit uh and by the way elias he was sent to the people of baal who worshiped baal right the false god you know there is a city in lebanon called baalbak yes it's also the city was that was named after the people who worshipped the the false god so we know that's in the quran but we we we don't honor or i don't want to say we don't honor not so many of us honor the memories of of eliahu or elias and he's a great prophet of god by at least knowing more about him so i learned his language i know he's from i know from which uh disciples uh from what tribe he is i want to visit all of the i want to visit you know why because i want to relive the memories of of yeshua when he entered the promised land after the death of moses i had a wish when i visited jordan last week i stood on mount nebu and i said please god i don't want to be like moses i want to be like moses in all aspects except for this one i don't want to be like moses what i can't see the promised land but don't enter it i want to be like moses when he uh i see the promised land and i enter it insha allah what is holding you back from entering the promised land right now well i don't want to do premature steps i want to do it in the right time and i have good relations with lots of people and i don't want to ruin anything i want to do it wisely and inshaallah i'm so sure that peace will happen very soon and and believe me i will be on the first plane to go to yerushalayim in sha allah and that happens and it will be uh as i told you i will visit yeriho i will go to the dead sea like joshua did yereko i want to visit yerushalayim i want to i want to visit haifa i want to visit all the cities all the cities that the prophets roamed over judea and the hills of jerusalem because uh i believe as a muslim that i'm the extension of the prophet i will say it again as i said it before our interview on imami who has and what what steps do you think people need to take in order to advance this idea of peace in the region it's a very complicated question it's not that easy so i think the steps to accept each other except the fact that we are uh the sons of the of the same region the jewish people are not or foreign in the middle east we have to know that they they belong here even the jews who are ashkenazi or the they come from ukraine and russia they are originally originally originally before diaspora they were here so we are cousins and we are from the same father i am from ishmael you are from isaac but we are we we both belong to avraham right so we have to accept the fact that we are destined to live with each other for the days to come in sha allah until the the world to come comes i want to say to uh uh to i want to say to the jewish people that we'll continue building bridges and bridges based on common ground and we believe that muslims and jews they have so many things in common we worship the same god the god of abraham isaac and jacob we believe that prophet muhammed he came with the message of monotheism worshiping one and only one god this is the fundamentalist concept of islam we we both don't eat pork we don't do lots of things do lots of things that we that we both share in common to be believed that's forbidden and so many things of course we have our differences but we also have our agreements so why do we why do we not build our bridges based on our agreements and leave the differences just like we have differences between all people in the world even in the same family we may have difference between the brother and the brother correct so this is the message that i want to deliver to the jewish people i want to hear jewish voices that will call this for the same that will call for more tolerance and more openness with the muslim world it is time for muslims and jews and christians and and other faiths in the middle east all people all people this is the middle east that mohammed bin salman mbs talked about one day he said that the middle east is the new york i'm so sure that mbs when he said that he means the middle east that has the jews the christians and the muslims not only the muslims we are diverse and diversity is actually a power if we use it right and we are heading to that direction and insha allah i'm so sure that very soon you and i shalomi and our other good friends we will one day have a coffee in riyadh and then we will take a train and have lunch in jerusalem and then go back to bahrain for dinner and in the morning pray we'll do it in jeddah and then go back to haifa maybe you never know sounds like a plan insha allah nothing is impossible and you know to think myself even two or three years ago i never would dream that i would be sitting here in bahrain dress the way i am you a devout muslim dressed the way you are together we have no problems that's a sign of god that's a sign from god that it is possible because those who want us to fight for eternity are evil we should know that fighting will begets more fighting and this is what satan wants us to to do but god wants us to to live with each other and build our societies in peace and prosper together it's good for you for me for my children for your children and for the entire humanity correct and the jewish people are as i told you they are part of the middle east no one will ever be able to deviate from that fact whatsoever the jewish people belong here as the arabs belong here we are destined to live with each other and inshaallah i'm so optimistic that peace will happen very soon amen thank you so much you are more than welcome thank you so much