One of the biggest media personalities in the Middle East is a blond American who went to college in Texas.
Joshua Van Alstine, 25, started making YouTube videos a few years back that gained the attention of Muslims and the leadership of Saudi Arabia, who were so impressed with what he was doing that in 2013 they asked him to move to the country's capital city of Riyadh.
He accepted their offer, and now appears on one of the most watched television networks in all the Middle East while also making frequent public appearances.
His popularity is based in large part on the fact that he is a Muslim.
The Washington Post recently interviewed Van Alstine, who goes by the name Abu Muteb in his videos and is still shocked that this is all happening to him.
His mother, who was born in Turkey, raised him in her faith. He split his time between that country and the United States, with the family travelling with his father who was in the Air Force.
There is also a man he refers to as his brother on social media, Abdallah Alamri, though it is not clear if they are related or the term is used because they are close friends.
Being a white Muslim in America became a struggle for Van Alstine after the 9/11 terror attacks, he claims.
'For the first time I felt I wasn’t accepted,' he said in the interview.
'Here I was, a white Muslim in America. Many Americans rejected me because I was Muslim. The Muslims in America - Arabs, Pakistanis and others - rejected me because they saw me as just American. I felt really isolated.'
He began making videos while in college at the University of North Texas, around the same time he started to learn how to speak Arabic.
His videos are humorous but also very serious in encouraging others to accept Muslims and gain a better understanding of his faith.
He speaks Arabic in almost all of the videos and dresses in traditional Gulf robes with his head covered in a keffiyeh.
One of his early videos was geared towards an American audience. In it, he speaks of his love for Saudi Arabia and encourages others to not judge people based on preconceived and baseless notions of their culture or faith.
His most popular video is a more humorous one about non-verbal communication in Saudi Arabia and has well over 2million views on YouTube.
Check out Abu Muteb's photos here.
By Chris Spargo
