Join two journalists who have reported from the Middle East for outlets in the US and Canada for a live conversation on what it takes to make Western audiences care about the lives of people in places they can safely ignore.

Talk hosted by Oregon Humanities.

On March 12, 2025, VPL hosted a conversation with Omar El Akkad about his latest book, moderated by Adel Iskandar. -- description from event listing below -- On October 25 of 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad wrote online: “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 message was viewed over 10 million times. The award-winning writer has now expanded that idea into a book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, where he calls out the hypocrisy of Western ideals, explores the rupture of the “rules-based-order”, and reckons with the implications of the war for all of us. Omar El Akkad will appear in conversation with SFU Professor Adel Iskandar. -- Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager and now lives in the United States. He is a two-time winner of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award and the Oregon Book Award. His books have been translated into 13 languages. His debut novel, American War, was named by the BBC as one of 100 novels that shaped our world; his second novel, What Strange Paradise, won the 2021 Giller Prize. Adel Iskandar is a Vancouver-based academic, activist, and public intellectual. He is currently an Associate Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University, where he is also the Chair of Graduate Studies, and the Director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies (CCMS). Iskandar is the author, co-author, and editor of several works including Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution; Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism; Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation; Mediating the Arab Uprisings; and Media Evolution on the Eve of the Arab Spring.

As always, edited by Ian Anderson (@starsalwayslost), with special thanks / credit to Sina Rahmani + The East is a Podcast. Our Twitter presence is @AntiImpArchive, and if you would like to reach out directly we have an email address at: [email protected]