Ideas Beyond Borders

04/16/2026

You don’t fix bureaucracy by passing another law. You fix it by removing friction.

In the Kurdistan Region, starting a business used to mean: months of waiting, unclear fees, and stacks of paperwork.

So instead of writing new legislation, the focus shifted to something simpler:
→ one digital platform
→ clear procedures
→ no middlemen

Now?
You can register a business in 24 hours.

7,000 companies have already done it.

This is what reform looks like when it’s built around people—not paperwork.

What’s one process in your country that could be simplified tomorrow?

04/14/2026

When prices rise, businesses close, or young adults leave to find work, everyone is expected to “make sense of it.”

But that’s not easy if the ideas that explain these patterns aren’t accessible.

In Arabic, many of the core texts in economics are still missing, outdated, or hard to find. That leaves people navigating real decisions—about money, work, and the future—without the full picture.

There isn’t one way to understand the economy. Different schools of thought offer different answers. But access comes first.

Through بيت الحكمة 2.0 we translate and publish foundational works in economics to make them available in Arabic.

Start with "An Introduction to Schools of Economic Thought" by Eamonn Butler.
Now available in Arabic.

Download it for free: https://www.baytalhikma2.org/books/28/

04/10/2026

Most coverage of Iran flattens the country into a single story. That leads to bad assumptions.

In a recent conversation with Frank Corva, IBB President Faisal Saeed Al Mutar pushes back on that—walking through the internal differences inside Iran, the gap between people and the state, and the regional pressures shaping what comes next.

They also get into something rarely discussed in the same breath: how tools like Bitcoin show up in constrained economic environments, and what that actually looks like in practice.

If you want a clearer read on what’s driving events—not just headlines—this is worth your time.

Watch here:

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar joins us to discuss the reality of the situation in Iran, including how people from the region view at the conflict.He debunks common m...

04/02/2026

Shelly Kittleson, an American journalist and contributor to Middle East Uncovered , went to Iraq to report.

Days later, she was kidnapped in Baghdad in broad daylight.

Authorities say they have identified those involved and begun an operation to find her.

What happened—and what is known so far—is in the article we just published.

We are calling for her immediate and unconditional release.

Read the article:

Middle East Uncovered contributor Shelly Kittleson, who has reported extensively from Iraq and the region, was kidnapped in broad daylight in Baghdad. We call for her immediate, unconditional release.

04/01/2026

“I lied to get a job.”

That’s how one participant opened up during an online session with students from Iraq and Syria. The conversation stayed there for a while.

No hypotheticals. Just real decisions—about work, money, family pressure, and what success actually means.

Across eight sessions, people kept coming back to the same questions:
What kind of work is worth doing?
How much independence do I actually want?
What am I trying to optimize for?

At the end, each person chose one decision they’d been avoiding—and made it.

“I learned to rely on evidence and facts rather than preconceived judgments.”

Another participant said it changed how he approaches decisions.

03/31/2026

TOMORROW April 1 at 12 PM ET.

Join Faisal Saeed Al Mutar and Hamza Abu Howidy on Instagram LIVE to discuss Iran, regional politics and the shifting landscape in the Middle East.

Middle East Uncovered will be live on Instagram tomorrow, April 1, 2026. Join and as they answer your questions about the war in Iran and the shifting Arab media landscape.

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar founded , the nonprofit that powers MEU. His organization promotes free markets, critical thinking, and economic opportunity in the Middle East. Faisal focuses on civil society, free markets, meaningful reform, and institution building.

Hamza Howidy is a writer and activist from Gaza who spent years opposing Hamas at great personal risk. He was arrested, tortured, and eventually forced to leave. Now living in Germany, he writes and speaks openly about Gaza’s realities. Hamza is the author of “Muscheln am Strand von Gaza” (S. Fischer 2026).

If you have questions, leave a comment below. Don’t forget to like, share, and follow Middle East Uncovered to be notified when we go live. Stay tuned and join the discussion!

03/26/2026

IBB’s president Faisal Saeed Al Mutar went live on Middle East Uncovered ’s Substack to unpack a war that’s widely discussed but poorly understood 👇

03/24/2026

What are people in the Middle East actually searching for?

Across millions of readers, the same themes keep coming up: power, law, and economic reality.

People are reading about political leaders, debating whether morality should shape law, and turning to books on capitalism, growth, and inequality.

It challenges a common assumption: that engagement in the region is driven only by events or crises. The data shows something else—people returning to the same unresolved questions.

Read more:

What are people across the Middle East actually searching for? Insights from Wikipedia, social media, and book readership reveal a focus on power, law, and economic systems.

03/19/2026

What people search for isn’t random.

In February, Arabic Wikipedia readers looked up political leaders, high-profile scandals, and tools like Facebook and the English language. Different topics, but a clear pattern: people are trying to understand power, make sense of controversy, and access information.

These searches point to gaps.

بيت الحكمة 2.0 is working to fill them by translating Wikipedia into Arabic—making knowledge more accessible to millions of readers.

Explore more: baytalhikma2.org

03/17/2026

IBB President has been appointed Senior Non-Resident Scholar at the Center for Governance and Markets at the School of Public and International Affairs at the .

Faisal joins the center after years of advancing intellectual freedom and economic opportunity in the Middle East. Through Ideas Beyond Borders, he has expanded access to foundational knowledge through Arabic translation projects and supported emerging innovators through the Innovation Hub.

“Societies move forward when people have the freedom to think, experiment, and build.”

This appointment reflects a shared focus on how ideas become institutions that support open societies.

03/13/2026

Sometimes patients refuse an exam from a woman.

IBB translator Sarah Aldonia, who works in healthcare, sees this firsthand.

Her response isn’t retreat. It’s confidence, education, and making ideas that challenge harmful beliefs accessible to more people.

That’s why she translates with