Mustafa Akyol Quotes

15 quotes in 292 categories

• I think forcing people to uncover their head is as tyrannical as forcing them to cover it.
• Rage is a sign of nothing but immaturity. The power of any faith comes not from its coercion of critics and dissenters. It comes from…
• There are strengths in Islamic tradition. Islam actually, as a monotheistic religion, which defined man as a responsible agent by itself, created the idea of…
• 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 century,…
• Turkey has never been colonized, so it remained as an independent nation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
• While no Muslim worthy of his name would lose his respect for God, the Prophet Muhammad, and other symbols of Islam, he might well refrain…
• Disapproving and boycotting is the Quranic thing to do, whereas violence and threats are not.
• For the jihadists, Muslim women who embrace Western mores, and wear tight jeans or mini skirts, are hated symbols of corruption that need to be…
• What made al Qaeda retrieve the doctrine of militant jihad, and Breivik the ideas of crusade and reconquest, is a sense of siege. So, we…
• Foreign journalists writing about Turkey like to focus on the most fundamental divide in Turkish society: the rift between religious conservatives and secularists.
• It is beneficial for Turkish democracy that not all religious conservatives are united under one banner.
• What if democracy does not serve liberty? This question is seldom asked in the West, where democracy is often seen as synonymous with liberalism.
• The main bone of contention is whether Islamic injunctions are legal or moral categories. When Muslims say Islam commands daily prayers or bans alcohol, are…
• Those who hope to nurture genuine religiosity should first establish liberty.
• There is a heated debate in Turkey these days over whether the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furthering democracy or rolling it…

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