Mustafa Akyol

“Gerber, who studied seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Ottoman court decisions, points to examples of Ottoman muftis (official jurists) who, despite being paid by…

— Mustafa Akyol

“As Islamic liberalism waned, and resistance arose against the West and its influence, that very resistance started to replace genuine religiosity as…

— Mustafa Akyol

I think forcing people to uncover their head is as tyrannical as forcing them to cover it.

— Mustafa Akyol

“The medieval Islamic world . . . offered vastly more freedom than any of its predecessors, its contemporaries and most of its…

— Mustafa Akyol

“According to Gerber, the Shariah principle here was unmistakably individualist: “The rights of the state are depicted as opposed to the rights…

— Mustafa Akyol

“Moreover, unlike the classical period, in which the Shariah was a check on the powers of the executive, it now became an…

— Mustafa Akyol

Turkey has never been colonized, so it remained as an independent nation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

— Mustafa Akyol

The Qur'an not only lacks any earthly punishment for someone who abandons Islam, it even includes verses that imply that such a…

— Mustafa Akyol

“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…

— Mustafa Akyol

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

“The Prophet brought a message relevant for all ages, in other words, but he lived a life of his own age.”

— Mustafa Akyol

“Other problems in the Shariah, such as misogyny, come from the fact that Islamic law incorporated a great many medieval attitudes, customs,…

— Mustafa Akyol

“The Christians’ “exaggerated fear of sex” continued until modern times, whereas Islamdom remained more sex-friendly until, again, modern times. Even the more…

— Mustafa Akyol

“Some liberal theorists have seen a parallelism between this function of Islamic law and the “natural law” tradition of Europe, on which…

— Mustafa Akyol

The Arab Spring has heightened the ideological tension between Ankara and Tehran, and Turkey's model seems to be winning.

— Mustafa Akyol

Foreign journalists writing about Turkey like to focus on the most fundamental divide in Turkish society: the rift between religious conservatives and…

— Mustafa Akyol

There is a heated debate in Turkey these days over whether the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furthering democracy…

— Mustafa Akyol

“In his Epistle on Free Will, the leader of the Qadaris, an ascetic scholar named Hasan al-Basri, openly challenged Umayyad caliph Ibn…

— Mustafa Akyol

“When such a freedom-promoting government exists, al-Farabi added, “people from outside flock to it,” and this leads to a “most desirable kind…

— Mustafa Akyol

“What is needed, then, is a rule of law whose purpose is to protect not the ruler or a privileged class but…

— Mustafa Akyol

“Freedom of person, of the press, of participation in government; without this, material prosperity is not possible. Freedom inspires men to work…

— Mustafa Akyol

“These religious Turks soon got their facts right. The liberal West, they realized, was better than the illiberal “Westernizers” at home.”

— Mustafa Akyol

“Today, the problem is that most contemporary proponents of the Shariah overlook these historical circumstances and insist on a literal implementation that…

— Mustafa Akyol

What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous…

— Mustafa Akyol

For the jihadists, Muslim women who embrace Western mores, and wear tight jeans or mini skirts, are hated symbols of corruption that…

— Mustafa Akyol