INTERVIEW-Meet Joshua van Alstine, the all-American taking Middle East TV by storm

Photo of Joshua van Alstine courtesy of Joshua van Alstine

In 2012, a guy from Texas launched his YouTube channel, Americanbadu, and soon became one of the biggest TV stars in the Middle East. Meet Joshua Van Alstine, also known as Abu Muteb. If you’ve been to Qatar, you’ve probably seen him on TV. So how did a seemingly all-American from Dallas (who didn’t speak any Arabic at first) end up as a face of Middle Eastern entertainment and get to rub elbows (so to speak) with royalty?

Van Alstine, who grew up Muslim (his Turkish mother is Muslim), moved between the U.S. and Turkey, but after 9/11 while living in America again, he felt what many Muslims did for the first time: completely unwelcome. White Americans didn’t accept Van Alstine and Muslim communities didn’t consider him one of their own. He had no one and nowhere to turn, except for the Internet, where he started creating videos about Islam, and another on Saudi life.

We spoke with Van Alstine via email about his beginnings, traveling to Saudi Arabia for a royal visit, and of course, Donald Trump.