Rethinking, Thinking About Islam (2026) - Aftab Malik & Simon Longstaff

Rethinking, Thinking About Islam (2026) - Aftab Malik & Simon Longstaff

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas September 2, 2026 Duration: 1:01:02

Perceptions of Islam in the Western world today have been shaped by the actions of terrorists, fear, distortion and ignorance. And as a result, the advanced civilisational legacy produced by Islam has been buried and ignored – not only by the Western world but also by many Muslims themselves. 
 
In conversation with Simon Longstaff, Special envoy Aftab Malik challenges us to radically reframe how we think about Islam, and the resources it offers to support Western civilisation. 

This session was recorded at Carriageworks, Sydney in August 2026.

Aftab Malik is Australia's first-ever Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia and a UN Alliance of Civilisations expert on global Muslim affairs. He spent nearly a decade in the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, bridging academic insight and policy practice to address hate, misinformation and structural discrimination at a national level.

Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of The Ethics Centre. In 2013, he was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for "distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy." He is also Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Sydney, a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Risk Policy Institute.


For more than a decade, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas has curated a space where provocative thinking isn't just welcomed, it's the entire point. This podcast is a direct line to that stage, offering an archive of talks that deliberately unsettle comfortable opinions and interrogate the stubborn problems we often agree to ignore. Each episode captures a live conversation from Australia's original disruptive ideas festival, presenting arguments that can be exhilarating, uncomfortable, and vitally important. You’ll hear from a compelling roster of festival alumni-including leading experts, intellectual troublemakers, and visionary authors-who share perspectives that conventional discourse frequently sidelines. The discussions here aren't theoretical exercises; they grapple with the pressing and difficult issues shaping our society and culture right now. Tuning in means granting yourself access to a decade-long tradition of intellectual courage, where the core assumption is that some truths are only reached by first entertaining a dangerous idea. It’s a chance to listen as boundaries are pushed, not for shock value, but for clarity. The result is a consistently challenging and refreshing audio experience that complicates simple narratives and expands what feels possible to talk about.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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