Rodolphe Adada, former joint Special Representative of the UNAMID

Douglas Herbert meets Syrian philosopher and writer Sadiq Jalal al-Azm to discuss the explosive mix of religion and politics in the Arab world. His guest has first-hand knowledge of how touchy the subject is. He himself was briefly jailed in 1970 after writing a groundbreaking book on the Six-Day War. He argued back then that the Arab defeat was due, in part, to their leaders' failure to rethink the role of religion in society.

Over the past two years, thousands of Syrian civilians have been killed and many more have been forced to flee their homes. Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, has joined forces with other UN agencies to respond to this major humanitarian crisis. But, as the death toll in Syria increases, funds for aid operations are soon going to run out. She now pleads for a political solution to end the civil war.