We champion a positive alternative to the extremism, authoritarianism, censorship, and violence that plagues the Middle East. We share, translate, and promote ideas that foster critical thinking, civil and human rights, science, pluralism, and more. IBB wants to ultimately bring to life a modern, pluralistic Middle East, led by the people of the region.
Founded in 2017 by Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, IBB completes its mission through its flagship translation program, Bayt Al Hikma 2.0 (BAH2.0). Named after a renowned 9th century Iraqi library famous for its dedication to critical thinking, BAH2.0 is a free-to-access hub of knowledge and a bustling online community with a distribution network of over 4.7 million on Facebook alone. The program aims to select, translate, distribute and popularize content related to critical thinking, civil rights, science, and more.
IBB works with over 120+ regional translators and volunteers, empowering them with professional skills and small stipends to improve their quality of living while pulling on their expertise as medical professionals, engineers, or members of our target audience. They play a crucial role in identifying what content we translate. Most live in traditionally hard-to-reach communities like Syria, post-ISIS and Iranian-militia dominated Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and more.
