Our Founder
Faisal Saeed Al Mutar – Refugee & Social Entrepreneur
Faisal Saeed Al Mutar is a social entrepreneur and media executive with extensive experience in economic development, innovation, and leadership.
Over the past decade, Faisal has driven large-scale change and fostered growth in the Middle East and beyond. As the founder of Ideas Beyond Borders, he has built the organization into a leading platform for advancing free market thought, innovation, and policy reform in the Arab world, particularly in Iraq.
Al Mutar has collaborated with intergovernmental organizations and private-sector stakeholders to promote growth and entrepreneurship. His work focuses on identifying transformative opportunities in diverse societies and implementing actionable policies to create jobs, reduce bureaucracy, and empower businesses with the tools necessary to grow.
A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Faisal has delivered talks on global platforms, including TED, and engaged with audiences across the U.S. and the Middle East. His expertise spans innovation, counter-extremism, and geopolitical stability. He also supports startups and aspiring leaders, helping empower the next generation of changemakers.
Faisal received the President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama and an honorary doctorate from Whittier College in California.
Splitting his time between New York and the Middle East, Faisal blends global insights with local expertise, building bridges between cultures and advancing meaningful change.
Our Goals
Making The Inaccessible Accessible
We develop and implement international programs to empower individuals with knowledge often suppressed by authoritarian regimes and dictatorships.
Encouraging Critical Thinking and Free Inquiry
We encourage people to think critically about topics ranging from civil rights to science and reason by making inaccessible topics accessible and sparking curiosity.
Funding Innovative Projects
We equip entrepreneurs and startups with the resources they need to prosper, create jobs, and positively impact their communities.
Donate today
and be part of our story
Aid doesn’t have to be costly to be effective. People in the Middle East are hungry for change. We need involved, impassioned community members and donors to help them succeed.
Our Worldwide Partners
Ideas Beyond Borders isn’t just a non-profit.
It’s a movement.
We partner with people across the region to make vital and often banned information accessible in Arabic, Dari, Pashto and Kurdish. We certify each of our translators to produce and distribute content on topics like critical thinking, civil rights, science, and pluralism. We also place trust and resources into the hands of people across MENA who are forging sustainable paths to prosperity through entrepreneurship.
This project is exactly what the Arab world needs, as unfortunately Arabic online content falls short. Thank you so much for your efforts.
Mahmoud – Syria
We need more programs like Ideas Beyond Borders. THIS is the much needed path to the future for young people in the region.
Fahim – Houston
I’m a medical student trying to understand the world and do something meaningful in it. I believe that knowledge is the fuel that ignites progress and Ideas Beyond Borders has helped me so much.
Muhammad – Egypt
Our Mission
Working to be an agent of change in the Middle East & North Africa
Our programs combine leading education and human rights initiatives to counter extremism and its violent outcomes. We make the inaccessible accessible to MENA youth globally and locally, creating curricula on global human rights and translating key literature on critical thinking, self-help, science, economics, and women’s rights. We work with partners and individuals to amplify their voices and equip MENA communities with the skills and resources to forge their own paths.
We empower youth across the region to use critical thinking skills to engage in lively, spirited discussion on controversial and often banned topics. Our theory of change relies on the fact that there is a hunger for knowledge that dictatorships and extremist, authoritarian rulers cannot stamp out.
By placing trust and resources into the hands of MENA’s people, we demonstrate the transformative power of community-led initiatives. Even in the face of adversity, these communities can thrive. Feeding this hunger with inspiring and empowering perspectives on the human spirit, perseverance, scientific thought, and our shared human values can limit extremists’ recruitment efforts and, in turn, make the world a better, brighter place for everyone.
Ideas Matter.
Professor Steven Pinker,
Ideas Change the World.
Harvard University Professor & Author of ‘Enlightenment Now’
