Claim OwnershipUNAPOLOGETIC with Ashfaaq Carim
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UNAPOLOGETIC is a show that unapologetically looks at the life, times and views of some unapologetic and not so unapologetic humans. Hosted by Ashfaaq Carim
57 Episodes
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1In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, political strategist and CEO and founder of the Cordoba Foundation, Anas Altikriti speaks to us about the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and why Trump is looking to now proscribe the organisation in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. We examine how the Brotherhood evolved, why authoritarian governments frame it as a threat, and how Western policymakers adopted those narratives. Altikriti discusses Britain’s review of the organisation, the limits of proscription laws, and why banning political movements often strengthens regional dictatorships rather than weakening them. The conversation also explores wider issues: political Islam, public misconceptions, the role of civil society, and how counter-extremism frameworks shape policy. A clear, structured look at an organisation widely debated but rarely understood.Chapters:00:00 Opening and introduction 07:40 What is the Muslim Brotherhood 15:20 Why regimes fear it 22:55 UK review and findings 31:10 Misconceptions about Islamism 39:05 Authoritarian influence abroad 47:00 Proscription laws explained 55:10 Counter-extremism as politics1:03:00 Public narratives and bias 1:10:55 Civil society and power 1:18:20 Western policy contradictions 1:26:15 Future of the movement 1:34:30 Final reflections and outro
Former South African ambassador to the United States Ebrahim Rasool sits down with Ashfaaq Carim for an unflinching conversation on power, punishment, and principle. Rasool explains how South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel triggered U.S. retaliation—from tariffs to blocked HIV/AIDS funding—while dismantling the “white genocide” narrative pushed by Trump-aligned networks.He also traces the global resurgence of white supremacism, drawing on South Africa’s struggle history to show why Gaza has become the defining moral battleground of our time. The discussion explores MAGA’s evolution, collapsing U.S. soft power, student uprisings, and the growing fractures inside Western politics.From BRICS realignments to ethnic cleansing and global solidarity, Rasool attempt to provide a historically grounded analysis of the world as it is—and where it may be heading.Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:14 Washington appointment tensions 06:09 Maga and lobby pressure 09:10 White genocide narrative 10:14 Timeline of U.S. retaliation 19:40 U.S. wars and isms 39:26 Pro-Israel tactical schisms emerging 43:32 Lessons from apartheid 46:04 ICJ soft power victory 58:07 BRICS and geopolitics 01:14:37 Israel’s endgame and personal reflections
In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak to Dr Andreas Krieg — a leading Gulf security expert — about how the UAE has pursued an aggressive statecraft strategy since 2011. Andreas unpacks how Abu Dhabi has shaped the region through covert interventions, proxy forces and political engineering. From Egypt to Libya, Yemen to Sudan, we examine how the UAE has empowered secessionist, authoritarian and anti-democratic actors to build a regional order aligned with its own interests and often at the expense of social stability and cohesion, and in the case of Sudan, plausible genocide. He explains the ideology and strategy driving this approach, why the UAE views political Islam and more representative government as existential threats, and how these policies have fuelled instability across the Middle East. A crucial conversation on power, repression and the region’s future. Chapters 00:00 Intro2:00 UAE’s pursuit of dominance 12:00 MBZ’s authoritarian worldview 22:00 Blueprint for counterrevolution 32:00 Engineering Egypt’s repression 42:00 Yemen as a testing ground 52:00 Dividing allies, breaking states 1:02:00 Sudan’s gold-fuelled militias 1:12:00 Moscow, mercenaries, money flows 1:22:00 Washington’s blind partnership 1:32:00 Abu Dhabi’s influence machine 1:42:00 A region remade by fear
British journalist and commentator Sami Hamdi was detained by ICE for 18 days. He recounts here on UNAPOLOGETIC how he was arrested after being informed that his valid tourist visa had been suddenly revoked, and how he was eventually allowed to leave after a federal judge was concerned that there had been serious breaches of his freedom of speech. Hamdi describes in detail how he was arrested, what he witnessed in ICE facilities and processing centres, how ICE routinely obstructs and evades the justice system, and how, through his observations, many ordinary Americans are turning against Israel as they discover how deeply the U.S. government has been drawn into financing Israel’s war crimes while ordinary Americans continue to require government assistance in numerous areas.
David Adler - a Jewish American writer, activist, and organiser - joins UNAPOLOGETIC where he reflects on what it means to be Jewish in the age of Israel’s genocide on Gaza — and why silence is no longer an option. From his family’s divided Zionist and anti-Zionist roots to his experience being detained by Israel after joining the Summud Flotilla, Adler recounts how Jewish identity, power, and solidarity are being redefined. He explains why Israel poses an existential threat to Judaism itself — and why resisting in the name of justice is the only path left.
