My guest this week has been working in the field of mental health for over twenty years. Dr Imran Waheed is a consultant psychiatrist, and answers the questions: What is Mental Illness and Why is it on the Increase? How does Islam help us to deal with our mental health and build resilience to deal with the travails of life? And why has the liberal west failed to enhance the human mind?

Professor and expert in comparative economics from Jerusalem, Dr Abul Izz Abdul Salam joins us this week to continue our Islamic Economics series. In this episode we discuss how Islam deals with the creation of wealth and at the same time addresses the problem of stagnant money that remains the prize of the 1%.

Professor and expert in comparative economics from Jerusalem, Dr Abul Izz Abdul Salam joins us this week in the first episode of our Islamic Economics series. In this episode we discuss how Islamic Economics differs from the dominant liberal economic order that creates enormous wealth inequalities and perpetuates poverty.

A short explainer podcast and accompanying article breaking down the role of Turkey and the USA in the endless Syrian Civil War. A must-listen/read.

This week I ask Uthman Badar, an Islamic academic, speaker and writer from Sidney, Australia to discuss the idea of secularism. Uthman is a PhD candidate, researching secularism and its foundational assumptions and we take a deep-dive into understanding its roots and development in Europe.

Activist, author and Research Director at CAGE Asim Qureshi joins us this week to discuss the government’s Prevent policy, which is less about de-radicalisation and more about sowing fear. Asim speaks with knowledge, precision and eloquence as he explains how the Muslim community is viewed by the state as a ‘suspect community’.

Public Interest Law Scholar and co-founder of the Black Dawah Network Hakeem Muhammad joins us this week. He argues that narratives about the slave trade barely mention the Muslim origin of many Africans that were enslaved, their courageous attempts to remain Muslim despite severe repression and the role Islam played as a basis of defiance and the driver behind many of the slave rebellions on plantations.

Academic, speaker, writer and founder of the Alasna institute, Daniel Haqiqatjou joins us this week to discuss Islamophobia and the Muslim response to it, as well as the challenge of Liberalism. He argues his study of philosophy has enabled him to get an insight into the liberal mindset and consolidated his view that Liberalism is at odds with Islam, and that liberal society looks to challenge and change Islam.

Is Britain on a course to make the worst political decision since the Suez Crisis in 1956, that may potentially tip it into a recession and in the words of former PM John Major, reduce its influence in the world? Dr Imran Waheed joins me in conversation to explore Britain’s uneasy relationship with Europe, its current predicament and to speculate about what comes next.

Many Muslims have an uneasy relationship with wealth, it is often associated with fahisha (transgressions) and taqabbur (arrogance), and it’s believed too much wealth leads to extravagance, hassad (envy) and worse.  So how does Islam view wealth and how does it view extravagance? To answer these questions I speak to Hasan al-Hasan, Lebanese academic based in London.

This week I speak to Fadl Hejazi, a Muslim academic from India. It has been two weeks since the Indian government’s actions in Kashmir, the repealing of Article 370. We explored the doctrine that underpins Modi’s India, known as Hindutva, and its impact upon the countries’ Muslims.

Researcher and academic Dr Omar Khan joins us this week to take a deep dive into the motivations surrounding Modi’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from the constitutional arrangement that gave Jammu and Kashmir a special autonomous status, Pakistan’s response, why current US negotiations with the Taliban is key to understanding the timing of the decision and China’s muted role in responding to the crisis.

Uyghur activist and campaigner Arslan Hidayat joins us to discuss the extent to which Muslim Uyghurs have been subject to China’s programme of repression. Arslan has been active for many years, bringing the world’s attention to the situation in East Turkestan, long before it was adopted by the mainstream press. He remains in contact with members of the community and has become a source of information for many.