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. Expect more battles with Abbasid Caliphs, more stubborn refusals to renounce his teachings,...

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 Bin Hanbal. His writings, hadith collecting and ascetic life are used as an example for many in the...

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 countries end up fostering these ideologies, while also exploring the lives and psyches of Thomas and...

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 for good? Or is the cycle of terror forged by our old friends Isis and Al-Qaeda about to come...

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 play in the new multipolar world? And is Islamist Terrorism still a thing in 2023? We’ll be...

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 to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on...

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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 the Islamic world make the adjustments required to reap the benefits of modernity—without...

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 revisit all the historical themes from this season: traditional Islamic civilization, the...

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 anti-Soviet jihad? And most importantly: why did thousands of young men from the Arab role...

In our previous episode on the Iranian revolution, we left the Ayatollah Khomeini sitting high and mighty in Tehran. Little did he know, next door in Baghdad, an Arab strongman nursed revolutionary, expansionary ambitions of his own: Saddam Hussein, the Lion of the Arabs and Defender of the Eastern Gate, the ultimate symbol of corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship. Taking up where we left off back in episode 9, with Iraq reeling from the bloody 1958 coup that replaced the Hashemite monarchy...

We’ve reached the Iranian Revolution of 1979! The great showdown! The watershed moment when the tensions which we’ve been tracing—between reform and reaction, modernism and tradition—erupted into sweeping rejection of the Western model of modernity and its replacement with something apocalyptic, something both ancient and strikingly new: a Shi’a Islamic Republic. It was out with the Shah, in with the Ayatollah; and the consequences have been without parallel—for the Middle East, and the...

In this episode, Aimen and Thomas talk about one of the many governing institutions which arose out of the wreckage of the old imperial and colonial world, and which still underpins the way the world functions today: OPEC. The only great governing institution founded and run by statesmen outside the Western corridors of power, since its founding in 1960, OPEC has played a big role in every major geopolitical event since its founding in 1960. War, terrorism, kidnappings, assassinations, and an...

Circling back to the Arab world after a brief excursus further afield, this episode of Conflicted takes up the themes of sectarian strife and political radicalism and applies them to the country that has perhaps been most affected by the Clash of Civilizations: Lebanon. What is Lebanon? Who are the Lebanese? Why did the country crack up in 1975? Answering these questions and more, the episode climaxes with what must be the fastest, most breathless description of the Lebanese Civil War ever...

Having flitted around the edges of the Ottoman Empire for most of this season, now we’re going straight to the jugular: the heart of that empire, the city of Istanbul (or Constantinople, if you prefer). In this episode of Conflicted, we tell the thrilling story of the epic historic conflict between two peoples, Turks and Greeks, practising two faiths, Islam and Orthodox Christianity, a conflict still manifest today, most painfully on the divided island of Cyprus. The invasion of Cyprus by...

From the Arab world, we now journey eastward to the Indian Subcontinent. Ancient, vast, and spiritually rich, the lands that comprise the nation-states of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh underwent one of the great traumas of the 20th century: the end of British rule and the Partition of the Raj. In this episode, we’ll tell this story, which includes a panoply of immense political personalities—Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah—and which reverberates down to the present day in the ongoing crisis over the...

Now that we’ve told the story of the rise and fall of Nasserism, we turn to Libya and its handsome and charismatic dictator, Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Believing himself to have inherited Nasser’s mantle of Arab leadership, Gaddafi’s brazen narcissistic insanity is the stuff of legend, and Aimen’s got a caravan-load of funny anecdotes to illustrate just how nuts he was. But more seriously, Gaddafi symbolizes the tragic turn toward unhinged dictatorship which much of the Arab world underwent in the...

We’ve finally reached the climax of the Cold War in the Middle East: the 6-Day War of 1967 and its dramatic sequel, the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The outcomes of both wars are well known; less so the political machinations leading up to them. We’ll do our best to take you behind the scenes of the corridors of power and into the minds of Arab and Israeli leaders. No one wanted war, yet war arrived. Why? These two wars were transformative: Nasserism was out and radicalism was in, and in the...

As we race toward the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, we’re putting our final duck in its row. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Jordan and Iraq both received Hashemite monarchs—and the rivalries and ideological conflicts that followed still reverberate today, perhaps nowhere more powerfully than on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Focusing mainly on the tragic history of modern Iraq, this episode engages with the clash between modern Arab republicanism and something like traditional...

In this episode, we talk about Syria. Or ask the question, really: What is Syria? Syria has been described as a “ fulcrum of geopolitical hegemony...” — a bit like Ukraine, interestingly — “...in the Middle East.” For that reason, for thousands of years Syria has been fought over and smashed up several times by invading armies from all directions, making the country somewhat amorphous, a patchwork of peoples practicing a huge variety of religions. More than perhaps anywhere else, Syria’s road...

Before the next episode, we have something a little different for your ears - an introduction to a whole new podcast - Behind the Sun. In Behind the Sun, Nadia, a young Syrian woman in the diaspora, struggles to come to terms with what the world knows about what’s happening in her country. She speaks with Riyad - her father's friend - whom she had first met in the strangest of circumstances. In episode 1, Nadia and Riyad explore the true meaning of "safety and justice" in Syria. He tells...

Having avoided it for as long as possible, Aimen & Thomas finally turn their attention to the state of Israel: its backstory, its modern re-emergence, and its impact on the civilizational fault lines crisscrossing the Middle East. In the present day, Arab statesmen have never been closer to their Israeli counterparts, both sides united around a shared enemy: Iran. This marks a dramatic sea change from the past, and to help explain it, as so often this season, this episode reaches back...

Following on from our last episode, another CIA adventure in the Middle East kicks off this episode on Egypt. King Farouk’s removal from power is the starting pistol for the Egyptian Revolution—a landmark event in modern middle eastern history. The figure of Nasser reigns supreme, whose dogged attempts to resist incorporation into the new U.S.-led Western order precipitated a crisis that might have led to World War 3: the Suez Crisis. All eyes remain fixed on Egypt today, as the war in...

In this episode, we shift our focus to Iran. Nobody could have known this at the time, but with hindsight we can see that at the beginning of the Cold War, Iran had somehow become a whirlpool swirling with all of the 20th century’s clashing ideological and political forces. All the players are there: an autocratic monarch in the old style; a newly formed Communist party conspiring revolution; aristocratic Liberals demanding economic and constitutional reform; Islamist terrorists; Big Oil; a...

In the last episode we talked about how the American half of the Cold War was established in Saudi Arabia. Today, we’re shifting our focus to the other half of that epic conflict: the Soviet Union. What were the Soviet Union’s designs on the Middle East? Or were their forays into Middle Eastern geopolitics simply countermoves in a Cold War chess game, attempts to wrongfoot their American opponent? And now, as the spectre of war between Russia and Ukraine hangs over Europe, to what extent can...