Renegades | Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh on Championing Muslim Voices

Welcome to Renegades, a series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way. This week, we sat down with Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh , journalist and founder of Muslim , an independent media platform committed to delivering Muslim news and stories. We dive into his journey as a Palestinian American, censorship around Muslim issues, and Muslim.co’s new vertical Ummah.?

What did you want to be when you were growing up, and how does that compare to what you do today?

I never thought about what I wanted “to be” when I was a child. I had strong interests in social media, graphic design, making videos and experimenting with tech that I knew was something I would pursue in those fields. When I was in middle school, I was introduced to the biography of Muhammad Ali and it shifted a lot of perspective for me in what it meant to stand up for justice and community as a Muslim. I think that planted some seed in me at a young age to always seek truth and utilize my skills to serve a greater purpose.??

Can you elaborate on your personal journey and upbringing as a Palestinian American, highlighting the dynamic interplay between two distinct cultures and identities? Considering Palestine's geographical location in West Asia and its historical and cultural ties to the broader region often referred to as the "Middle East," how has navigating these dual identities influenced your worldview and the mission of Muslim.co?

I was born and raised in New Jersey and was the only Palestinian in my school district. It was incredibly isolating and oftentimes I felt as though my issues did not matter as my identity as a Palestinian and as a Muslim was never respected. In first grade we had to do an assignment on our favorite holiday and I chose Eid. My teacher had to call my mother because they accused me of making up a holiday, but it was just because they were not informed. In high school, we had a class called understanding genocide, and I took it during the time that Gaza was being bombed in 2015. When I made my final report “is what’s happening in Gaza considered genocide?” my teacher had prevented me from presenting to the class. These were just a few microaggressions and experiences I faced as a Palestinian-American Muslim, and quite frankly were the experiences that lead me into building my platform @Muslim, as I was always in a constant search of a community. Having our experiences often dismissed, and not platformed lead me into building a space to have our voices heard.

What inspired you to found Muslim.co, a platform specifically tailored for Millennial and Gen Z Muslims? Was there a gap in the media landscape for young Muslims that you felt needed to be addressed?

During my time at Rutgers University studying journalism, while my classmates were writing about red carpet MET gala looks, I found myself writing about news affecting Muslims. Juan Gonzalez from Democracy Now! was my professor at the time and helped me with a report I made on students impacted by the Muslim travel ban. When it came time to publish the report on how college campuses are not safe for Muslims affected by the ban, I wanted it to reach Muslims kind of as a warning. I tried to look for a mainstream media publication focused on Muslim issues and news, and could not find any. At that moment something clicked and I became tunnel visioned that this is something that needs to change. Oftentimes Muslims are the center of conversations but we never have the agency in speaking on our experiences. Now, @Muslim is the largest thing for our community, and has surpassed the social media following and reach of mainstream legacy media publications. It’s a testament that our experiences are not “niche’” after all we do make up about? ? of the world population.?

Muslim.co broke the news about Rihanna's Savage X Fenty fashion show using a song that included an Islamic hadith, sparking a significant conversation. Can you tell us about the importance of platforms like Muslim.co in addressing cultural sensitivity and representation in mainstream media?

When we covered this story and broke the news, it was never intended to be an expose or a hit-piece on Rihanna. It quite frankly was disrespectful to witness our scripture being used as a sample on a song played at a lingerie fashion show and it warranted a conversation on how brands offend our faith without even realizing. When the story was covered, it went very viral and for the first time it created this awareness on a mainstream level that it is not okay to disrespect the faith and practices of the Muslim community. A lot of brands started to make changes to include Muslims and be more inclusive, it was such an interesting shift. We often forget how normalized it is for people to disrespect communities without realizing, and this was a great example of shaking the table across multiple industries with our reporting.?

As the founder of Muslim.co, how do you navigate between featuring topics that are personally important to you and covering issues that are relevant and impactful in the wider world? How do you strike a balance between personal passion and editorial responsibility?

