Mobeen Vaid has been at the forefront of addressing the creeping liberalisation of social attitudes of the Muslim community and how these opinions often are way out of sync with the global Muslim ummah and Islam. Mobeen’s erudite commentary has looked to counter and critique these trends and today he lectures at Mosques and community centres across the US.

Dr Layla Aitlhadj is the Director of PreventWatch. Her most recent contribution as co-author of the People’s Review of Prevent drew support from over a dozen human rights NGOs, including Amnesty International and the UN rapporteur on protecting freedoms. I ask Dr Layla to help us understand Prevent, analyse the broader impacts of this policy and draw on her extensive casework to help us visualise why Prevent is toxic within our communities.

In this interview, journalist Peter Oborne provides an insiders perspective of how Islam has been deliberately fashioned to be the ‘enemy within’. Many will find his analysis explains their lived experience since 9/11. The conversation takes us to British conservatism, King Charles’ comments on Islam and how many young Muslims are looking to leave the UK.

Imam Dawud Walid has recently published a serious contribution to the subject of manhood. He argues that the rich classical scholarly works detailing how to bring up young men have been forgotten. This sacred idea of chivalry may look out of place in modernity, but it produced well-balanced young men that combine courage with humility, strength with forgiveness and public duty with prayer. Imam Dawud Walid believes Islamic masculinity is not naturally acquired but has to come from revelation and reinforced by models of manhood within families and communities. He has recently authored a brilliant book titled, Futuwwah: and Raising Males into Sacred Manhood, a timely contribution to the topic.

Our guest this week, Professor Ovamir Anjum argues that any future reconstruction of this sacred institution has to be premised upon what he calls an Ummatics framework, an ummah-centric model. He argues that the Rashidun model was fundamentally based on the consent of the ummah, and through shura, that is, consultation, and this is how the earlier caliphs successfully built an empire unlike any other. In this interview, Muhammad Jalal asks him to spell out what it means to think in an ummatic way and elucidate on the practicalities.

In this discussion with Riaz Hasan, Harris Irfan talks candidly about how much Islamic finance depends on a capitalist riba-based architecture. He recalls his part in acquiring funding for the Makkah clock tower, a project he now regrets. This is a fascinating look at the players and motives of an industry. Harris also offers his views on Bitcoin as a more Islamic alternative above the gold standard, traditionally accepted as a stable shariah-based currency.

Is there a problem with Muslim public intellectuals and scholars that engage with the political right? My guest this week, Yayha Birt, believes that white convert scholars that interact with the likes of Jordan Peterson should evaluate whether they risk confirming their anti-Islam prejudices and a distasteful pro-white ideology that today undergirds the populist white nativist backlash.

Our guests this week, all distinguished in their fields take a deeper look at the issues arising from the revocation of abortion as a constitutional right. What exactly is the position of shari’ah regarding abortion? What did the classical scholars say about the issue and is there a difference with more modern takes? How do we appreciate the political context of the Supreme Court decision and what are the social repercussions?

The Trojan Horse affair upended education policy in the UK and gave rise to one of the most problematic policies, the prevent duty. Riaz Hasan and Muhammad Jalal caught up with Tahir Alam - the man at the centre of the scandal - to try to understand the broader motivations of the government and others hell-bent on tuning back the tide of young Muslim achievement and in the process stoking Islamophobia.

Is modernity destroying the human mind? This is the question I ask my guest this week, Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad. Many of us are fortunate to live in a world where every desire we have are met yet curiously our ability to process these blessings leads many to a dark place, a state of mental anguish. It seems the more we have the less happy we are.

Rayan Freschi, a legal expert and researcher for CageUK has recently authored a disturbing report on the French government’s policy of “systematic obstruction” of the Muslim community. He uncovers how the French state under Macron has targeted peaceful Muslims.

Dr Osman Umarji is a director at Yaqeen Institute, he is an also a Professor in the School of Education at UC Irvine and has studied at Al Azhar university. We have a fascinating discussion about Zakat, its conditions and political and economic outcomes. 

This week we have Professor Joseph Kaminski, from the Department of International Relations at the International University of Sarajevo. Joseph speaks to us about the crisis, how to view the actions of America and the impact upon Muslims in Bosnia, who are once again facing a belligerent Serbian movement, supported by Russia.

Fahad Ansari is a lawyer and public activist, who in his professional career has defended many Muslims who have fallen foul of Britain’s nationality laws, including very high-profile cases of citizenship deprivation.

Dr Rob Faure Walker is an academic and author specialising in critiquing Britain’s anti-terror educational policy, also known as Prevent.

Dr Darryl Li is a practicing lawyer and anthropologist who has written a brilliant work on global jihad mobilisation in Bosnia. His book, titled The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity, challenges the prevailing narrative – and attempts to ask more searching and important questions. Joining us is Professor Ovamir Anjum, who reflects on Dr Li’s work and the broader themes that come from it.

We invite back Dr Shadee Elmasry, Imam and community leader who has worked tirelessly at the local level to develop strong communities premised upon an Islamic framework. We ask Dr Shadee to spell out the importance of communities in Islam and how the modern maladies that come from individualism can be remedied.

This week, we talk to Dr Alex Thurston, a specialist in the region, and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Cincinnati to explain why the Sahel is important. Alex has written extensively about the Sahel and is an authority, regularly contributing to reports and discussions.

In this second part we take a look at the Ottoman ulema in the later period, the controversies surrounding the printing press and coffee and we explore the role of the ulema after Turkey’s secular turn.

In this first part we take a look at the Ottoman ulema in the early period, the issue of the 'caliphate', Sultan Fatih's ilmiyah reforms and Sultan Selim's defeat of the Mamluks and the response of the Arab ulema and the independence of the ulema system.

Dr Shadi Hamid discusses American liberalism, the trends towards nativism, exemplified in the near re-election of Donald Trump last year but also how he reconciles his liberal worldview with his Islamic faith.