In 1971, Aziz BineBine – a junior officer in the Moroccan army – was ordered to take part in a military exercise. Unbeknown to him, the attack on King Hassan’s summer palace near Casablanca was in fact a coup attempt. The coup failed – and Aziz, who had never fired a shot, was accused of being part of the plot. He found himself publicly disowned by his father, a devout Islam scholar and close associate of the King. Sentenced to 10 years in jail, Aziz was soon transferred to the dungeon of a secr...
Mar 12, 2021•27 min
Mike Wooldridge explores another story of faith and hard decisions. When American Beth Ball was pregnant with her first child, she found out that the baby had Down’s syndrome. Upon receiving the diagnosis, she says she was shocked at the heavy hints that she should terminate the pregnancy, and outdated information made available. For Beth and her husband Stephen, both Christians, the next months were a struggle, emotionally and spiritually. At one point, Beth prayed that if she was unable to cop...
Mar 05, 2021•26 min
Mike Wooldridge tells the story of Rais Bhuiyan, who In his 20s, traded a job in the Bangladeshi Air Force for a life in the US. He was working at a petrol station. A man with baseball cap walked in and pointed a double-barrelled shotgun at him. Rais offered all the money in the till to him, but the attacker asked him where he was from. Rais was confused, and said ‘Excuse me?’, but as he spoke, he was shot. He said it felt like a million bees stinging his face. He fell to the floor and started r...
Feb 26, 2021•28 min
Veer is four years old. He has a genetic disorder called Fanconi Anaemia affecting his bone marrow. In 2019, his parents were told they would need to find a lifesaving stem cell donor for him. Doctors estimated that Veer could expect to live for between two to five years before needing a transplant, depending on how quickly his bone marrow depletes. However, after one of Veer’s recent general check-ups, the Doctors said things were deteriorating faster than expected and Veer was only three to si...
Feb 05, 2021•26 min
Malta is the last country in Europe to still criminalise abortion. A majority Catholic country, prior to Covid-19 Malta was due a visit from the Pope. While a pro-choice movement is increasingly emerging in the country, the Maltese political sphere on virtually all sides is anti-abortion. Doctors for Choice, a group of pro-choice medical professionals, was set up last year and they have received major criticism in the country – with hundreds of doctors writing a letter in response in support of ...
Jan 08, 2021•27 min
In the far north of Finland, 6km south of the Artic Circle, the town of Rovaniemi is the “official home" of Santa Claus - the location where any letter addressed to Santa (over 500,000 every year) will arrive. St Nicholas may have roots in 3rd Century Turkey - but this one-time logging town is now the centre of a vast Santa industry. In 2019, more than half a million people came to Rovaniemi’s Santa Village – including 60,000 from China. Dignitaries such as Chinese President Xi Jinping have also...
Dec 25, 2020•28 min
The identity and colour of Jesus – and why it matters - has taken on a new significance in this year of protest and change. Seeing Jesus as a darker skinned Palestinian Jew rather than blonde European is both historically accurate and theologically important, but it’s not a new idea. James Cone, the influential US theologian released ‘A Black Theology of Liberation’ 50 years ago this year – and formally developed a radical new way of exploring the message of Christianity. While people often say ...
Dec 18, 2020•27 min
In 1978, over 900 US citizens died at Jonestown, a remote settlement in Guyana. The vast majority were members of a community run by the charismatic Rev Jim Jones, taking their own lives with poison under armed guard on his orders. But how did a church known for racial integration and practical help for the poor come to such a destructive end? How could one man’s increasing paranoia have driven so many people, who had built a mission community from nothing in four years, into a seemingly pointle...
Dec 11, 2020•26 min
In 1978, over 900 US citizens died at Jonestown, a remote settlement in Guyana. The vast majority were members of a community run by the charismatic Rev Jim Jones, taking their own lives under armed guard on his orders. But how did a church known for racial integration and practical help for the poor come to such a destructive end? How could one man’s increasing paranoia have driven so many people, who had built a mission community from nothing in four years, into a seemingly pointless sacrifice...
Dec 04, 2020•28 min
Experts say China has detained as many as one million Uighurs and Muslims in "re-education" camps in Xinjiang province. Survivors have shared stories of countless alleged abuses including mass surveillance, forced labour and forced sterilization. Uighur activist Rukiye Turdush said she feels helpless in Canada knowing Uighurs back home are being forced to learn Chinese, renounce their faith and abandon their culture. "We said never again after World War Two, but it's happening again in the 21st ...