Unapologetic’s host Ashfaaq Carim speaks to Dr Roy Casagranda about what Zohran Mamdani's election victory means for the USA and it's political future
In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, peace negotiator Gershon Baskin takes us inside the Trump-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — from backchannel talks with Hamas leaders to the Doha strike that nearly derailed the deal, and the moment Trump forced Netanyahu to apologize on camera. Baskin explains how the agreement came together, why it almost collapsed, and whether it can survive Netanyahu’s politics and the trauma of two years of war. He also reflects on 48 years in Israel, the country’s moral decline, and the difficult question of whether he can still call it home. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 02:00 - Backchannel Reborn Through Gaza 06:00 - Deal Delayed by Bombs 08:00 - The Three-Week Peace Plan 13:00 - Doha Strike and Betrayal 19:45 - Trump Forces Netanyahu’s Apology 23:00 - Will the Ceasefire Hold? 41:00 - Aftermath and Two-State Hope 48:00 - Israel Beyond Repair?
Green Party leader Zack Polanski joins UNAPOLOGETIC to talk about his plans to stop the right wing’s rise in the UK. Just weeks after being elected leader — and as the Greens gain over 30,000 new members — Polanski speaks about the party’s growing momentum in a political moment defined by Reform UK’s surge and the launch of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party. We discuss whether the Greens can turn their surge in support into real political power — and what it will take to build a credible alternative to the far right and a drifting Labour.
Political scientist and historian Norman Finkelstein joins this special edition of UNAPOLOGETIC that marks two years since the October 7 Hamas-led attack and Israel’s devastating retaliation against Gaza, which the majority of genocide scholars around the world have labelled a genocide.In this nearly three-hour conversation, we ask whether Hamas regrets its actions, probe the realities of Trump’s Gaza plan - and question if this is just another ruse to create cover for more of Netanyahu’s atrocities.Norman laments the depth of Israel’s brutality over the past 24 months and the roles of Israeli society, Arab states, Western governments, and the media in enabling it.He also reflects on the collapse of international law and shifting global politics.We discuss whether recognition of Palestine makes any difference, where the genocide leaves the future of the Palestinian liberation struggle, and why the horrors of Gaza defy facts alone.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, joins UNAPOLOGETIC to discuss his new book Righting Wrongs. Part memoir, part strategy guide, part global analysis, the book offers a rare inside look at how human rights advocacy really works. In this conversation, we explore how Roth built HRW from a team of just 60 people into a global organisation with more than 550 staff. He reflects on political strategy, the limits of “naming and shaming,” and the constant struggle to fund independent rights work. We also dive into HRW’s landmark reports—on apartheid and genocide in Gaza, the devastation of Syria’s war, Rwanda, China, Russia, and more. Roth shares what he learned from world leaders, victims, and dictators, and how those encounters shaped his understanding of power and human nature. A wide-ranging conversation on justice, accountability, and whether the world is becoming a better place.
“An Israel for all its citizens has disappeared, it has literally been extinguished, and it's a myth that Israel is a nice friendly state”David Hearst, editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, joins us on this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC to discuss what he describes as the ‘worst evil the world is witnessing’ in the 21st century.Hearst shares his views on why Israel’s genocide is not just intentional but ‘calculated’. He also speaks about the UK’s complicity and how Israel, through its actions, has isolated not just the global public opinion, but former reliable allies such as Tucker Carlson and Piers Morgan, who are now among the most damning and articulate (if not necessarily sober and coherent) critics of Israel.
Palestinian writer and analyst, Muhammad Shehada joins UNAPOLOGETIC in this special episode to explain how Israel's bombing of senior Hamas leaders in Qatar along with its order for 1 million Palestinians in Gaza city to evacuate once again to the South of Gaza has one common objective - to coldly and calculatedly make its ethic cleansing of Gaza inevitable.
