CASEY HUBER
Special to The Leader
Mustafa Mohammad Hasan, a journalist advocacy speaker, is coming to Fredonia.
Hasan will be speaking about his journalism experience from working with youth movements and the Iraqi people.
His primary newspapers are Al Aalem news and Al Jadeed news, both based out of Iraq with active websites and social media.
Average readers are in their early 30s, making the outlets effective for protestors who fall largely in that age range.
Protests in Iraq have been calling for a regime change, more of a focus on the economy, implementation of democratic governmental structures and other related issues.
“Social media is especially important in reaching this demographic,” Hasan said.
ISIS used social media as a recruitment tool to radicalize Muslims.
“People were psychologically broken,” Hasan said.
After the defeat of ISIS, Hasan said topics published shifted from war news to rebuilding, along with questions of culture.
Representing the Perennial Fellowship program, Hasan will be speaking across the United States.
This speaking tour will be Hasan’s first time in the U.S.
Doing talks in Iraq since 2016, Hasan has worked with teams focused on bringing light to people’s stories.
Their work has ranged in topics from human rights to ISIS.
During his first time writing about people’s stories, Hasan estimates he received 2,500 individual stories within the first year.
Publications were posting 10 to 12 stories a day through social media and the web.
Hasan is also the founder of Khanjgaan, a non-profit based out of Iraq.
“Khanjgaan is a youth project that implements campaigns, field activities and social media to influence public opinion and mobilization to promote social cohesion, human rights, peacemaking, countering extremism and breaking stereotypes,” their LinkedIn states.
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Hasan and his wife, Alla, spent their honeymoon near Baghdad distributing aid to a refugee camp in 2015.
“Most of the items we distributed with our hands; we were scared that the residents of the camp wouldn’t receive them,” Hasan said.
The lecture is open to all students, faculty, staff and the public.
Hasan will arrive Thursday, March 12 from 3:30 to 4:50 p.m. in the Williams Center, Room S204-ABC.