Nov 27, 2020•27 min
Protests against the Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko have carried on for months. 80% of the country calls themselves Orthodox Christian. The church has stood squarely behind their President but not all of the faithful agree with them. Alina Isachenka is from Belarus and speaks to some of the Orthodox worshippers who have converted and become Catholic. The church has become a symbol of resistance and a haven for reformers. Why have these converts stepped away from the official church and h...
Nov 20, 2020•28 min
As the campaign in the 2020 US Election went on it became clearer that America’s Catholics were crucial to the result. Here are two candidates, the Democrat Joe Biden, a practising Catholic, who represents a social justice interpretation of the faith, and the Republican, Donald Trump, with who now describes himself as ‘a non-denominational Christian’ but who appeals to the socially conservative Catholic pro-life agenda. It is a fascinating dynamic. The rival campaigns targeted Catholics with fer...
Nov 13, 2020•28 min
Elizabeth Alker loves to feel the cold water as she slides into it from the river bank or steps nervously from the lake side. She is a Christian, used to the euphoric feeling that worship also brings her, and swimming in the open gives her a similar, immersive sensation - as soon as she leaves the water she immediately craves it again. She sets outs to find out why so many people have that same craving, discovering tranquility and spirituality in the icy water. From there she moves on to conside...
Oct 30, 2020•26 min
Egypt is currently in the midst of a growing movement calling out the culture of sexual assault that’s rife in the country. A UN study showed 99.3% of Egyptian women have experienced sexual harassment or violence, and although women’s rights activists have been campaigning for years, there continues to be victim blaming surrounding women and a lack of prosecutions. However, a recent high profile case of one man who allegedly sexually assaulted and blackmailed several women was brought to the pub...
Oct 23, 2020•28 min
There are hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia who are being prosecuted for their faith. Some of them say they have been tortured and their testimonies were never investigated. Others have to hide their prayers as they fear the secret services are spying on them through undercover agents. The wave of arrests started in 2017 after the Russian Supreme Court declared Jehovah’s Witnesses organisation as extremist and banned all Jehovah’s Witnesses registered groups throughout the country. Jehov...
Oct 16, 2020•29 min
On the 9th of October, 2019, Mollie S. a Baltimore native, was observing the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur in the city of Halle, Germany. She decided to take a short break and go for a walk during the proceedings. Moments later a then 27 year old neo-Nazi named Stephan Balliet attempted to bomb the Synagogue and later on a Kebab Shop. Mollie returned to the Synagogue shortly after and saw a body wrapped on the street outside. On this day, Amie Liebowitz received an unexpected te...
Oct 09, 2020•28 min
Religiosity has always been a key factor of who takes charge in the White House. US presidents have been invoking faith and God ever since George Washington expressed his “fervent pleas to this Almighty Being who rules the universe” in his 1789 inaugural address. This year, more than ever eyes are on who the religious voting banks will decide as their candidate of choice for the upcoming Presidential election. Does Trump remain the choice of evangelicals or has some of his statements and behavio...
Oct 02, 2020•26 min
Just over a year ago, 29 year old Lyra McKee was shot dead in Northern Ireland. The day after she was murdered, the parish priest in the part of Londonderry where she was shot was angry and deeply upset, and he spoke out against those who pulled the trigger. Father Joe Gormley knew it could be dangerous to be so vocal but nevertheless he said: "Our parish is full of so many good people and these people come into our area and use us to carry out such vile acts. How dare they. How dare they." "The...
Sep 24, 2020•26 min
Around the world, there are differing attitudes to recitation of the Qur'an and the female voice in Islam. For some, female reciters should be restricted to female-only spaces, reciting verses in female prayer circles or Islamic lectures, for fear that the voice in public arenas with mixed audiences can bring about sin. But in many cultures it is permissible and encouraged to platform female reciters, and there is growing appetite from women online to bring more women into the field. Nusaiba Moh...
Sep 18, 2020•26 min
Pakistan’s relationship with religion is the most distinct element of its identity. Be it politics or any other aspect of social & cultural life, religion is the main guiding force. The country was created in the name of Islam almost a quarter century ago, where the clergy still enjoys the tremendous power. Even during the pandemic, when the holiest mosques & shrines in Saudi Arabia, Iran & Turkey were closed, the clerics in Pakistan refused to shut down the mosques in Ramadan. The f...