"You have to think about people who are sitting in war rooms and plan the next bombing on civilians populations who are actually in tents in one place that they cannot move (from)"Al Jazeera has been at the center of one of the deadliest assaults on journalists in modern history. Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 270 journalists, including at least 11 from Al Jazeera. Despite losing colleagues, facing office bombings, and being banned from reporting inside Israel and the West Bank, Al Jazeera continues its coverage of Gaza.In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Ashfaaq Carim speaks with Salah Negm, the head of news for Al Jazeera English. With more than 45 years of experience in international journalism, Negm reflects on what it means to cover a genocide, how Israel targets reporters to silence coverage, and why eyewitness accounts remain essential.Negm discusses:The pressures and dangers faced by his newsroomThe killings of Shireen Abu Akleh and other Al Jazeera journalistsHow Western media often relies on Israeli narrativesWhy objectivity is misunderstood and misused in journalismAl Jazeera’s process for recruiting and protecting local reportersThis is a rare inside look at how a newsroom endures grief, censorship, and political attacks while trying to hold power to account amidst an unfolding genocide in Gaza. Editors Note: This episode was filmed on August 21st, before Monday deadly by Israel that killed another Al Jazeera Journalist, Muhammad SalamaChapters:0:00 Intro3:40 Israel’s war on journalism7:00 Media bias and objectivity10:50 Why Al Jazeera hires locals15:30 Fear and character attacks19:00 Press freedom under threat23:40 Gaza reporting under siege29:00 Covering genocide in real time47:20 Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing51:00 Journalists killed in Gaza1:00:00 Bans, raids, and censorship1:08:00 Future of journalism in war
Muhammad Shahada grew up in Gaza during two decades of blockade and repeated wars. His father died after being denied medical treatment outside the Strip — one of countless lives lost to Israel’s permit system.Now a journalist and analyst, Shahada joins UNAPOLOGETIC to trace Gaza’s story from 2005 to 2025 — years that saw the removal of Israeli settlers, the imposition of siege, and the shift from Apache helicopters to F-16 bombardments, culminating in genocide.The conversation covers Hamas’s attempt to reach a political settlement that was rejected by Israel after its election victory, Israel’s role in fuelling a Palestinian civil war, daily life under siege, and the repeated wars waged under Israel's “mowing the lawn” doctrine.Shahada also reflects on the short period of relief when Egypt opened the Rafah crossing under President Morsi, the tunnelling economy and its risks, Israel’s policy of maiming protesters during the Great March of Return, the events of 7 October, and Israel’s ongoing 22-month assault on Gaza — alongside the silence and complicity of world leaders, media and policymakers.
Orly Noy is the chairperson of B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation that has been documenting Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians since 1989. In this episode, we discuss B’Tselem’s new report, titled ‘Our Genocide’. Through rigorous research, the report makes the case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. We also discuss the sociological culture in Israel that has led to a society that largely supports the Israeli state’s annihilation of Gaza and its people, and the lies and myths that have produced a global narrative where power brokers enable or are complicit in the genocide.
In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC Professor John Esposito — one of the world’s foremost scholars on political Islam — unpacks 120 years of modern Islamic movements. From Afghani and Abdu’s 19th-century reformist vision, through Hassan al-Banna and Maududi’s activism, to Sayyid Qutb’s radical turn, we trace the intellectual and political forces that shaped the Muslim world. We explore the Iranian Revolution, the Afghan war, democratic Islamists, authoritarian crackdowns, and how the West’s perceptions of Islamism were forged. This is a masterclass in the history, ideas, and global impact of political Islam. UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim Chapters0:00 – Intro & episode setup 2:33 – Esposito’s unlikely journey 5:41 – Immersion in Muslim scholarship 10:14 – Plan: 120 years’ history 12:14 – Afghani & Abdu’s vision 15:45 – Islam as civilization & faith 18:09 – Abdu’s modernist reform ideas 22:02 – Anti-colonial political Islam roots 23:54 – Al-Banna & Maududi emerge 26:44 – Movements spread transnationally 30:58 – Ideas spread without media 33:15 – Critique of elites & clerics 38:58 – Sayyid Qutb’s radical turn 43:39 – America through Qutb’s eyes 47:14 – Nasser’s crackdown & prisons 50:33 – Cross-pollination of movements 52:47 – Iranian revolution reshapes politics 55:03 – Authoritarianism fuels radicalisation 57:12 – Gradualists vs violent factions 1:04:05 – Revolution’s impact on perceptions 1:09:58 – Shah, hostage crisis, US errors 1:18:22 – Afghan jihad to al-Qaeda 1:27:05 – Democratic Islamists in power 1:35:48 – Post-Cold War Islamism shifts 1:40:19 – 9/11 & war on terror 1:49:15 – Arab Spring & Brotherhood 1:53:32 – Egypt’s coup & repression 2:02:08 – Islamism, democracy & inclusion 2:07:39 – Misrepresentation in Western discourse
