1 o’clock in the morning during Ramadan, Palestinian journalist Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh sits side by side in a crowded Yemeni coffee shop. New Yorkthe kind of place that comes alive after evening prayer. Everyone is loud, high on caffeine, and happy to be outside. His phone rings. Latest news: Israel attacks Tehran.
He looks at his friends, then composes a post and hits Publish. “Did you just post it?” they ask. He apologizes and goes home to watch the news.
This is how Al-Khatahtbeh, 27, spent the past seven years. He runs @Muslim, with more than 12 million followers across platforms—6.7 million on Instagram alone. He has questioned Zohran MamdaniRiz Ahmed, Mo Amer, and Motaz Azaiza.
@Muslim’s success dates back to Donald Trump’s first term as president. Then a student at Rutgers University and planning a career in entertainment journalism, Al-Khatahtbeh witnessed the effects of Trump’s Muslim ban through colleagues in Yemen and Iran.
When he wrote about how the ban was affecting students at university, he could not find the right way to reach them and warn other Muslims that their universities might not be able to protect them. That’s when he decided to create space for Islamic media.
That comes with 13 hours of screen-on time. He says he is ashamed, but the entrance is drunk with pride. “I have to stay informed. I get information the same way everyone else does.”
But everyone else is not the editor-in-chief of the Islamic media.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
CARLA SERTIN: When did you realize that this could be something bigger?
AMEER AL-KHATAHTBEH: When I launched @Muslim, February 15, 2019, I was already working in social media. I saw every moment of social media transition. I was online regularly.
It occurred to me: What if I wrote the news in the same way I write for Vice News, that style, but the story is about Muslims? When I started creating news in this way, Muslim news, it immediately started. I think it was the first time for the Muslim community to see this style and way of information being given to them.
I make sure it’s digestible—so that a fifth grader can read it, but also someone who is a genius. I make sure it’s shareable. I think by having this formula for every single post, it took off pretty quickly. I launched my junior year of college, and by the time I was a senior, we had already gathered 50,000 followers.
When I was older, we went to Covid. It was the first Ramadan lock, the Eid lock. At that time everyone was on social media. I really took advantage of that moment. We cannot go through our mosques. We can’t go out and celebrate Ramadan or Eid, so I have to make sure I build this platform and post, post, post, to make sure we still have this kind of celebration or worship in the month of Ramadan.
That’s when @Muslim exploded. When I graduated in 2020, @Muslim had gathered 250,000 followers. I was like, OK, there’s something bigger here, and I’m going to keep doing this.
Is there a balance between appealing to the younger generations and representing Muslims?
It was a lot of trial and error, to be honest with you.
We were doing a lot of fun content. We used to make Islamic memes, and then also have a conversation about the latest news. It was a combination of all these things—whatever was trending on Muslim Twitter or TikTok, we were on it. It was a very refreshing, Gen Z-focused look at topics we care about. We had a whole conversation about how Billie Eilish said in an interview that she dresses modestly and is celebrated, but when a Muslim woman wears a hijab, she is considered oppressed. We would have this very intense conversation. And then pivoted.
