On March 9, author and journalist Omar El Akkad hosted his Winnipeg book launch at McNally Robinson Booksellers. His latest book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, is both a reflection of his disappointment with the West’s response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a scathing critique of how the U.S. has failed its minority communities.
El Akkad was born in Egypt and lived in Qatar before moving to Canada at age 16. From a young age, his life was shaped by Western institutions, including American and British schools in the Middle East. He later attended Queen’s University in Ontario, where he began his journalism career with the student newspaper. He is now an American citizen and resides in Portland, Oregon.
In an interview, El Akkad said he began working on the book in late 2023 in response to the armed conflict in Gaza, which shattered his long-held beliefs and left him feeling unmoored.
“To me, the defining trait of the book is a kind of deep uncertainty, because for the vast majority of my life, I’ve oriented myself toward a particular ideology that’s very much rooted in the West,” he said. “And now I feel unrooted from that, and I don’t know who I am on the other side of that. So that’s essentially how the book came about.”
In his book, El Akkad recalls how, during his time in the Middle East, he imagined the West as a place where freedom and justice were upheld by law and order. However, after moving to North America, he saw the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as evidence that the West — particularly the U.S. — is, at best, apathetic toward bloodshed and, at worst, a driving force behind it.
He points out that the Biden administration, despite its litany of slogans and task forces, failed to produce concrete action and even accused their party members who wanted a ceasefire to be affiliated with Russia. Politicians from all sides continue to ignore, disassociate and even fund the conflict, leading El Akkad to question who Muslim Americans can possibly turn to.
One Day is both enlightening and compelling. El Akkad’s writing is narrative and reflexive, blending personal stories — from reporting in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan about encounters with border agents — to illustrating his growing disillusionment with the West.
El Akkad acknowledges the book’s controversial nature but stands by his arguments.“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last book I ever publish, if that’s the effect it has on my career. But I think at a certain point in your life, you have to decide what it is you actually have to say, and whether you’re going to say it […] and so once I made that decision, there was a kind of clarity that settled over everything else.”
In an era of political upheaval, university students may find it difficult to navigate historical events. However, El Akkad believes students’ strength lies in their willingness to confront the world’s challenges.
“I will say that when I talk to people, not just about the issues in this book, but about all of the issues facing us in terms of defining our future, the most inspiring conversations I have are with those university students […] They show a level of courage and determination and intelligence and strategy that so many people in my generation and older generations can absolutely not muster. I tell you without hyperbole that I draw so much of my own courage from those conversations with those students,” said El Akkad.
“I know how pathetic it is for somebody like me to show up and be like, ‘hey, you fix it,’ because I was once a university student who had someone show up and tell me the exact same thing. And it feels so pathetic to be doing that again. But when I look at what’s happening at university campuses, not just on this continent, but across the world, it is a source of immense inspiration for me, because those students are choosing not to look away, and they’re choosing not to put their own temporary well-being ahead of problems that could have an existential effect on our species.”