“Every inch of that precious city is Rome and Paris and New York put together, and these barbaric savages go, ‘Oh Isfahan, we just bombed Isfahan’; they don’t even know where Isfahan is.” Hamid Dabashi, is an American and Iranian professor at Columbia University. He joined UNAPOLGETIC on this episode to give a scathing critique of US and Israeli adventurism and aggression in Iran and the region. Dabashi rebukes both states for having “absolutely no moral legitimacy” to export either freedom or democracy, especially while Israel continues to carry out a “genocide” in Gaza and the US under Trump cracks down on its own democratic institutions. The episode also delves into Iran's contemporary history, looking at how the CIA orchestrated coup of Iran’s elected leader allowed the Pahlavi dynasty to reestablish “autocratic” rule in Iran, which led to a popular uprising that paved the way for Ayatollah Khomeini to opportunistically establish Iran’s theocracy that has presided over Iran with a “totalitarian” fist, ever since. UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim Chapters 00:00 - Intro 02:22 - Israel-US no legitimacy on nuclear bombs 07:08 - Iran belongs to Iranian people 12:33 - US-Israel actions will be remembered 17:06 - The empire’s collapse 21:40 - West’s hypocrisy on Iran 26:55 - Israel’s war on Iran 33:18 - West's history with Iran 38:11 - The 1953 CIA coup 44:20 - Pahlavi and autocracy 49:35 - Khomeini seizes opportunity 55:58 - Iran’s totalitarian theocracy 1:02:41 - Trump and democratic decline 1:10:25 - Freedom as imperial excuse 1:17:04 - Moral clarity from the South 1:24:45 - Final reflections
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins us on UNAPOLOGETIC for a conversation on what the consequences could be if Israel draws the USA into a full-blown war with Iran.Hedges reflects on his years reporting from war zones, the cynical nihilism driving Netanyahu’s assault, and how Israel’s genocide in Gaza has become a “spectacle” that has irreparably broken trust between North and South.Are Israel’s and the Pentagon’s stated shifting priorities real, or a façade to continue diminishing societal infrastructure in the region? Will the complicity of Arab states in the genocide lead to blowback? Is regime change the goal, or is this just an excuse?UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim
“It’s left me with a deep and simmering anger against the western powers who imposed this nightmare on us.”Palestinian physician, author and Nakba survivor Ghada Karmi joins UNAPOLOGETIC to speak about how her life has been shaped by exile and how, as she tried to find a new home in the UK, she was confronted by experiences that enhanced her desire to reconnect with her Palestinian identity and eventually made her want to embrace a life where she lived in service of liberating Palestinians from Zionist occupation.She also reflects on the current unfolding genocide in Gaza, what she calls Arab and western complicity and how this event will traumatise future generations of Palestinians Chapters0:00 Intro and context setup 2:00 Two Nakbas, 77 years apart 4:32 Predicting 7 October’s logic 8:09 Fleeing Jerusalem in 1948 14:46 Remembering home, dog, Fatima 17:29 Life as a refugee child 21:28 1967 war changed everything 27:19 Reclaiming identity through activism 29:16 Visiting her old home 34:04 Learning the deeper history 43:58 Zionism’s effect on region 44:54 Arab states and complicity 55:57 The one-state vision today 1:09:00 Final reflections
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, joins UNAPOLOGETIC for a wide-ranging conversation about who has been complicit for the genocide in Gaza, the global shift in rhetoric, and what it takes to organise 20 months of continous mass protest across the UK.He unpacks the gap between what Western governments say and what they do - from condemning Israeli actions as “indefensible” while continuing to arm them, to criminalising peaceful protesters demanding justice. Jamal also reflects on his arrest and upcoming trial, the police’s systematic efforts to repress the movement, and why those tactics have failed to break the solidarity movement.In deeply personal moments, Jamal shares the story of his Palestinian father, his own political awakening, and what it has meant to sustain this movement through exhaustion, grief and hope.We ask: What does the future look like for Gaza? For Palestinian liberation? And for a world that has tolerated so much horror in real time?Chapters:00:00 Intro03:12 Shifts in media and government10:01 Words mean nothing without action15:30 Divestment wins and public pressure21:12 The arrest: what happened27:03 How police target protests32:47 BBC march and police trap38:55 Criminalised for peaceful protest44:11 Holding a movement together49:35 Building a resistance community54:20 Ben’s Palestinian family story1:00:07 Organising through trauma and grief1:05:05 Family, kids and solidarity1:10:10 What happens to Gaza now1:14:58 Will Palestinians be erased?1:20:10 Movement grows through genocide1:26:30 What keeps Ben going1:32:10 Final reflections
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