Waleed Aly

A brief biography of one of Australia’s most well known Muslims

Waleed Aly is an Australian writer, academic, lawyer, media presenter and musician. Aly is a co-host of Network Ten’s news and current affairs television program The Project, he writes for Fairfax Media, and is a lecturer in politics at Monash University, working in their Global Terrorism Research Centre.

Early life and education

Aly was born in Melbourne, Australia, to Egyptian parents. He studied at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) and Bachelor of Law (with honours) 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. In 2007, Aly published ‘People Like Us: How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West’. 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. After the Boston Marathon bombing, Aly described terrorism as a “perpetual irritant”, and 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, 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.”

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. 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 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’.

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.