Mustafa Akyol on liberalizing Islam

Dialogues with Richard Reeves

Is Islam compatible with liberal values, like human rights and gender equality? Mustafa Akyol, my guest today, believes so: but only if Islam itself becomes more liberal. In other words, there is a theological argument to win first. I think Mustafa is one of the most important Islamic intellectuals at work today. In our conversation, we focus on his brand-new book, Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance.

We talk about the "road not taken" towards Islamic Enlightenment after the “Islamic golden age”, marked by a strong sense of cosmopolitanism and Greek philosophy; meet some some of the key liberal figures from liberal Islamic history, especially Ibn Rushd, the man who introduced Aristotle to the West; and discuss how to interpret the three key strands of Islamic teachings, namely the Qurʼān, the hadiths (sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammed) and Sharia Law.

But we start with how Mustafa's work has impacted him personally, including in his home country of Turkey, and how after giving a speech in Malaysia arguing that you can't police religion, he was arrested and jailed: by the Religion Police. This led to what he says was the worst night of his life.

Mustafa Akyol

Mustafa Akyol is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity and a contributing writer to the New York Times. Previously, he was a Senior Visiting Fellow at Wellesley College’s Freedom Project and has written three books exploring the intersection of Islam and modernity. Originally from Turkey, Akyol spent many years as a journalist for two popular newspapers.

More Mustafa

• Read his new book Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance
• Check out his Freedom in the Muslim World report from Cato
• Explore his opinion column at the New York Times
• Watch his Ted Talk on Islamic faith and tradition
• See more on his website

Also Mentioned

• Our joint article in Foreign Policy on the Hagia Sophia, which we also did a podcast on
• Watch the talk he gave in Malaysia on the topic of apostasy, after which he was arrested by the Malay religious police.
• Learn more about Ibn Rushd and his contribution to Islamic jurisprudence
• Raphael’s famous fresco The School of Athens
• I mentioned Thomas Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence, in which he wrote “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable”
• The Romans 2:15 passage that God’s law is “written in their hearts”
• In 1947, President Muhammad Ali Jinnah spoke to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and said, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”

The Dialogues Team

Creator: Richard Reeves

Research: Ashleigh Maciolek

Artwork: George Vaughan Thomas

Tech Support: Cameron Hauver-Reeves

Music: "Remember" by Bencoolen (thanks for the permission, guys!)