CONFLICTED COMMUNITY

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CONFLICTED

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  • 4.6 (450)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.

  1. How Yemen Broke the Saudi-UAE Alliance

    18H AGO

    How Yemen Broke the Saudi-UAE Alliance

    In this episode, Yemeni researcher and political analyst Baraa Shiban (a great friend of the show) tells the thrilling behind-the-scenes story of how different visions for the future of Yemen led long-simmering tensions between the UAE and Saudi Arabia to explode into the open. For further reference, here’s a helpful map of Yemen showing current areas of control: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/info/infographic/49654  Baraa explains: How Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war with different goals The role Yemeni political parties and militias played in the conflict Why southern Yemen has never been unified The UAE’s obsessive fight against the Muslim Brotherhood The emergence of parallel security structures and rival centres of power How Saudi Arabia acted as a mediator between rival factions The explosive gains, and rapid reversals, of Yemen’s renegade Southern Transition Council Follow Baraa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baraashiban/ Follow Baraa on X: https://x.com/BShtwtr Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 25m

  2. 2D AGO

    Crisis in the Gulf: Saudi vs UAE

    A rare public rupture has emerged between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Triggered by a dramatic escalation over Yemen in late December 2025, the dispute has exposed deeper ideological and strategic differences between the two Gulf powers. In this episode, Thomas and Aimen step back from the battlefield to examine the historical roots of Saudi–Emirati rivalry and why Yemen became the arena where these differences finally collided in public. They discuss: The 30 December 2025 Saudi airstrikes and the ultimatum to UAE forces Why Yemen is the arena, not the cause, of the Saudi–UAE dispute Continental vs maritime power in the Arabian Peninsula The British influence on the Emirati state The Buraimi Oasis dispute Tribal allegiance and ‘weird borders’ in Gulf geopolitics Why the UAE tolerates breakaway regions and Saudi Arabia cannot Whether this rupture will be patched up and what happens if it isn’t Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Alan Leer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    52 min
  3. Re-Thinking Islam’s Global History

    JAN 8

    Re-Thinking Islam’s Global History

    Islam is often treated as a civilisation apart — self-contained, resistant to modernity, and fundamentally at odds with the West. In this episode, Thomas speaks to Oxford professor James McDougall about why that framing is misleading, and how Islamic history is inseparable from the making of the modern world itself. Drawing on his new book Worlds of Islam: A Global History, McDougall explains: Why Islamic and Western histories are deeply intertwined rather than civilisationally opposed The extent to which Islam is an imperial and political project Islam’s role in shaping global modernity before European dominance What made European power different in the nineteenth century How the Mongol sack of Baghdad reshaped the geography of the Islamic world The importance of Central Asia, Indonesia, and West Africa to Islamic history The debate over early Islamic sources and why scholarly scepticism has softened Whether today’s tensions reflect a clash of civilizations — or a clash of perspectives Follow James on Instagram: www.instagram.com/jamesrobertmcdougall Follow James on Substack: substack.com/@mcdougalljames Follow James of Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamesrmcd.bsky.social Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1 hr

  4. JAN 6

    The Crisis in Iran: The History Behind US-Iran Tensions

    As mass protests sweep Iran and President Trump declares the U.S. is ‘locked and loaded’, Thomas and Aimen revisit the event that shaped U.S.–Iran relations for the next half-century: the Iran Hostage Crisis. Then, in real time, the conversation veers into a fast-moving geopolitical shock: Venezuela, Iran’s global networks, and what a new era of American ‘muscle’ might actually look like. They discuss: Iran’s 2026 protest wave: currency collapse, water crisis, and regime pressure points Trump’s ‘locked and loaded’ warning Why the embassy takeover began as ‘revolutionary entrepreneurship’ How and why Khomeini endorsed the hostage crisis The shift to economic sanctions as America’s primary lever U.S. back-channel diplomacy Operation Eagle Claw: what the plan was and how it fell apart Hostage diplomacy after 1979 The creation of the U.S. Special Operations Command The Iran–Venezuela–Hezbollah nexus, and why Washington’s focus may be shifting Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    56 min
  5. Zohran Mamdani and the Ascendancy of Third Worldism

