Murtaza Hussain on Gambling, Porn, and the American Opium War
Opium is the religion of the people. A world-class journalist on how we save ourselves from the world.
Sometimes it doesn’t take a village. It takes a Canadian. We asked Murtaza Hussain what’s happened to America. From gambling to porn and beyond, Murtaza described an America that seemed to be waging an Opium War on its own people. That’s an analogy we won’t soon forget, a frame we found hard to shake. Because yes, we’ve gotten markedly dumber, living in a “digital opium haze,” Murtaza Hussain confirmed.
But there’s hope in dhikr, in journalism, in democracy—and in snow shoveling. It’s peak Avenue M in late imperial America. How often do you get to hear a very big deal (that’d be Murtaza) step back, think out loud, and stir up some controversy? For example, maybe Muslims should assimilate—sort of. Maybe Americans will come to like Muslims more—really. For those who don’t know, Murtaza’s a founding reporter at Drop Site News — an independent, non-aligned news platform.
For fifteen years, Murtaza has courageously covered the events that shaped a generation, defied consensus when consensus was easy, and changed how a lot of us think about national security and foreign policy — while also exploring big questions. We’re excited to share episode 19, “Opium is the Religion of the People.”
Because where else can you get Francis Fukuyama, Fazlur Rahman, and an accelerated end-times exegesis of Ibn Khaldun in the same hour and change?1
Digital Opium Haze
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Journalism, What Is It Good For
Murtaza’s an investigative reporter at Drop Site News (subscribe!), covering national security and foreign affairs. He’s published at The New York Times and beyond. Previously, he wrote for The Intercept. There’s lots of reasons to despair of what’s become of X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Murtaza’s one of the few genuinely compelling reasons to stick around.
You’ll find his longer think pieces on his Substack, Murtaza Hussain, including this invaluable reflection on the Gaza genocide, which Haroon shared with his halaqa students.
During our conversation, Murtaza referenced his reporting on the Duka brothers, which coverage became Entrapped, a documentary that played at Sundance.
Joey mentioned Haroon’s diatribe against the American-Muslims-and-assimilation trope, which you can find on Substack notes.
Later in the episode, Murtaza cited the late Dr. Fazlur Rahman’s Major Themes of the Qur’an as one of a handful of texts that confirmed his faith and changed the course of his life. Haroon recommends the book, and Dr. Rahman’s work more broadly, for the arguments themselves—and because of the impacts they’ve had.
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Our sponsor for this episode is The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, here in Cincinnati, which is dedicated to deepening understanding across faiths and promoting systemic change.
Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.