Paul Pioneer Press and Al Jazeera English. He also edited news and features from the Horn and East Africa. Mukhtar has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota and master's degree in investigative journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. While at Columbia, Mukhtar was awarded the Lynton Fellowship, which is given at the end of the school year to two outstanding students in Professor Samuel G. Freedman's Book Writing seminar.