UNAPOLOGETIC with Ashfaaq Carim

Epizode

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  Episode 89 - The story of how a Greater India was shattered into 12 modern states | Sam Dalrymple | UNAPOLOGETIC 11.08.2026 2h 14min

  "The story that I tell in the book is how this one Indian Empire passport became, by the 1970s, twelve independent passports." - Sam Dalrymple "The story that I tell in the book is how this one Indian Empire passport becomes, by the 1970s, twelve independent passports." — Sam DalrympleWe sat down with historian Sam Dalrymple, author of Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia, for UNAPOLOGETIC. His argument: the "Partition" most people know from 1947 was only one of five ruptures that broke apart the old British "Indian Empire" — a single administrative unit stretching from Aden in Yemen to the borders of Thailand — between 1937 and 1971, producing the twelve nation-states of today's South Asia and Arabian Gulf. This was a world where the Sultans of Oman were schooled in Rajasthan and grew up fluent in Urdu, where a Yemeni family's move to the Deccan gave the world haleem (Yemeni harees, remixed with Hyderabadi spice), and where Rangoon in 1933 briefly overtook New York as the world's busiest port of migration. Sam traces exactly how that world got torn apart, piece by piece.We go deep into the personal story behind Pakistan's founding, from Muhammad Ali Jinnah's transformation after the death of his wife Ruttie, to Gandhi's early opposition to a "Greater India," through all five partitions in turn: Burma in 1937, the Arabian states, the Great Partition of 1947, the forced integration of princely states like Hyderabad and Kashmir, and finally the 1971 war that created Bangladesh. We also talk about the scale of the devastation, the myths that have grown up around it, and Sam's own Project Dastaan, reconnecting Partition survivors with the homes they lost.UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 88 - Do Greeks have more in common with Arabs and Turks than Europeans | Sean Mathews | UNAPOLOGETIC 30.07.2026 1h 38min

  We sat down with Middle East Eye journalist and author Sean Mathews on UNAPOLOGETIC to ask a question that unsettles a lot of assumptions: do Greeks actually have more in common with Arabs and Turks than they do with the rest of Europe? Mathews is the author of The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East, and his answer draws on years of reporting from Istanbul, Cairo and occupied Jerusalem. He argues that Greece's "Western" identity is a relatively recent import, imposed from outside, and that the country's deeper roots, culturally, religiously and geopolitically, lie in the wider Middle East. The episode traces how the Greek revolution, the population exchange with Turkey, and the collapse of cosmopolitan cities like Alexandria all shaped the identity Greece wears today. We also get into the present: Greece's fast-deepening, and increasingly fraught, alliance with Israel, and what that could mean for Turkey, NATO and the wider region. UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 87 - How the US backed Khomeini, then armed Saddam | Scott Horton | UNAPOLOGETIC 23.07.2026 57min

  The US backed Khomeini's return to power, then a year later greenlit Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran, the same country it had just warned Saddam might attack.In this latest episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, radio host and presenter of The Scott Horton Show, Scott Horton, sat down with MEE's Ashfaaq Carim to discuss the history of the US and its impact in the region. They also touched on Netanyahu's "new Middle East" doctrine and whether real US pressure could actually force him to fall in line. UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 86 - How the US blunder in Iran accelerates its decline and dooms Israel | Andreas Krieg | UNAPOLOGETIC 04.07.2026 1h 41min

  We sat down with Andreas Krieg for the fourth time on UNAPOLOGETIC, this time in the aftermath of the war on Iran, to ask what it has done to the balance of power across the Middle East. His answer is stark: this is the most fundamental shift in regional order in thirty years, and it has undone the American empire in a way he does not think it can recover from.We get into why the Gulf no longer believes the United States can protect it, why its bases have become magnets for attack rather than deterrents, and why nobody in the region has a plan B for the order that is now crumbling. Andreas lays out the battle between the Israel lobby and the Gulf lobby that he believes will decide Washington's approach for years to come, the split between Marco Rubio and JD Vance, and why Iran has emerged able to impose its will without ever building a bomb.We also talk through Iran as a network state, the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint, Saudi Arabia's strategic drift, Qatar's network power, Egypt reduced to a beggar state, the violation of Iraqi sovereignty, Syria under Sharaa, and why Andreas argues Israel has become a hammer that sees everything as a nail, isolated and digging itself into a hole it may not climb out of.UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 85 - Israel's dream of ruling the region is over, its decline has begun | Mustafa Barghouti |UNAPOLOGETIC 29.06.2026 1h 6min

