The AMI Podcast

This presentation examines Islamic apocalyptic thought in relation to modern technological change. Professor Mirza explores how digital culture, scientific worldviews, and rapid social transformation shape Muslim imaginaries of the future, offering a balanced theological response beyond fear or utopianism.

This joint presentation investigates how large language models influence Catholic theology and moral reasoning. Karr and Conwill examine how AI systems can blur doctrinal distinctions, while also considering how faith-based ethical frameworks might guide responsible religious uses of AI.

Focusing on the work of Romano Guardini, this talk examines how modern technology reshapes human power, faith, and social structures. Professor Vila-Chã reflects on the loss of authentic human experience and considers how religious thought can help address the dehumanising tendencies of modern technological systems.

Professor Campbell analyses how internet memes shape public perceptions of religious communities. She explores how humour, stereotypes, and digital culture can reinforce religious bias, while also highlighting how faith communities can critically engage and respond.

Professor Fatemi introduces the concept of the “Cyber-Leviathan” to describe the totalising power of digital surveillance and algorithmic governance. From an Islamic ethical and theological perspective, he argues for rethinking human rights and moral responsibility in order to protect human agency in the digital age.

Professor Reed addresses the ethical challenges of weapons control through Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. She explores how shared moral resources can contribute to contemporary debates on warfare, accountability, and emerging military technologies.

Dr Rahimi explores Muharram rituals as embodied, technical practices that shape religious experience and communal life. By examining devotional performance, material culture, and sensory engagement, he shows how religious traditions adapt and endure through specific technologies of practice.

This presentation challenges instrumental views of technology by drawing on Sikh philosophy and global traditions of thought. Professor Mandair explores how alternative models of individuation and spirituality can reshape our relationship with technology beyond modern Western frameworks.

In this Research Seminar, Dr Zairu Nisha (University of Delhi) explores infertility among Muslim women in India through feminist bioethics and phenomenology. She introduces the concept of the body as a site of moral injury, showing how reproductive expectations, religious belief, and assisted reproductive technologies shape women’s moral identities and lived experiences.Drawing on thinkers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Simone de Beauvoir, Dr Nisha challenges mind–body dualism and argues that the body is not separate from the self, but a moral subject formed through relationships with others. When infertility disrupts social and religious expectations of womanhood and motherhood, women experience guilt, shame, and alienation — not because of moral failure, but because they are caught between conflicting moral worlds.Read more or watch the full seminar:Audio Chapters:0:00 - Introduction2:40 - Self and Body Dichotomy04:53 - The Lived-Body in a Lived World07:35 - Embodiment and Moral Injury 12:27 - Female Body and Reproduction15:30 - Infertility and Moral Problem17:55 - Technology and Motherhood22:24 - Muslim Women and Reproduction25:26 - Conclusion: Towards Moral Repair

How do stories create political power? Why do narratives matter in shaping legitimacy, justice, and belonging? In this Research Seminar, Dr Fatemeh Sadeghi (University College London – Institute for Global Prosperity) examines the powerful role of narratives and storytelling in legitimising political authority. Drawing on examples from Islamism, nationalism, and contemporary far-right populism, she shows how political stories do not merely reflect power but actively produce it. The seminar explores how movements mobilise ideas of moral renewal, nostalgia, and collective identity to justify authority, and how these same narratives can both inspire emancipation and reproduce exclusion or authoritarianism. Dr Sadeghi also situates these dynamics within an “age of crisis,” marked by inequality, political disillusionment, and declining trust in institutions, where emotional resonance increasingly replaces ideology as the basis of legitimacy.Read more, or watch the full seminar:https://ami.is/sadeghi-seminarAudio Chapters:0:10 - Introduction01:29 - What is Narrative? 04:02 - Types of Narrative in Islamic Culture08:46 - Storytellers & Storytelling15:10 - Significance of Narratives in Politics17:45 - Examples of Political Narratives 31:49 - The Age of Crisis and the Future of Politics