Hasan Al Habib on BBC Pilgrimage, faith, and the conversations he wants viewers to have
Hasan Al Habib has used Pilgrimage to speak openly about faith, identity, and the way Muslims are seen in public. In the latest series of Pilgrimage: The Road to Holy Island, the stand-up comedian joins seven other personalities on a 390km route across North East England as they explore belief, difference, and daily life. The hasan al habib interview also turns personal, with the comic reflecting on growing up in a small village outside Birmingham and what that meant for how he saw himself.
Faith, identity, and a long road through North East England
The series returns for its eighth run with eight celebrities from different faiths and backgrounds travelling through North East England on paths linked to early Celtic Christian saints. The group includes Ashley Banjo, Hermione Norris, Tasha Ghouri, Jayne Middlemiss, Ashley Blaker, Patsy Kensit, and Hasan Al-Habib, with the journey centring on conversation as much as location.
Hasan Al-Habib said he joined the pilgrimage wanting to understand what faith means to other people, including those with no religious conviction. He also wanted to learn more about the origins of Christianity in this country, saying he did not feel he had much knowledge of that background despite growing up here. In the hasan al habib account of the trip, that curiosity widened into a deeper look at how people organise ethics, morality, and purpose in everyday life.
He said one moment stayed with him: Ashley Banjo reading the Bible almost every morning. Hasan Al-Habib said that routine made him think about his own practice and whether he should engage with the Quran daily. He described the effect of that discipline as calm and reflective, and said he felt he learned something meaningful from someone of a different religion.
What Hasan Al Habib said about Muslims in the media
Hasan Al-Habib also used the series to address how Muslims are portrayed in public conversation. He said he wants people watching to come away thinking Muslims are not so bad after all, and added that if that happens he will feel he has done a great job.
He said he performs across the country in rooms where he is often the only Muslim present, and sometimes the only Muslim many people have ever met. The hasan al habib remarks were direct: he said people should get a sense that Muslims are normal, nice people, given how much information exists to the contrary. He added that even a small step, such as starting a conversation with a Muslim colleague and learning more about their faith, would matter.
Hasan Al-Habib also said he has long been used to discussing religion because he grew up as the only Muslim and the only Arab in his school in a small village about half an hour outside Birmingham. He said that experience meant he often had to explain why he could not eat certain things and why he needed to do certain things.
Powerful moments on the walk
The pilgrimage also prompted wider discussion among the cast about suffering, spirituality, and the place of religion in modern life. Hasan spoke with Tasha Ghouri about her experience growing up as a deaf woman in a family where she was the only deaf person, and about the challenge of reconciling faith with suffering. He also had conversations with Jayne Middlemiss and Hermione Norris about spirituality and the differences and similarities between that and more formal religions.
One of the most emotional moments came when Hasan accompanied Ashley and Tasha to a mosque. Tasha said she would never forget it, describing the prayer as powerful and saying it made her realise people need to be more open-minded about religion and less quick to judge belief that differs from their own.
Hasan also spoke candidly about once feeling ashamed of his Iraqi identity while growing up after 11 September and during the Iraq War. He said he tried to be as white British as possible, and that being funny became valuable to him because people liked him for it at a time when they did not like him.
Why this series matters now
Pilgrimage: The Road to Holy Island places very different beliefs in close contact and lets the conversations happen in full view. That is what gives the series its force, and it is why Hasan Al-Habib’s comments land so sharply in the middle of it.
By the end of the walk, the hasan al habib thread runs through the same questions that shape the whole programme: faith, belonging, and how people meet difference without retreating from it. The series is set to keep pushing those questions as the group continues along the route and viewers watch the conversations unfold.