Great question - I often think of the famous line “with power, comes responsibility” and I live by that motto. I created an internal constitution for @Muslim to make sure we do not go astray in our mission. For instance, we will always serve news that affects Muslims and any issues affecting marginalized communities. We also have it down that our platform will not focus on promoting a way of living as a Muslim, since there are many ways to practice the faith, our platform is intended to be a middle ground for every Muslim who follows the five pillars of Islam. In regards to balancing personal passion and editorial responsibility, I think what makes @Muslim such a beautiful platform is that everything affecting our community is personal. We have this concept called “ummah” where we see Muslims as a united front. So if a Muslim is facing oppression somewhere across the world, it affects all of us personally.?

You've garnered significant recognition, including being featured in Time and making Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and amassed over 6.2 million followers on Instagram. What does success mean to you personally, and how do you measure the impact of your work with Muslim.co?

Alhamdulillah, these are amazing achievements and I’m grateful for any recognition of our work. I know it sounds crazy, but I still feel as though I have not started yet. Despite the millions of followers and recognition by mainstream media, my goal is to build a platform that is universal and mainstream for everyone to stay informed on news affecting the Muslim community, and as long as that isn’t built then we haven’t reached the tipping point of success just yet.

How do you deal with backlash and criticism, especially when addressing sensitive topics or breaking news stories?

I love receiving feedback from people in our community as it is a testament to our goals and mission in serving them. If our community has an issue on how things are reported on or if they think we may have missed a mark on our coverage, we always want to stay alert to improve. The only backlash we experience, quite frankly comes from people who project their anti-Muslim and islamophobic rhetoric onto our work. There's a lot of unlearning that needs to be done for those who still harbor harsh stereotypes on Muslims. At one point I was doxxed and had my private information purposefully published in an attempt to harm me. You have to set protections for yourself especially when you’re in the line of work of publishing news for the sake of justice. If you’re in the work of doing something transformative, it’s expected that you’re met with opposition. Look at historical figures like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Yuri Kochiyama, and so on. They had their houses burned and were targets all for advocating for justice.?

Could you speak to the current representation of Muslims in the media and any challenges you've faced regarding censorship or stereotyping?

Look, it’s clear that many companies, people in power, and governments want to censor Muslim voices who are vocal on covering the oppression of our community. It’s gotten to the point that governments want to literally ban the TikTok app to censor us. As much as algorithms are against us, we have faced numerous challenges and will continue to face them, but justice and impact will always win. No matter how many times our posts get shadowbanned, we will still find an avenue in making sure news is published.? In regards to the current state of Muslim representation, I think we have surpassed representation as an issue but now we need to make sure that Muslim voices are respected. Right now, our community feels as though the Muslim vote is not respected and this will impact the upcoming elections. Representation can only go so far.

What are you currently working on that’s exciting you the most??

Right now we are building our Substack and an editorial board to publish more original content, whether that is news breakdowns, more podcasts or video series. I’m very excited about this, as well as working on our new vertical called Ummah that is focused on Muslim storytelling. Think of Humans of New York but it's instead highlighting Muslims around the world. I came back from Japan where I recently interviewed a yakuza gang member who converted to Islam and it was such a great humanizing piece that will be published soon. It’s a series I’m working on that I see shifting the narratives of how we perceive Muslims while highlighting different communities around the world.?

Lightning Round

• Daily Habit: Vietnamese iced coffee and pesto banana pepper toast for breakfast, and an Instagram post as soon as I wake up, lol.?
• Favorite food: Mansaf (sorry Maqlubah stans)
• Favorite city: Madinah when I need a soul cleanse and Istanbul when I need to motivate my creativity.?
• Fun fact: Since launching the @Muslim Instagram account on February 15, 2019 I have not missed a single day of uploading. I make every news story graphic and post you see on @Muslim’s social media.