CONFLICTED

Ask anyone from the Middle East about Yemen, that country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, and they’ll tell you tales about the Queen of Sheba, Frankincense and Myrrh. It’s a place steeped in ancient history and paints a vivid picture in the imagination. But it’s also a place currently riven by conflict, engulfed in a civil war which has now been raging since 2014. But how did it get...

In the last episode of Conflicted, we saw Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia terror group, grow in power in the midst of the brutal Lebanese civil war of the 1980s. But after a precarious peace came to the country, an Israeli occupation of the south remained throughout the 1990s. This allowed Hezbollah to remain an active and armed militia, a fact which would come to haunt the country over the following...

Some four decades ago, out of the chaos of the Lebanese civil war, a Shia militant group was born who would grow into one of the most dominant and malign forces in Lebanese politics. A proxy for Iran, staunchly opposed to Israel and aggressive in their aims, they have now effectively established themselves as a state within a state within Lebanon. Who are they? Hezbollah. Over the next couple of e...

Emergency Episode: On Saturday October 7th 2023, Hamas terrorists broke through the border of the Gaza Strip and carried out a brutal assault on Southern Israel. As of publication, the death toll stands at some 1,200 Israelis, 900 citizens in Gaza, and some 1,500 Hamas fighters have been found dead inside Israel. It is the most deadly attack on Jewish civilians since the holocaust. As the world re...

It’s always difficult to know exactly what is going on in Iran - that isolated, Shia theocracy that dominates so much of the Middle Eastern land mass. It's a diverse and divisive state, ruled with an iron fist by Ayatollah Khamenei, whose supreme power means he can dictate what the country does and how it is run, at home and abroad. But in recent years, protests against the regime have been growin...

President Erdogan’s time in power has been a fascinating period for Turkey - at once nodding to the liberal West, while simultaneously winking at the more Conservative East. It’s his country in a nutshell, and his policies in economics, social welfare, secularisation and his relationship with the EU all prove it. But one thing has always haunted him: the army, and their historical proclivity towar...

Over the past couple of episodes we explained the inner workings of the Muslim Brotherhood - that mysterious organisation based in Cairo who have their sights set on a new Caliphate for the Muslim world. But who are their allies across the region? Is there a figure who is simultaneously working to further their aims? Well, many people point to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, as just...

In last week’s discussion of the Muslim Brotherhood, we told you how this clandestine group are structured - headed in Egypt, but with chapters across the globe. But we tip-toed around their ideology, and we didn’t discover what the Muslim Brotherhood actually want. On the one hand, people claim they are an organisation promising peace and charity across the Muslim World. On the other, they are se...

After finishing our extensive exploration into some of the most colourful and fascinating characters in Islamic History - figures who influenced modern Salafi jihadism as we know it today - Conflicted aims its sights on a modern group with an equally significant position in the Muslim world. This is a group whose nebulous, clandestine structure makes them tricky to unravel. A group based in Egypt...

If the start of Sayyid Qutb’s life was defined by the evolution of his thought, the second part was defined by a calcification of his beliefs. With revolution brewing in Egypt following the Second World War, Qutb turned from analysing the aesthetics of the Quran to Islamism, explicitly calling for a new socio-political and economic order based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Following...

When it comes to the modern era, no Islamic intellectual has influenced modern Salafi Jihadism more than Sayyid Qutb. This unlikely Egyptian, steeped in Western literature and poetry, would come to define the ideological basis for modern Islamism. He was a poet, a writer and an aesthete who was a classic product of the tumult of the early twentieth century. How he became the most significant Islam...

When Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab gained the patronage of Muhammad Ibn Saud, it was a fusing of ideology with power on the Arabian peninsula. This was the time when Wahhabism really took shape, and the militancy of Ibn Abdul Wahhab’s mission became clear. As the Emirate of Diriyah expanded, war and conquest against the Ottomans came with it, as they sought to dominate Arabia with their new radical do...

While many trace the roots of Saudi Arabia to Muhammad Ibn Saud, its ideological roots can be traced to his contemporary - the radical, militant and hugely controversial, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab. This was a man who provided the doctrinal backbone to the burgeoning state, and created the ideology which bears his name: Wahhabism. While many now see it as a derogatory term, Wahhabism has been hugel...

