About us
The Center for Global Muslim Life is a nonprofit cultural and narrative change organization dedicated to amplifying the lived experiences, intellectual traditions, and global contributions of Muslim communities. Rooted in the Americas and connected transnationally, the Center works at the intersection of faith, culture, media, research, and social impact to build long-term narrative infrastructure for Muslim and broader AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian) communities.
The Center was founded by Mustafa Dustin Craun, a creative strategist, filmmaker, writer, digital media producer, and scholar of Ethnic Studies. Over the past eighteen years, Mustafa has worked as a public relations and digital media strategist, and for the last six years as a filmmaker focused on faith-based and social impact storytelling. His digital media work has been featured in more than 200 global publications, and his academic writing on race, philosophy, and Islamic studies has appeared in both scholarly journals and popular outlets.
Mustafa holds a bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder and a master’s degree from the college of ethnic studies at San Francisco State University. His academic training includes the study of Latin American philosophy and the decoloniality school of thought at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as traditional Islamic studies at Zaytuna College. This intellectual foundation informs the center’s commitment to rigorous scholarship, cultural depth, and global analysis.
Throughout his career, Mustafa has founded and helped build influential organizations and platforms including MPower Change, Ummah Wide, Beyond Borders Studios, and the Border Mosque. Through Beyond Borders Studios, he has partnered with universities, national networks, nonprofits, startups, and major institutions including UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute, Faith in Action National Network, CAIR California, MoveOn, the California Endowment, 500 Startups, the University of Colorado Boulder, and others. As a producer and director, he has completed ten short films and is currently developing his first feature-length documentary, A Prayer Beyond Borders.
At a movement level, the Center for Global Muslim Life responds to a critical need: the development of sophisticated communications strategy and narrative power within Muslim communities. In an era where digital media shapes public understanding, the Center advances high-quality storytelling, research, training, and cultural production that move beyond reactive narratives and toward proactive, future-oriented vision building. Drawing from strategic narrative frameworks and organizing experience, the Center works to strengthen leadership capacity, scale digital organizing models, and invest in the long-term cultural infrastructure necessary for justice and belonging.
Raised in Denver, Colorado, and having lived and worked in Mexico, Ghana, Morocco, Malaysia, the Middle East, and across the United States, Mustafa brings a deeply transnational lens to this work. The Center reflects that global perspective—building bridges across borders, traditions, and movements to cultivate a more just, interconnected, and spiritually grounded future.
