KalamCast

In late 2019, Netflix announced the coming of a series called "Messiah." It chronicles the modern world's reaction to a man (referred to as "Al-Masih") who first appears in the Middle East creating a groundswell of followers around him claiming he is the Messiah. Is he sent from God or is he a dangerous fraud bent on dismantling the world's geopolitical order? Furqan gets together with returning guest Almir Colan (who previously discussed Ertugrul) to discuss his opinion on "Messiah."  

Adel Mohamed is a Melbourne-based lawyer and the founder of Wasiyyah, a service dedicated to helping Muslims who live in countries where Islamic law is not recognised, to prepare for death by leaving a Will that is in accordance with Islamic principles and values. Furqan and Mustapha met up with Adel who explained to them what goes in to making an Islamic will, how well his services have been recieved and his motivation behind running Wasiyyah in the first place.

Ahmad Jhaffar (a volunteer for over 2.5 years) and Asim Siddiqui (a volunteer for 7 years) stopped by to talk about their experiences as volunteer firefighters with Furqan and Mustapha. They discussed what it has been like for them so far, the type of commitment and training that is required for such a job, their interaction with other firefighters, their experiences with recent bushfire relief efforts, some of the general dangers involved in the work and how they link such volunteer activities to their Islamic belief. 

Abdul-Latif Halimi is an Australian-Muslim of Lebanese heritage with a background in political economy and Islamic sciences. He well-known for regularly holding information sessions regarding world events within the community as well as providing nuanced analysis into such events in general. In this episode Abdul-Latif discusses some of his activities, his opinions regarding community reaction, his analysis regarding what is currently taking place with the Uighurs of China and some brief insight into the current strife taking place in Lebanon.

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis is a British public speaker and researcher on Islam. He came to Australia in 2016 to deliver an AlKauthar course in Sydney and Melbourne. During that time, he was also able to visit Canberra for a talk or two. Furqan was able to interview him on top of Telstra tower (a telecommunications tower and lookout that is situated above the summit of Black Mountain in Australia's capital city). In this recording, Hamza speaks of some of the things he has learned whilst intellectually promoting and defending Islam, his opinions towards certain approaches and his own motivations. Hamza was scheduled for a flight on the same day to Brisbane to attend other speaking engagements, hence the abrupt ending.

Ahmed Helou is an educator who is currently working on an initiative to educate and inform others about aspects of modern history concerning the Muslim community. The project aims to discuss and inform others on the biographies of those who worked to establish the Australian Muslim community whilst in it's infancy. Among the individuals that are studied in this project are those such as Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam (d. 2016) who was previously the Imam of Preston mosque, a founding member of the Board of Imams Victoria and previously held the position of Grand Mufti of Australia. The project aims to discuss just how different the world was compared was when Muslims first began to migrate and how several struggles and efforts were involved in establishing institutions from the ground-up. 

Abdul Kariim Barker is the dynamic founder of AMIN (which stands for "Australian Muslims in Need" and was formerly known as SPINvic). He is known in the local community for his commitment, charitable work and willingness to quickly ‘get the job done.’ In this episode, we discuss the diverse community-level initiatives he is involved in, his motivation, his (positive and negative) experiences with the community, his (perceived) failures and what keeps him going even in the face of disappointment. 

Abdul Shaheed Drew (author of 40 Hadiths Relating to Islamic Finance), is currently writing a book on the history of Muslims in Australia, he stops by to update us on his book and discuss some of his findings regarding the history of Muslims in Australia. 

In the aftermath of an appalling incident where a man became violent towards a pregnant Muslim woman (Rana Elasmar) in a Parramatta cafe, Furqan speaks with Sheikh Alaa El Zokm (Imam of Heidelberg mosque, ANIC member and executive member of the Board of Imams Victoria) regarding his thoughts about the incident and how we as Muslims should be dealing with such violent forms of behaviour. 

In this episode, we are joined with Almir Colan, well-known for his Islamic finance commentaries and discussions on YouTube. We discuss another topic dear to him, the famous series Diriliş: Ertuğrul. Almir discusses why he finds the series to be so endearing, how it is a source for change and some of the lessons we can learn from the series in general.