The later part of Ibn Taymiyyah’s life saw continued invasions from Mongol Hordes from the outside, and a battle against Sufi mystics in his own society. And for the man himself, it was defined by a continuation of one thing more than any other: a zeal against irreligion. While confronting the Mamluk Sultan and preaching anti-Mongol fatwas, he cemented himself as the great mediaeval scholar and wa...

Ibn Taymiyyah is known as the “Sheikh of Islam” to his admirers, and to his detractors, one of the most significant antecedents of modern Salafi Jihadism. Simultaneously a genius scholar, brutal warrior and unflinching polemicist, he is one of the most important pioneers of a militant form of Sunni Islam, and is now quoted more than any other scholar by Islamist terrorists today. Continuing our se...

This week’s Conflicted sees the second episode of our deep dive into the thrilling life of 7/8th century Muslim scholar, Ahmad bin Hanbal, founder of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence. Continuing our series looking at the historic Islamic thinkers who have inspired modern Salafi Jihadists today, we look at the fascinating and drama-filled second half of the life of the first fundamentalist. Expe...

On this week’s episode of Conflicted, we begin a multi episode exploration into the historical figures who function as antecedents to the modern jihadi movement, beginning with two episodes on one of its earliest examples: Ahmad Bin Hanbal. When Islamic fundamentalists today look back in history, one of the earliest figures they will mention for inspiration is the 7th/8th century scholar, Ahmad Bi...

Islamic radicals have been a scourge on countries across the Middle East for decades, but what drives the person who commits terrorist acts? What causes some Muslims to adopt a fundamentalist ideology? And what do these terms even mean in practice? On this week’s episode of Conflicted, we explore the socio-political and psychological causes of Islamic radicalism. We’ll discover why certain countri...

In the first episode of season 4 of Conflicted, hosts Thomas Small and Aimen Dean attempt to get to the bottom of the current state of play with Islamic terrorism, asking: where have all the terrorists gone? In 2023, it feels like there has been a kind of stasis in terms of Islamic terrorism, with other geopolitical issues taking their place on the global stage. But is this a sign that it’s gone f...

Join Islamic scholar Thomas Small and ex-jihadi turned spy Aimen Dean as they explore the fascinating chains of events that have created the patchwork of the Muslim world today, and how the region’s history has impacted the story of the entire world. Expect answers to questions like: What do Turkey’s 2023 election results mean for the future stability of the region? What role will the Middle East...

In a special LIVE end of season event (recorded on the 30th November) Thomas and Aimen sat down to answer your questions about the latest headlines from the Middle East. No stone is left unturned as the two discussed a potential invasion of Northern Syria, increasing tensions in Iran and the possible rehabilitation of Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. Get more from Conflicted Listen...

A special announcement from Thomas. Find tickets to the Live Q&A on Eventbrite. Or join our FB Discussion group Or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to have your say on what topics you'd like Thomas & Aimen to discuss. Join the Conflicted Community hub on Discord to discuss all things Conflicted with fellow dear listeners, get exclusive content, bonus episodes and ad-free listening. Register your i...

In the final episode of this season, Thomas & Aimen come full circle again, back to the latest chapter in Aimen’s extraordinary life—a new, sad chapter that has forced a difficult and fateful decision upon him. The two friends also roll up their sleeves and resume their age-old ongoing argument: is the clash between Western modernity and Islamic civilization bound to end in bloody conflict, or can...

As Conflicted approaches the end of season 3, Aimen & Thomas turn their attention to a country which hasn’t featured much on the podcast so far: Algeria. Often overlooked due to the Algerian regime’s isolationist policy, for those with eyes to see Algeria has been at the vanguard of Middle Eastern developments for over two hundred years. For this reason, it’s the perfect prism through which to rev...

With the assassination of Al Qaeda leader Aymen al-Zawahiri ringing in their ears, Aimen & Thomas turn their attention once again to Afghanistan, focusing this time on the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the rise of global jihadism that followed. What led the Soviets to invade? What was Kabul’s Cold War relationship with Moscow like in the run-up to the invasion? What was the U.S.’s true role in the a...