  "Now Netanyahu has failed. Iran was not broken. Arab countries now realise that relying on Israel is a death sentence."In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we sat down in studio with Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian physician, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative and co-founder of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. Barghouti argues that Israel's two strategic goals, imperial domination of the Middle East and normalisation with Arab states, have both collapsed, and that this marks the beginning of its decline.Across the conversation he sets out the scale of the atrocity in Gaza, the slow strangulation of life in the West Bank, and the transformation of Israeli society towards what he describes as fascism. He explains why the regional war with Iran ended in strategic failure for Netanyahu, why Oslo and the 2005 Gaza disengagement were traps rather than concessions, and why he refuses to accept any framing that places oppressor and oppressed on equal footing.Barghouti also turns to the question of survival and resistance, from the 90 midwives employed in the first weeks of the war to the clinics rebuilt multiple times under bombardment, and makes the case that Palestine has become the global measure of commitment to justice. Despite everything, he ends on a note of defiance and hope. UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 84 - Why reaching a ceasefire was essential - Iran, Hormuz and US decline | Laleh Khalili | UNAPOLOGETIC 13.06.2026 1h 20min

  Laleh Khalili is a professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and the author of Sinews of War and Trade and Extractive Capitalism. She is also Iranian-American, with family members displaced by the current war, a scholar with both the expertise and the personal stakes to speak to this moment with rare authority.In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Ashfaaq Carim sits down with Khalili to understand what the US-Israeli war on Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz actually means, not for markets, but for people. They discuss who is winning and who is losing, how Iran has used commercial disruption as a weapon, the deep colonial history that produced this crisis, Israel's periphery strategy and its long alliance with Iran before 1979, and why an empire in decline is always the most dangerous version of itself.UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 83 - Cenk Uygur on being banned by the UK and how it shows that the West has fallen | UNAPOLOGETIC 02.06.2026 30min

  Cenk Uygur, founder of The Young Turks, was banned from entering the UK hours before this conversation - blocked by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood for criticising Israel. We speak to him live about what his ban indicates about the West's accelerating collapse, how governments are criminalising dissent on behalf of a foreign state, and whether the freedoms the West claims to stand for are already slipping away.
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  Episode 82 - How the establishment made the far right respectable | Daniel Trilling | UNAPOLOGETIC 01.06.2026 1h 45min

  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we sit down with Daniel Trilling - journalist and author of If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable.We discuss who is actually responsible for the rise of the far right and how dangerous the global far right rise could be for freedoms across the globe.From Trump's assault on democratic institutions to Orban gutting Hungary's free press, Modi's rise during a period of extraordinary economic growth to Reform's promises of a British ICE - Trilling maps a global pattern of far right movements exploiting the failures of a governing class that never saw it coming, or simply didn't care.In the UK, he traces how David Cameron opened the door, Rishi Sunak presided over the ruins, and Keir Starmer arrived without a plan - leaving Nigel Farage as the unlikely beneficiary of decades of establishment failure.Could Farage be the next prime minister? What would a Reform government actually look like? And can any of this be stopped?UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim
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  Episode 81 - Is Elon Musk a white nationalist? We asked his father | Errol Musk | UNAPOLOGETIC 25.05.2026 1h 23min

  UNAPOLOGETIC spoke to Errol Musk, father of Elon Musk, and the result is a conversation is an interesting foray into where ideology is formed and where it is inherited.Errol traces his journey from post-war poverty to building a life of considerable wealth and takes credit for funding the very first company Elon and Kimball started in 1995.But it is his views on race, politics and identity that are likely to stay with you longest and defines the conversation.He reflects on post-apartheid South Africa in terms that invite direct challenge, describing the country under a black government as being "in a terrible state" and expressing views on land, farming and black economic capability that are difficult to swallow and that are challenged directly throughout.On Tommy Robinson, Errol is equally direct. He defends the Musk family's financial support for Robinson's legal fees, calls him "a political prisoner," compares him to Mandela, a comparison that is contested at length, and suggests he will "very likely, very possibly one day" be prime minister of England. His views on immigration lead to a metaphor that, once heard, is difficult to forget.We also put to Errol the words Elon himself has used to describe his father, "a terrible human being" who has done "every crime you can possibly think of," and take some time to examine how their relationship has evolved over the years, from the early decades in which Errol was the provider, to where things stand today. Draw your own conclusions. UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim
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  Episode 80 - How Israel's Genocide Is Turning Jews Against Zionism | Simone Zimmerman | UNAPOLOGETIC 21.05.2026 1h 37min

