The Fox Hunt: A Memoir of Yemen and My Odyssey to America

By Mohammed Al Samawi

"A gripping account of terror and escape.”  — New York Times Book Review

The Fox Hunt tells one young man’s unforgettable story of his harrowing escape from Yemen's brutal civil war with the help of a daring plan engineered on social media by a small group of interfaith activists in the West.

WINNER: 2019 NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS • A 2019 NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS FINALIST 

Born in the Old City of Sana’a, Yemen, to a pair of middle-class doctors, Mohammed Al Samawi was a devout Muslim raised to think of Christians and Jews as his enemy. But when Mohammed was twenty-three, he secretly received a copy of the Bible, and what he read cast doubt on everything he’d previously believed. After connecting with Jews and Christians on social media, and at various international interfaith conferences, Mohammed became an activist, making it his mission to promote dialogue and cooperation in Yemen.

Then came the death threats: first on Facebook, then through terrifying anonymous phone calls. To protect himself and his family, Mohammed fled to the southern port city of Aden. He had no way of knowing that Aden was about to become the heart of a north-south civil war, and the battleground for a well-funded proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. As gunfire and grenades exploded throughout the city, Mohammed hid in the bathroom of his apartment and desperately appealed to his contacts on Facebook.

Miraculously, a handful of people he barely knew responded. Over thirteen days, four ordinary young people with zero experience in diplomacy or military exfiltration worked across six technology platforms and ten time zones to save this innocent young man trapped between deadly forces— rebel fighters from the north and Al Qaeda operatives from the south.

The story of an improbable escape as riveting as the best page-turning thrillers, The Fox Hunt reminds us that goodness and decency can triumph in the darkest circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9780062678218

Mohammed Al Samawi

Mohammed Al Samawi was born in 1986 in Yemen. In his midtwenties, he became involved in interfaith groups promoting dialogue between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. In 2015, during the Yemeni Civil War, he fled from Aden to the United States. Since his entry to the United States, he has worked for several NGOs that promote peace and religious tolerance.

Reviews for The Fox Hunt

[brokenteepee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the story that kept me on the edge of my seat. Imagine being a country torn by civil war and you are a wanted man. The situation is deteriorating and you need to get out – but how? Oh, and that country is Yemen. The Fox Hunt is the memoir of the man in this story.In this time of division and hate a story like this certainly offers hope. For the author of this memoir is a Muslim and he is helped by an international assortment of friends and associates of all religions and beliefs. They come together to help the PERSON remembering that a person is not the religion they practice but an individual.Despite this book being nonfiction it reads like a first class fiction suspense thriller with a sense of humor. In fact it’s Mohammed’s humor that makes all of the horror palatable. His childhood is not easy and yet he shares the trials with quiet dignity. He is a truly remarkable young man. He is taught from an early age that Jewish people are the worst of the worst. Until one day he is given a Bible and he has to readjust his worldview – which he does. To an amazing degree.I really enjoyed this book even given my general tendency to not read non fiction books. I think if more books like this were read and more people looked past labels like Muslim, Christian, Jewish and looked more at the person the world would be a much gentler place.

[bettytaylor56 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the most amazing stories I have ever read – and it is a true story! Across the top of the front cover of the book is a very powerful description – “Four Strangers, Three Faiths, and One Extraordinary Escape to Freedom”.Mohammed Al Samawi grew up in Yemen being taught to hate Christians and Jews. But then he met Luke, a Christian professor, and they struck up a friendship. With sincere concern for Luke, Mohammed presented him with a copy of the Quran. Luke agreed to read the Quran if Mohammed would read the Bible. This challenge would ultimately totally change Mohammed’s life.The more he read, the more he came to realize that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are more similar than they are different. This realization resulted in so many questions he knew he had to get answers. He began on-line interactions with Jews and Christians and attended conferences in Sarajevo and Jordan. It was in Jordan that he met a young lady who would later help save his life. But his interactions with Jews and Christians soon got the attention of the extremist groups. He began receiving death threats and soon knew his life was truly in danger. How could he get out of Yemen? Fearing for the safety of his family he left his home of Sana’a and fled to Aden.In Aden, he reached out on social media asking for help. He was trapped, all alone, in the bathroom of his apartment while outside the gunfire and grenades exploded. His social media friends became his family, there with him 24 hours a day. It was four young interfaith activists – two in the US and two in Tel Aviv - with no experience in foreign affairs, international relations, or foreign diplomacy who, through social media, carried out a miracle. They reached out to everyone they knew and got them to also reach out to their networks. And people responded! They connected with various militaries, governments, and organizations where they found some who were willing to help. The way they got him out of Yemen is just mind-boggling. Not only did they get him out of Yemen but they then got him to the US. This is a miraculous story. It restores faith that there really are good people out there who will go to great measures for people they do not know. Why? It is just the right thing to do I guess. It really should be no surprise too that his story has already been picked up to be made into a movie. This is absolutely a MUST READ.

[bookscookslooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the story that kept me on the edge of my seat. Imagine being a country torn by civil war and you are a wanted man. The situation is deteriorating and you need to get out – but how? Oh, and that country is Yemen. The Fox Hunt is the memoir of the man in this story.In this time of division and hate a story like this certainly offers hope. For the author of this memoir is a Muslim and he is helped by an international assortment of friends and associates of all religions and beliefs. They come together to help the PERSON remembering that a person is not the religion they practice but an individual.Despite this book being nonfiction it reads like a first class fiction suspense thriller with a sense of humor. In fact it’s Mohammed’s humor that makes all of the horror palatable. His childhood is not easy and yet he shares the trials with quiet dignity. He is a truly remarkable young man. He is taught from an early age that Jewish people are the worst of the worst. Until one day he is given a Bible and he has to readjust his worldview – which he does. To an amazing degree.I really enjoyed this book even given my general tendency to not read non fiction books. I think if more books like this were read and more people looked past labels like Muslim, Christian, Jewish and looked more at the person the world would be a much gentler place.

[dolphari · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author grew up in a strictly Islamic society in Yemen, which taught a hatred of Jews and Christians. Slowly he became aware that those religions had some similarities with his own, and then that people of those religion were... just people. He rather fell into international peace work, keeping it secret from his family. Then the Yemeni Civil War came, and he ended up hiding out in an apartment, fearing for his life from the Sunnis who would see he was from the North with lighter skin, and from nearly anyone in his country who would think he was a traitor for communicating with Jews. But his international friends, some of them American Jews, worked tirelessly to contact governments and ask for Mohammed to be evacuated. It worked, finally, in an exciting sequence of events.This book feels like a thriller, with the weight of real life.