Faisal Saeed Al Mutar: Peace In The Middle East Through Capitalism

The co-founder of Ideas Beyond Borders argues that there is "no better independence than economic independence."

1x 1.1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 3x

:15 :15

Download

Faisal Saeed Al Mutar: Peace In The Middle East Through Capitalism

HD Video Download

Today's guest is 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.

0:00 - Introduction

1:26 - Untold Stories Of The Middle East

4:20 - Micro grants in the Middle East

6:20 - The hope of Kurdistan

9:00 - Beirut's post-explosion struggles & recovery

11:12 - Oil vs. the entrepreneurial spirit in the Middle East

14:20 - Building a vocabulary of freedom with Ideas Beyond Borders

18:20 - Censorship & internet access in the Middle East

19:39 - Hiring Middle Eastern translators

22:16 - A brief history of political upheaval in the Middle East

30:12 - The 'liberal minority' in Lebanon

33:29 - U.S. intervention in the Middle East

39:45 - Impact of October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel on peace processes in the region 44:00 - Funding schools for girls in Afghanistan

46:05 - The tragedy & hope of Afghanistan: The Graveyard of Empires

49:43 - 'Sanctions Boy': Growing up in 90s Baghdad

59:04 - 'We don't have the privilege to be depressed (about the Middle East)'

1:01:35 - Economic 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 of The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie. Go to reason.com/events for information and tickets to the next one.

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

Comments

[Uncle Jay]

"Peace In The Middle East Through Capitalism."

That's a laugh.
Fundamentalist Islam does not teach tolerance or acceptance of others, and how many true free countries are there in the Arab world?
Capitalism works best in free countries with the ability to trade with whoever the trading class wishes without restrictions.
Good luck with that in the ME.

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Uh oh, you just activated the Misek signal.

[n00bdragon]

Is that why capitalism dragged China out of the dark ages in the 90s? Because it was a free country?

Not every country with capitalism going on meets whatever arbitrary threshold of "freedom" you care to throw at it, but the capitalism is always helping and always pushing it closer to freedom.

[Social Justice is neither]

The muslim hatred of Jews isn't rational so the rational benefits of capitalism that can promote coexistence don't really apply.

[mtrueman]

"and how many true free countries are there in the Arab world?"

Iran isn't quite the Arab world, but it is the only place in the world where it is legal to buy, sell or trade a human organ, such as a kidney. The WTO and the UN have apparently denounced the practice and nations around the world, including Arab nations and Israel, have criminalized it.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

trueman's answer... shill for Iran.

[mtrueman]

Free market advocates take note. Iran, a Muslim theocracy, is the only nation on the planet where it is possible to legally buy, sell or trade human organs. Elsewhere it is illegal and organ dealers face stiff penalties. Like it or not, these are the facts.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Perhaps you can receive a brain during your next visit.

[mtrueman]

The truth of the matter is that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the only country in the region, nay, the world, where it is legal to buy, sell or trade human organs. Kidneys, for example. If only this were not the case!

[Fire up the Woodchippers! (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

How sadly naive. Not much can be done in the ME without getting rid of the islamists first.

[Longtobefree]

As if anything in the middle east was about anything but 'religion'.

[Nobartium]

As a reminder, we've been buying oil from that area since FDR.

9/11 was what we got.

CaPiTaLiSm!1!1!1

[Commenter_XY]

Our Western Capitalism is their Islamic Feudalism. The muslims are corrupt AF! Just look at how Arafat and now Abbas have ripped off the palestinians for hundreds of millions of dollars. Graft is out of control wherever the muslims rule.

[shadydave]

China has pretty much falsified the "free markets = free people" claim. Now technically you could point out that China's dedication to "free markets" is situational, but then we're quickly entering "no true Scotsman" territory.

Saudi Arabia and Dubai and Qatar as well. Which isn't to say free markets aren't great, but it's wrong to ascribe magic powers to them.

[JFree]

This seems delusional.

In two years or so, when the current slaughter of the Middle East - by 'the West' - enters its next stage, 'the West' will be perceived very differently than it is now. 'Pro-Western reformers' will be mostly dead and/or irrelevant - in Lebanon at least.

[Dillinger]

I hear the Gog & Magog War is on for tonight anyway so maybe all will be well in the morning.

[Dillinger]

world peace through hallucinogens.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

We could also have peace if we killed all the animal rag heads

[JeremyR]

I grew up reading Poul Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn stories, which basically has the premise that free trade leads to freedom and peace.

But we've seen in the real world that it doesn't. Totalitarian regimes use the money from free trade to build up their armies and repress their people even more.

Hell, even the most capitalistic place on the planet, Singapore, has super strict laws

With that said, boycotts don't really work either.