  "Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of IfNotNow and subject of the documentary Israelism, joins UNAPOLOGETIC to examine how Israel's genocide in Gaza has reshaped Jewish identity and politics.Simone traces her own journey from committed Zionist to anti-Zionist activist, describing the personal and communal ruptures that followed. She argues that the decades-long fusion of Zionism with Judaism has been a catastrophe for Jewish life globally, and that Israel's genocide has made liberal Zionism untenable.The conversation also tackles the growing anti-Israel voices within MAGA - and why, despite tactical overlaps on ending military aid, figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens represent a fundamentally different and dangerous political project that the pro-Palestinian movement should not mistake for solidarity.Drawing on Palestinian writer Tariq Baconi, Zimmerman makes a stark argument: that for too much of the Jewish establishment, "Palestinians are just the canvas upon which the Jewish psychodrama takes place."UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 79 - How US-Israeli aggression may unite Iran, Turkey & the Arab World | Hassan Ahmadian | UNAPOLOGETIC 13.05.2026 1h 25min

  In this episode of Unapologetic, Hassan Ahmadian, political scientist at the University of Tehran, argues that US-Israeli aggression may inadvertently bring Iran, Turkey and the Arab world closer together.Ahmadian explains why Iran views every negotiation with Washington through the lens of betrayal, and why Tehran sees caving to Trump and Netanyahu as a worse outcome than war itself. He also explains how control of the Strait of Hormuz has handed Iran a card that no amount of US military hardware can easily beat.The conversation covers how Iran actually makes its biggest decisions, especially now after its former leadership has been decapitated, the long and complicated relationship between Iran and the Arab world, and what Israel's drift towards extremism ultimately means for its own survival and how their persistent violence is showing all the actors in the region why they need to look to each other for stability.UNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 78 - When China rules the world | Martin Jacques | UNAPOLOGETIC 04.05.2026 2h 9min

  "If you go to China, you'll never ever see the world in the same way again. Never."In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Martin Jacques, author of the million-copy bestseller When China Rules the World, makes the case that China has already eclipsed the United States as the world's leading power, and that the West still fundamentally doesn't understand why.This episode explores China's identity as a civilisation-state, the century of humiliation, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Xinjiang question, the decline of American hegemony, Trump's failing strategy against China, and why Jacques believes the future global order will be built around China and the Global SouthUNAPOLOGETIC is hosted by Ashfaaq Carim.
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  Episode 77 - The ‘Ayatollah’ opposing US imperialism and Iran’s Islamic ‘regime’ | Mohsen Kadivar | UNAPOLOGETIC 24.04.2026 1h 58min

  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak to Mohsen Kadivar - Iranian scholar, Shia mujtahid, dissident cleric, and former political prisoner - about the Islamic Republic, its origins, and its contradictions.Kadivar offers a rare insider critique of Iran: opposing US imperialism and Israeli aggression, while also challenging the authoritarianism of the Islamic Republic from within Shia theology itself. He traces his own journey - arrested under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic - and explains how the revolutionary promise of freedom, democracy, and justice was only partially realised.We explore the theory of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist), how it reshaped Iran’s political system, and why Kadivar argues it is only one interpretation among many within Islamic thought. He also reflects on elections, reform movements, repression, and the limits of political freedom in Iran today.Throughout the conversation, Kadivar builds a compelling case for why Muslims - in both majority and minority contexts - should embrace democracy as the most just and viable form of governance for themselves and others.This is conversation takes a deep look into how power, religion, personalities and competing visions of destiny have interacted to make Iran, Iran.
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  Episode 76 - Norman Finkelstein thinks Trump is too humiliated to attack Iran again | UNAPOLOGETIC 09.04.2026 1h 23min

