CONFLICTED

In this special episode, Thomas will introduce you to Jake Warren, the host of a new podcast called Undiscovered. He'll share with you an episode we think you'll enjoy - it's the incredible story of a bear, a lion and a long-abandoned zoo in the heartland of ISIS occupied Iraq.

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What compels a jihadi to take up arms in defence of Islam? How are they recruited – and where are they recruited from? In the final episode of this series, Aimen gets into the specifics of the importance of a prophetic narrative and why so many fighters travelled to Syria from every corner of the globe to join ISIS. We’ll also find out how Aimen was finally outed as an MI6 spy inside al-Qaeda and how he escaped.

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This episode brings us to one of the most complicated conflicts raging in the Middle East. Thomas and Aimen both know the country well and walk us through the actors and their motives. They’ll also explain how Syria became such a killing field as a result of the Arab Spring and how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a onetime eye-doctor in London, played a direct role in the failure of the American post-war project, as he released Syria’s jihadists from prison and facilitated their migration to Iraq.

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The Yemeni civil war is one of the most brutal civil wars in the Middle East. As it continues to rage on, Thomas and Aimen explain who the players are in this conflict, why it is all about water, and the reasons Saudi Arabia and UAE are using it to fight an existential war of future survival with their arch rival, Iran.

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Last week Aimen left listeners with a final thought: the biggest mistake in the War on Terror was the invasion of Iraq. This week, Aimen explains how this explosive conflict played into the jihadists’ apocalyptic dreams, how it spurred Osama bin Laden and other conflicts forward in neighbouring countries, and his frustrations as a double agent as he watched the region falling deeper into war.

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The War on Terror has lasted 18 years with no clear end in sight. What would it take to resolve a conflict this sprawling and complex - and resolve it successfully?

In episode two, Aimen and Thomas grapple with this question, piecing together the historical context, religious issues and modern politics that bred jihadism in the Middle East, and exploring how the counter terrorism efforts of the west have spurred fundamentalism rather than dismantled it.

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Where were you on 9/11? Thomas and Aimen use this historic event as a starting point as they tease out how al-Qaeda went from being a small army of jihadists seeking a caliphate in the Middle East to main player, at the centre of the global stage.

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Coming soon: 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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