Sep 04, 2020•26 min
In many religions child bearing is revered. Giving birth can be a way of honouring your deity and strengthening your community. In contrast, infertility can be seen as a punishment. So what impact does that have on the faith of women who find they’re unable, or unwilling, to conceive? This Heart and Soul hears how this experience has transformed the spiritual lives of four different women - Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew. The Fruit of Thy Womb is produced by Julia Paul....
Aug 28, 2020•28 min
What does it mean to ask "God to keep you safe" in the time of a pandemic? What is the meaning and scope of divine protection? The belief in divine protection is a significant feature of the Christian response to the pandemic particularly within some of the African and Caribbean Churches in the UK. On the one hand, all churches offered prayers for divine protection over individuals and the nation. On the other, some Christian groups, went further than offering prayers and promoting the sale of s...
Aug 21, 2020•28 min
By day Dr Jamasp JamaspAsa, works in the UK as a cancer surgeon, but now, due to the passing of his father he has a new role, the High Priest of the Zoroastrian faith in a Mumbai Fire Temple. Lipika Pelham meets the High Priest as Zoroastrians, or Parsees, celebrate the most auspicious days in their calendar. The “All Souls Festival” is when they believe ancestors visit them. She is curious whether his medical skills as a doctor make him a 'holy warrior', fighting to stop the work of evil, by ke...
Aug 14, 2020•28 min
Community is one of main features of religion - but coronavirus has disrupted that. Religious institutions are going through significant changes in response to the coronavirus. But what of these changes will remain and what will organised religion look like post pandemic? Could the virus change the future of worship? Sodaba Haidare looks at how different faiths will change post pandemic and asks is there still a place for religious buildings and congregational prayer? Produced by: Athar Ahmed an...
Aug 07, 2020•26 min
New York funeral director Clive Anderson has been struggling to keep up the sheer volume of new Coronavirus cases coming to his small funeral home in Pelham, New York. Normally he would average four funerals a week, now he is doing six a day. On the front line, the work has taken a toll on Clive. He broke down recently after a family called him from miles away that had lost a grandmother and none of the eleven funeral homes in their area could help them. So Clive drove for almost two hours to co...
Jul 31, 2020•27 min
Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was taught by the Buddha more than 2,500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills. The practice died out in India, but survived in Burma, and is now a growing movement around the world. To learn the technique students complete a 10-day silent retreat, which includes 10 hours of daily meditation. There is no eye contact, no communication, no exercise, no reading or writin...
Jul 24, 2020•28 min
How did the Ethiopian King, Haile Selassie - who lived a life of luxury whilst his country suffered a deep famine - become the god for the Rastafari community? To millions he was a leader, to many others he was an oppressor, but to a small worldwide community known as the Rastafari he is divine and the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Now, 70 years after Haile Selassie was crowned as leader of Ethiopia, Dr Robert Beckford explores the religious, political and social dynamic that propelled a whole ...
Jul 17, 2020•26 min
When Gábor Iványi was a young Protestant minister back in the 1970s standing up to Hungary’s totalitarian Communist regime he promised to stop shaving as a sign of protest. Communism is long gone in Hungary but Ivanyi’s beard keeps getting longer. He fought the Communists side by side with the student leader Victor Orban. He supported Orban and even accompanied him spiritually. Ivanyi is godfather to Orban’s first two children and performed the religious wedding ceremony for Orban. But now Ivany...
Jul 13, 2020•29 min
In this special American Impendence day program, presenter Martin Bashir brings together Ilyasah Shabbaz - the third daughter of Malcolm X, Joshua DuBois - President Obama's former spiritual advisor and Lama Rod Owens - a Buddhist Black radical thinker to discuss the nature of the Black Lives Matter movement. They discuss the objectives and methods of the movement and interrogate if the use of violence is a necessary evil in search of equality. The three guests draw upon their own respected fait...
Jul 03, 2020•27 min
The sight of dozens of surfers circled together and floating beyond the breakwater will always mean one thing - that another surfer has died. A paddle-out is a way of honouring someone who’s had a love for the ocean. It’s a practice which has become entwined with surf’s cherished culture. On the coast of Cornwall we meet a gathering of surfers who have come to pay homage to their friend Riccardo, who has recently died from cancer. We join them as they prepare to paddle out with flowers around th...
Jun 26, 2020•28 min
