“The answer lay not in faith but in another factor that created trouble for Islam from the very beginning: political power.” — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
Disapproving and boycotting is the Quranic thing to do, whereas violence and threats are not. — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
“Anything in western capitalism of imported origin,” notes Fernand Braudel, the great French historian, “undoubtedly came from Islam.” — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
It is beneficial for Turkish democracy that not all religious conservatives are united under one banner. — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
Foreign journalists writing about Turkey like to focus on the most fundamental divide in Turkish society: the rift between religious conservatives and… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
“If the prophet's political mission will be seen as normative for Muslims, the pluralist and even the "secular" nature of the charter… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
“What is needed, then, is a rule of law whose purpose is to protect not the ruler or a privileged class but… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
The main bone of contention is whether Islamic injunctions are legal or moral categories. When Muslims say Islam commands daily prayers or… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
While no Muslim worthy of his name would lose his respect for God, the Prophet Muhammad, and other symbols of Islam, he… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
In the 19th century, when Muslims were looking at Europe as an example, they were independent; they were more self-confident. In the… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
It is no secret that many Islamic movements in the Middle East tend to be authoritarian, and some of the so-called 'Islamic… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
What made al Qaeda retrieve the doctrine of militant jihad, and Breivik the ideas of crusade and reconquest, is a sense of… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
For the jihadists, Muslim women who embrace Western mores, and wear tight jeans or mini skirts, are hated symbols of corruption that… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
There are strengths in Islamic tradition. Islam actually, as a monotheistic religion, which defined man as a responsible agent by itself, created… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
“As Islamic liberalism waned, and resistance arose against the West and its influence, that very resistance started to replace genuine religiosity as… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
“Today, the problem is that most contemporary proponents of the Shariah overlook these historical circumstances and insist on a literal implementation that… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
“In this sense, Islamism in Turkey was at least partly an unintended consequence of Kemalism. The latter’s zeal against Ottoman tradition impoverished… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share Image
“Gerber, who studied seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Ottoman court decisions, points to examples of Ottoman muftis (official jurists) who, despite being paid by the government,… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“As Islamic liberalism waned, and resistance arose against the West and its influence, that very resistance started to replace genuine religiosity as the basis… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
I think forcing people to uncover their head is as tyrannical as forcing them to cover it. — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“The medieval Islamic world . . . offered vastly more freedom than any of its predecessors, its contemporaries and most of its successors. —Bernard… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“According to Gerber, the Shariah principle here was unmistakably individualist: “The rights of the state are depicted as opposed to the rights of the… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“Moreover, unlike the classical period, in which the Shariah was a check on the powers of the executive, it now became an instrument of… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
Turkey has never been colonized, so it remained as an independent nation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
The Qur'an not only lacks any earthly punishment for someone who abandons Islam, it even includes verses that imply that such a change of… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“The Qur’an promoted work and trade and defined commercial profit as “God’s bounty.”38 The Prophet, himself a merchant, is on the record with such… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
In the 19th century, when Muslims were looking at Europe as an example, they were independent; they were more self-confident. In the early 20th… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“The Prophet brought a message relevant for all ages, in other words, but he lived a life of his own age.” — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“Other problems in the Shariah, such as misogyny, come from the fact that Islamic law incorporated a great many medieval attitudes, customs, and traditions… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“The Christians’ “exaggerated fear of sex” continued until modern times, whereas Islamdom remained more sex-friendly until, again, modern times. Even the more conservative scholars… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
“Some liberal theorists have seen a parallelism between this function of Islamic law and the “natural law” tradition of Europe, on which the liberal… — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
The Arab Spring has heightened the ideological tension between Ankara and Tehran, and Turkey's model seems to be winning. — Mustafa Akyol Copy Share
