Waleed Aly (born 15 August 1978) is an Australian journalist, academic, and lawyer. Aly is a lecturer in politics at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has ...

working in their Global Terrorism Research Centre, and a co-host of

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of fiv ...

's news and current affairs television program '' The Project''. He also writes for

Fairfax Media Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased '' The Sydney Morning Hera ...

, co-hosts ''The Minefield'', an ABC RN program about ethical dilemmas of modern life, and is

lead guitarist Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

in rock band Robot Child. In 2016, he won the Gold Logie Award for Best Personality on Australian Television.

Early life and education

Aly was born on 15 August 1978 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, to Egyptian parents. He is a

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. He attended Wesley College, completing the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB D ...

in 1996. He then studied at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

, graduating with

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Ba ...

(

Chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

) and

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

(with honours) degrees in 2002. In May 2017 Aly was awarded a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

, for his thesis on global terrorism titled "Towards a structuration theory of global terrorism".

Legal and academic career

After graduating, Aly worked as an associate to

Family Court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plainti ...

judge Joseph Kay and, until, 2007 worked as a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

in Melbourne for Maddocks Lawyers. In 2006, he was a ''

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

'' lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre, on secondment from Maddocks. In 2007 Aly published '' People Like Us: How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West''. In 2008, he was selected to participate in the Australia 2020 Summit, a

bipartisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

convention held in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

to "help shape a long-term strategy for the nation's future". Aly is a staff member of the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University. He has said that most of the conflicts in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

can be traced to the arbitrary way in which its territories were divided-up by Western powers by the ongoing demand for Middle Eastern oil and more recently by factors such as the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...

. After the

Boston Marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing was a domestic terrorist attack that took place during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Two terrorists, brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, w ...

, describing

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

as a "perpetual irritant", he said it is encouraging that we are finally maturing in the way we handle terrorism.

Media

During his time as head of public affairs for the

Islamic Council of Victoria The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) an Australian Muslim organisation acting as the central representative body for the Muslim community and local Islamic organisations in Victoria, Australia.The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', ''

The Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

'', ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' and ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

''. Currently he is a fortnightly columnist for

. In searching for reasons behind the suicide attacks in central London on 7 July 2005, Aly reminded readers of the Quranic passage, ''Do not let the injustice of others lead you into injustice.'' Aly was the host of ABC TV's '' Big Ideas'' program on

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel an ...

and ABC News 24. He has been a regular guest co-host on ''The Conversation Hour'' with

Jon Faine Jonathan Eric Faine (born 21 September 1956) is an Australian former radio presenter who hosted the morning program on ABC Radio Melbourne in Melbourne. Faine is recognised as a prominent and influential member of the Australian Jewish communi ...

774 ABC Melbourne ABC Radio Melbourne (official callsign: 3LO) is an ABC Local Radio station in Melbourne, Australia. It began transmission on 13 October 1924, and was Melbourne's second licensed radio station after 3AR. Most Local Radio stations in Victoria sim ...

and '' The Project'' on Channel 10 and also was a regular panel member and producer on ''

Salam Cafe ''Salam Cafe'' is an Australian comedy talk show. Produced by RMITV, and originally airing on Channel 31 from 31 April 2005 under the title ''Ramadan TV'', the show began a revamped ten-week run on the SBS from 7 May 2008. Hosted by Ahmed Imam ...

'', a weekly program presented by young members of Melbourne's Muslim community and produced by

RMITV RMITV is a not-for-profit, community access television production facility based at RMIT University City Campus in Melbourne, Australia. It is a full member of the Melbourne Community Television Consortium, a not-for-profit consortium that ...

first for

C31 Melbourne C31 Melbourne is a free-to-air community television channel in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its name is derived from UHF 31, the frequency and channel number reserved for analogue broadcasts by metropolitan community television stations in ...

and later for SBS. He has appeared as a panellist on ABC TV's '' Q&A'' program, and has been an occasional co-host on the ABC's ''

News Breakfast ''News Breakfast'' is an Australian news breakfast television program. It is broadcast on ABC TV and ABC News channel from 6:00 am to 9:00 am AEST/AEDT on weekdays and is hosted by Michael Rowland and Lisa Millar. The program is also streame ...

