#37 with Dr Myriam Francois on Understanding Islam

Today we are joined by Dr Myriam Francois. Myriam is a former Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies (CIS) at SOAS University. She completed her PhD (DPhil) at Oxford University, focusing on Islamic movements in Morocco in 2017. She holds an MA from Georgetown University (USA) and a BA from Cambridge University (UK).

Her resume speaks for itself. She has worked with the BBC, Channel 4, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post and many more. Some notable works include

• 2019 documentary “City of Refuge” examined the plight of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and aired on BBC Radio4 (April 2019) and BBC World Service (May 2019).
• Myriam is the presenter of BBC World Service documentaries on Brexit in Leave-voting town in Wales (Llanelli) (2019), and on #MeToo in the Muslim world (2018).
• Her Channel 4 documentary “The Truth about Muslim marriage” (11/2017) was nominated for the best investigative documentary in 2018 (AMA), as well as two BBC One documentaries, “The Muslim Pound” (aired 07/ 2016) and “A Deadly Warning: Srebrenica Revisited”, (aired 07/2015) which was nominated for the Sandford St Martin religious programming award 2016.

Website https://www.myriamfrancois.com/

Twitter @MyriamFrancoisC

Instagram myzfrancois

Links and topics of discussion in this episode

• Institute of art and ideas https://iai.tv/
• What is Islam?
• One God and the Quran https://quran.com/en as the most recent revelation from God.
• Praying multiple times a day helps to connect you to God and take a break from this world.
• Ramadan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan
• Charity and pilgrimage to Mecca https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/introduction-cultures-religions-apah/islam-apah/a/the-kaaba
• Lebanon and Israel
• The Sykes-Picot agreement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement
• Sunni and Shia Muslim https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-shia-sunni-divide-78216
• Who was Rumi? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
• Rumi Poems https://www.rumi.org.uk/poetry/
• Hyper Normalisation Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thLgkQBFTPw
• What is self-flagellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-flagellation#:~:text=Self%2Dflagellation%20is%20the%20disciplinary,seen%20as%20a%20spiritual%20discipline and are ultra-endurance events a form of this, a means to go beyond?
• Sayadmansour A. Neurotheology: The relationship between brain and religion. Iran J Neurol. 2014;13(1):52-5. PMID: 24800050; PMCID: PMC3968360 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3968360/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CNeurotheology%E2%80%9D%20refers%20to%20the%20multidisciplinary,and%20brain%20sciences%20in%20general.
• How religions and practices are all streams going into the same ocean
• The Best Catholics in the World, The Irish, the Church and the End of a Special Relationship by Derek Scally https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-best-catholics-in-the-world-9781844885282
• Joseph Massad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Massad
• The meaning of Jihad and the struggle within https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/what-does-jihad-really-mean-to-muslims
• What is Sharia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia

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