Issa has a media presence, with appearances on over forty radio and television stations around the world. He has also given public lectures overseas, including work for the British Foreign Office. In 2017, the BBC identified his as one of its New Generation Thinkers, one of ten academics whose research was to be made into radio and television programmes. In 2012, according to "The Observer", Issa disclosed that two Egyptian soccer stars believed that the Port Said Stadium riot had been planned.