Waleed Aly

Early life and education

Aly was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Egyptian parents. He is a Sunni Muslim and was educated at Wesley College. He completed the International Baccalaureate at Wesley in 1996, and then studied at the University of Melbourne, graduating with Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) and Bachelor of Laws (with honours) degrees in 2002.

Legal and academic career

After graduating, Aly worked as an associate to Family Court judge Joseph Kay and, until, 2007 worked as a solicitor in Melbourne for Maddocks Lawyers. In 2006, he was a pro bono lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre, on secondment from Maddocks. Aly published People Like Us: How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West in 2007. In 2008, he was selected to participate in the Australia 2020 Summit.

Aly is a staff member of the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University and says that most of the conflicts in the Middle East 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 invasion of Iraq. After the Boston Marathon bombings, describing terrorism as a "perpetual irritant", he said it is encouraging that we are finally maturing in the way we handle terrorism.

Aly has been defended by Scott Stephens, editor of Religion and Ethics ABC, in response to claims that Aly's role, "is to sanitise the public image of Islam". Stephens has also said that "Aly is idolized by young Muslim academics".

In May 2017 Aly received a PhD on global terrorism after completing a thesis titled 'Towards a structuration theory of global terrorism'.

Media

During his time as head of public affairs for the Islamic Council of Victoria, and a member of its executive committee, Aly was regularly interviewed on current affairs and news programs. His social and political commentary has appeared in newspapers including The Guardian, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Currently he is a fortnightly columnist for Fairfax Media. In searching for reasons behind the suicide attacks in central London on 7 July 2005, Aly reminded readers of the Koranic 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 and ABC News 24. He has been a regular guest co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne and The Project on Channel 10 and also was a regular panel member and producer on Salam Cafe, a weekly program presented by young members of Melbourne's Muslim community and produced by RMITV first for C31 Melbourne 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.

In December 2014, Aly resigned as Radio National drive host at ABC to become the permanent co-host of Channel Ten's The Project, starting 26 January 2015. He returned to ABC 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 in a four-minute monologue titled "What ISIL wants" on The Project in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks, 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.

Awards

At the 2005 Walkley Awards, 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 (The Walkley Foundation) for exemplary reporting to end violence against women, 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 Award for free speech. Writing in The Australian, 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 hosted the first Iftar 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 (The Walkley Foundation) 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 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 guitarist and principal songwriter for the Melbourne-based rock band Robot Child. The band contributed a track to the Jesuit Social Services' Just Music album, performing at the Famous Spiegeltent for its release. They were also widely praised for their cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" at the 2015 Walkley Awards.

Personal life

Aly is married to Australian feminist author and academic Susan Carland, and they have two children. Carland converted to Islam aged 19 and holds a PhD from Monash University.