Today’s guest isĀ Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, the co-founder of Ideas Beyond Borders (IBB), a nonprofit that translates books and articles about limited government, freedom of thought, and market economics into Arabic and other languages, and distributes them for free in the Middle East and other parts of the world. (Full disclosure: Reason‘s Nick Gillespie is on the board of IBB.)
Gillespie talked with Al Mutar about IBB’s new book, Untold Stories of the Middle East, which celebrates entrepreneurs in Kurdistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere whom IBB has given startup grants; how the October 7 attacks on Israel and fighting in Gaza and Lebanon will affect the region for decades; and what it was like to grow up in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein, various Islamic terrorist groups, and the U.S. occupation. This conversation was taped in front of a live audience in New York.
0:00āIntroduction
1:26āUntold Stories Of The Middle East
4:20āMicro grants in the Middle East
6:20āThe hope of Kurdistan
9:00āBeirut’s post-explosion struggles & recovery
11:12āOil vs. the entrepreneurial spirit in the Middle East
14:20āBuilding a vocabulary of freedom with Ideas Beyond Borders
18:20āCensorship & internet access in the Middle East
19:39āHiring Middle Eastern translators
22:16āA brief history of political upheaval in the Middle East
30:12āThe ‘liberal minority’ in Lebanon
33:29āU.S. intervention in the Middle East
39:45āImpact of October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel on peace processes in the region 44:00āFunding schools for girls in Afghanistan
46:05āThe tragedy & hope of Afghanistan: The Graveyard of Empires
49:43ā’Sanctions Boy’: Growing up in 90s Baghdad
59:04ā’We don’t have the privilege to be depressed (about the Middle East)’
1:01:35āEconomic freedom & self-determination restore agency
Previous appearances:
Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, Melissa Chen: Bringing Enlightenment Values to the Middle East, May 25, 2022
Faisal Al Mutar Fights Radical Islam with Western Bestsellers, September 21, 2018
Today’s sponsor:
The Reason Speakeasy. The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy that doubles as a taping ofĀ The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie. Go toĀ reason.com/eventsĀ for information and tickets to the next one.
- Video Editor: Ian Keyser