    JAN 1

    Zohran Mamdani and the Ascendancy of Third Worldism

    Amid controversy surrounding Zohran Mamdani’s rise to power in New York City, Hussein Mansour tells Thomas all about the history of Third Worldism — where it comes from, what it originally meant, and why the term has resurfaced. Thomas and Hussein discuss: Zohran Mamdani as a symbol, not a cause, of a broader elite transformation The Third Estate, the French Revolution, and the revolutionary inheritance of modern radical politics Interwar Paris and the emergence of Third Worldist intellectuals Négritude, anti-colonial humanism, and the promise of historical redemption Decolonisation, revolutionary violence, and the crisis of postcolonial states How ideological failure was reinterpreted as structural oppression The migration of Third Worldist ideas into Western universities and institutions Edward Said, postcolonial theory, and the institutionalisation of grievance Third Worldism today less as a political programme than an elite posture Subscribe to Hussein’s Substack The Abrahamic Metacritique here: https://critiqueanddigest.substack.com Follow Hussein on X here: https://x.com/HusseinAboubak Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 19m

  6. 12/30/2025

    2025 Year in Review

    As 2025 draws to a close, Thomas and Aimen take an unconventional tour of the Islamic world — looking beyond the usual headlines to the under-the-radar shifts that happened in 2025, with the potential to shape 2026 and beyond. They discuss: Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger forming the Alliance of Sahel States and what a new Sahel bloc might mean The geopolitical ‘cluster fuck’ of the Sudanese civil war The European Union’s re-entry into Central Asia The Gabala Summit and the rising Turkic axis How Bangladesh is diversifying away from India Southern Thailand’s Malay-Muslim insurgency and why it’s so rarely discussed In Iraq, Kata’ib Hezbollah and the breakdown of state sovereignty Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    52 min
  7. Inside the Trenches of Ukraine

    12/25/2025

    Inside the Trenches of Ukraine

    The war in Ukraine is back in the headlines as a peace agreement appears increasingly probably — though with major concessions to Russia. So as a Christmas present to our listeners, we’ve brought this episode from August out from behind the paywall. In it, Thomas speaks with his old university friend Jakub — a former Slovak Army officer who volunteered to fight in Ukraine — about the lived reality of modern warfare, from trench fighting to FPV strike drones. Drawing on nearly eighteen months at the front, Jakub offers an unvarnished account of combat, morale, fear, boredom, and survival — and challenges many popular assumptions about how this war is actually being fought. Thomas and Jakub discuss: Why Jakub left academia to fight in Ukraine Life as a foreign volunteer inside a regular Ukrainian infantry battalion The psychological reality of trench warfare How artillery, drones, and attrition have reshaped the battlefield The limits of NATO doctrine when confronted with peer warfare What this war suggests about the future of European security Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 23m

  8. 12/23/2025

    2025 Conflicted Christmas Special

    What is ‘the Christmas story’ really? And how does it change when you tell it from within a different religious tradition? In Conflicted’s first-ever Christmas Special, Thomas and Aimen retell the Nativity as it appears in the Gospels and in the Qur’an.  They discuss: Who were the Magi? Zoroastrian priests or Nabataean nomads? How the Nativity story differs between the Bible and the Qur’an A controversial theory about how local Christian traditions may have shaped the Qur’anic telling The overlooked reason why Qur’an presumes its audience already knows the underlying stories Christ’s ‘unfinished business’ in Islam: the Second Coming and the fight against the Antichrist The sharpest divergence: the Crucifixion and what it implies about Jesus’ mission Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    49 min
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4.6
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450 Ratings

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An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.

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