Waleed Aly

Aly was born on 15 August 1978[1] in Melbourne, Victoria, to Egyptian parents.[2] He is a Sunni Muslim.[3]

He attended Wesley College, completing the International Baccalaureate in 1996. He then studied at the University of Melbourne, graduating with Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) and Bachelor of Laws (with honours) degrees in 2002.[4]

In May 2017 Aly was awarded a PhD, for his thesis on global terrorism titled Towards a structuration theory of global terrorism.[5][6]

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.[7]

In 2007 Aly published People Like Us: How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West.[4]

In 2008, he was selected to participate in the Australia 2020 Summit,[4] a bipartisan convention held in Canberra to "help shape a long-term strategy for the nation's future".[8]

Aly is a staff member of the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University.[9][10] He has said 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 2003 invasion of Iraq.[3][11] After the Boston Marathon bombing, describing terrorism as a "perpetual irritant", he said it is encouraging that we are finally maturing in the way we handle terrorism.[12]

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.[13] 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.[14] In searching for reasons behind the suicide attacks in central London on 7 July 2005, Aly reminded readers of the Quranic passage, Do not let the injustice of others lead you into injustice.[15][16]

Aly was the host of ABC TV's Big Ideas program on ABC1 and ABC News 24.[17] He has been a regular guest co-host on The Conversation Hour[18] 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[19] first for C31 Melbourne and later for SBS. He has also appeared as a panellist on ABC TV's Q&A program,[20] and has been an occasional co-host on the ABC's News Breakfast.

He was the inaugural host of RN Drive on ABC Radio National (RN) in January 2012. In December 2014, Aly resigned from the ABC[21] in order to become the permanent co-host of Channel Ten's The Project, starting on 26 January 2015.[22][23] He returned to ABC RN in April 2015 to co-host The Minefield with Scott Stephens, in addition to his role on The Project for Channel Ten.[24][25][26][27]

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.[28][29]

As of 2023, Aly continues to co-host The Minefield, along with religion and ethics commentator Scott Stephens and an expert studio guest each week,[30] and continues his role on The Project.[31] He also writes for The Sydney Morning Herald.[32]

Aly is the lead guitarist and principal songwriter for the Melbourne-based rock band Robot Child.[10][44] The band contributed a track to the Jesuit Social Services' Just Music album,[45] performing at the Famous Spiegeltent for its release.[46] They were also widely praised for their cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" at the 2015 Walkley Awards.[47]

Aly is a featured artist on "Surah Maryam" the 2021 Paul Kelly's Christmas Train album.[48]

Aly lives in Melbourne and 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.[49][50][51][52]

• People like us: How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West, Picador, 2007, ISBN 978-0-330-42380-9
• What's right?: The future of conservatism in Australia, Quarterly Essay, Black, 2010, ISBN 978-1-86395-466-2
• Numerous articles.[53]

• Blackwell, Geoff; Aly, Waleed (31 March 2020). I know this to be true: Waleed Aly on sincerity, compassion and integrity. Murdoch Books (published 2020). ISBN 978-1-922351-03-6.
• Cassin, Ray (1 September 2007). "Renaissance man". The Age.