''. In December 2014, Aly resigned as

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

(RN) Drive host to become the permanent co-host of Channel Ten's '' The Project'', starting on 26 January 2015. He returned to ABC RN in April 2015 to co-host ''The Minefield'', in addition to his role on ''The Project'' for Channel Ten. In November 2015, Aly criticised the extremist group

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic ter ...

in a four-minute monologue titled "What ISIL wants" on ''The Project'' in the wake of the

November 2015 Paris attacks The November 2015 Paris attacks () were a series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks that took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 9:15p.m., three suicide bombers ...

, labelling them as "bastards" and calling for no one to fear them, because "they are weak". The video, written by Aly and producer Tom Whitty, was posted online and received 13 million views within a day. , Aly continues to co-host ''The Minefield'', along with religion and ethics commentator Scott Stephens and an expert studio guest each week, and continues his role on ''The Project''.

Awards

At the 2005

Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

, Aly was commended in the category of Commentary, Analysis, Opinion and Critique. In 2015, Aly and producer Tom Whitty were finalists for two

Our Watch Awards Our Watch, formerly Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children, is an Australian organisation that exists to help prevent violence against women and their children. Founded in mid-2013 with Natasha Stott Despoja as founding ...

(administered by the

Walkley Foundation The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

) for exemplary reporting to end

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often c ...

, for their viral editorial, "Show Me The Money (Domestic Violence Funding)". The pair were also nominated for (and won) a United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award for Promotion of Climate Change Issues, with their "Renewable Energy Target" monologue. Aly and Whitty finished the year with a Walkley nomination for Excellence in Journalism in the All Media Commentary, Analysis, Opinion and Critique category, for a series of editorials including Show Me The Money, Renewable Energy Target, and Negative Gearing. In May 2016, Aly won the Gold Logie Award for Best Personality on Australian Television, chosen by the public through an online vote. In May 2016 Aly was Liberty Victoria's winner of the

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

Award for free speech. Writing in ''

'', Dr Paul Monk has said, "In accepting his Voltaire Award, Aly needs to step up and champion freedom of speech in the Muslim world and freedom to criticise Islam itself, including the Prophet – as Voltaire himself did." In June 2016, the Prime Minister

Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Turnbull grad ...

hosted the first

Iftar Iftar ( ar, translit=Iftar Ramadan, إفطار رمضان), also known as (from , , 'breakfast'), (), is the evening meal with which Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset. They break their fast at the time of the call to prayer ...

dinner, at Kirribilli House for Muslim community leaders. Aly and his wife, described as the "power couple", were seated at Table No. 1, next to the Prime Minister. In August 2016, Aly and producer Tom Whitty were again finalists for two Our Watch Awards for exemplary reporting to end violence against women, for their viral editorial, "Click Something Else". In September, the pair were also again nominated for (and won) a United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) Media Peace Award for Social Cohesion, with their "Send Forgiveness Viral" monologue. In October, Aly and Whitty received two Walkley nominations for Excellence in Journalism. First in the Television/Audio-Visual News Reporting category, for Milked Dry, their viral editorial on Australia's dairy pricing crisis, and in the Commentary, Analysis, Opinion and Critique category, for a series of editorials: "Click Something Else", "Milked Dry", and "ISIL is Weak".

Music

Aly is the

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the fe ...

ist and principal

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

for the

-based rock band Robot Child. The band contributed a track to the Jesuit Social Services' ''Just Music'' album, performing at

the Famous Spiegeltent A spiegeltent (Dutch for "mirror tent", from ''spiegel''+''tent'') is a large travelling tent, constructed from wood and canvas and decorated with mirrors and stained glass, intended as an entertainment venue. Originally built in Belgium during ...

for its release. They were also widely praised for their cover of

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...

's "

Comfortably Numb "Comfortably Numb" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd from their eleventh album, ''The Wall'' (1979). It was released as a single in 1980, with " Hey You" as the B-side. The music was composed by guitarist David Gilmour. The lyrics were ...

" at the 2015

. Aly is a featured artist on " Surah Maryam" the 2021 '' Paul Kelly's Christmas Train'' album.

Personal life

Aly lives in Melbourne and is married to Australian feminist author and academic

Susan Carland Susan Janet Carland (born 1980) is an Australian academic, author and television presenter best known for her ongoing media presence speaking on her academic speciality of women in Islam. Early life and education Carland grew up in Forest Hi ...

, and they have two children. Carland converted to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

aged 19 and holds a PhD from

Publications

* * * *Numerous articles.

Early life and education

Legal and academic career

Media

Awards

Music

Personal life

Publications

References

Further reading