Loay Alshareef

Loay Alshareef
لؤي الشريف
Alshareef with US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides in Dubai, 2022
Born	(1982-11-11) November 11, 1982
Citizenship	Saudi Arabia
Occupation	Peace activist
Website	Instagram YouTube

Loay Alshareef (Arabic: لؤي الشريف; born 11 November 1982) is a UAE-based Saudi Arabian peace activist, who advocates for improving relations between the Arab world and Israel.

Biography

Alshareef was raised in Jeddah, in a deeply religious household, to an Egyptian father. He had memorized the Quran by age 18. He grew up thinking that God wanted him to hate Jews and Christians.

Alshareef first met a Jew in 2010 when he traveled to Paris to study French, and was placed with a Yemenite Jewish host family. He was apprehensive when he saw a Star of David in the house and realized they were Jewish, at first asking the study abroad program to move him to a different house. He changed his mind after getting to know his hosts and having meals with them, learning about Judaism and Jewish holidays. When he returned to Saudi Arabia, his mindset had been permanently changed, and he became an advocate for peace and understanding between Muslims and Jews.

He started traveling to the United Arab Emirates in 2016, and has lived in Abu Dhabi since 2020. He praises the Abraham Accords and other steps taken by the UAE's government in recent years to improve openness and acceptance of different cultures. In the UAE, he and other influencers have held interfaith gatherings and meals for both Jewish and Muslim holidays. His work on dialogue has been praised by Chief Rabbi of the UAE Levi Duchman and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna.

Alshareef supports Zionism as the right of Jews to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. He argues that the Quran supports this, and that "Father Abraham would love to see his children" focus on their commonalities rather than their differences. He criticizes the Muslim Brotherhood and media and propaganda in the Arab and Muslim worlds which teach hatred of Jews from a young age. Alshareef believes that education is the key to deradicalization and a lasting peace. He sees progress in the Saudi education system, which has removed many references to Jews and Christians as evil.

During the Israel–Hamas war, Alshareef acknowledged that the war has made the possibility of peace more remote, but said that the war can end immediately if Hamas lays down their weapons and releases the hostages. He criticized protests against Israel in Western countries, saying the average American doesn't understand the conflict and has an unrealistic view of Hamas.