  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Norman Finkelstein unpacks the aftermath of the US–Iran war, beginning with the ceasefire and what it actually reveals about both sides. He argues there was no clear victory, before tracing the deeper roots of US strategy toward Iran over decades. The conversation explores Donald Trump’s highly personalised decision-making, the role Israel played in tipping the balance, and why expectations of regime collapse inside Iran failed. Finkelstein also examines the broader consequences: the collapse of legal norms around war, the destruction unfolding in Lebanon, and Iran’s justification for its response under international law. In the final stretch, the discussion turns to Trump’s political base, the rise of alternative media voices, and what this moment reveals about power, propaganda, and global order. Norman’s forthcoming book is Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places (OR Books, 2026) https://orbooks.com/catalog/gazas-gravediggers/
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  Episode 75 - Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israel's ultra-right, the Temple Mount and Global War | Abdallah Marouf 07.04.2026 1h 4min

  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, historian Abdallah Marouf connects the dots between the closure of Al-Aqsa, Israel’s ultra-right, Pete Hegseth, the dangerously expanding war in Iran, and the belief in a coming Messiah.He explains how a once-marginal religious Zionist movement now holds real political power in Israel, and how its vision of rebuilding the Temple and hastening the Messiah is shaping events on the ground.We explore the closure of Al-Aqsa, the rise of extremist factions, divisions within Israeli society, and the role of US evangelicals in reinforcing these ideas.Marouf breaks down competing Jewish interpretations of the Messiah, the red heifer, and the Temple Mount, and why some believe a world war may be necessary to trigger the end times.
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  Episode 74 - Israel, USA, Iran, Arab States & China - How will war reshape power? | Mamoun Fandy | UNAPOLOGETIC 01.04.2026 1h 30min

  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Mamoun Fandy, former professor of politics at Georgetown University and current head of the Global Strategy Institute in London, breaks down the escalating conflict involving Israel, the United States, and Iran.He argues this is not one war, but three overlapping wars, each with its own logic: regime change, regional dominance, and economic pressure. Together, they risk destabilising the Middle East and severely disrupting the global economy.We explore how this conflict could weaken entire states, threaten Gulf economies, and reshape global power, potentially benefiting actors like China.Beyond the headlines, this is a conversation about escalation, miscalculation, and why this may be a war that no one truly wins.
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  Episode 73 - Not just Iran, ' Israel would kill millions of people' | Rabbi Elhanan Beck | UNAPOLOGETIC 28.03.2026 1h 11min

  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Rabbi Elhanan Beck delivers one of the most striking critiques of Zionism and the current Israeli-US wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, you'll hear. He argues that, according to the Torah, the state of Israel has no right to exist, and goes further—describing Benjamin Netanyahu as “Amalek,” a force that pulls people away from God. The Rabbi also claims that if necessary, Israel would use nuclear weapons and that “no price is too high,” even suggesting they would kill millions to secure their goals. We explore the theology behind these views, including the Messiah, the Temple, and the idea of Greater Israel - alongside his belief in Jewish-Muslim coexistence.
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  Episode 72 - The Modern History of Iran | Roy Casagranda | UNAPOLOGETIC 26.03.2026 2h 1min

  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Dr. Roy Casagranda unpacks 125 years of Iranian history - from the 1901 oil concession and the fall of the Qajar dynasty, to the rise of the Pahlavis, the 1953 CIA-backed coup, the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iran–Iraq War, and the emergence of the IRGC, the reform movement in Iran and the JCPOA. He then connects this history to the present moment - where a US-Israel war on Iran threatens to escalate into a much wider far-reaching war.
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  Episode 71 - Israel’s drawing us into an all-out war, and nobody is stopping them | Neil Quilliam | UNAPOLOGETIC 21.03.2026 22min

  Neil Quilliam, who is a political analyst at Chatham House, joined the UNAPOLOGETIC podcast to discuss how Israel is plunging the USA, the GCC and Iran into an all-out war.By continuing to kill credible leaders and hit key economic infrastructure in Iran, it is diminishing the opportunity for this war to end via a settled compromise, and antagonising Iran to lash out with retaliatory strikes against its neighbours who also host US bases in the region.Who or what will rein Israel in?
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  Episode 70 - Iran is playing chess, Trump doesn't know where the board is | David Hearst | UNAPOLOGETIC 17.03.2026 39min

  David Hearst, editor in chief of Middle East Eye, appeared on the UNAPOLOGETIC podcast to discuss how Donald Trump may be losing control of the war he started against Iran.When will the war end? Will Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump achieve their goals? What will happen to the Iranian government? What is the future of relations between the GCC and Iran? Could the conflict escalate into a regional war - and could Israel resort to using a nuclear weapon if it finds itself losing?