One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

By: Omar El Akkad

Narrated by: Omar El Akkad

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • PALESTINE BOOK AWARD WINNER • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM • From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values.

"[A] bracing memoir and manifesto." —The New York Times

"I can’t think of a more important piece of writing to read right now. I found hope here, and help, to face what the world is now, all that it isn’t anymore. Please read this. I promise you won’t regret it." —Tommy Orange, bestselling author of Wandering Stars and There There

On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times.

As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human—not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage.

This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.

Thank you 🙏🏽

Everything about this book was everything we all need to know, hear, consider, and act upon.

an honest view of the world during the genocide!

Omar El Akkad beautifully describes the current world, news, events, people's behaviors, people's resistance, racism, empirical oppression on many countries, colonization and occupation, and the current atrocities and the genocide in Gaza. He spoke my mind. I listened to the audio book and ordered a copy to annotate it.

Stop participating

This was life changing. Seeing how these narratives play out in real time so that we can justify the atrocious has always been a mystery. But because of this book, no longer.

Systematic deconstruction of the liberal persona

Omar demonstrates patience and maturity while illuminating obvious truths rooted in the Western liberal mindset. His words are crafted to challenge and criticize complacencies often found among educated elites and the general public. However, they are also profound enough to plant seeds of thought even in the most stubborn mindsets, as long as those individuals take the time to reflect on them honestly and thoughtfully.

Must listen

This is an Important Book, be prepared for the emotional rollercoaster it will put you through.