Mustafa Akyol
Mustafa Akyol
Mustafa Akyolis a Turkish writer and journalist. Akyol has said he would describe himself as a "Classical Liberal". He is the author of Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty, long-listed in 2012 for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the world's best non-fiction book in English. He became a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times in 2013...
NationalityTurkish
ProfessionWriter
CountryTurkey
liberty firsts genuine
Those who hope to nurture genuine religiosity should first establish liberty.
spring winning turkeys
The Arab Spring has heightened the ideological tension between Ankara and Tehran, and Turkey's model seems to be winning.
islamic iran doubt
It is no secret that many Islamic movements in the Middle East tend to be authoritarian, and some of the so-called 'Islamic regimes' such as Saudi Arabia, Iran - and the worst case was the Taliban in Afghanistan - they are pretty authoritarian. No doubt about that.
touching erdogan worship
Even touching Erdogan is a form of worship,
prayer islamic talking
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 they talking about public obligations that will be enforced by the state or personal ones that will be judged by God?
integrity intellectual immaturity
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 the moral integrity and the intellectual strength of its believers.
violence threat things-to-do
Disapproving and boycotting is the Quranic thing to do, whereas violence and threats are not.
islamic men ideas
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 the individual in the Middle East and saved it from the communitarianism, the collectivism of the tribe.
god thinking people
I think forcing people to uncover their head is as tyrannical as forcing them to cover it.
debate government minister prime rolling turkey whether
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 back.
beneficial turkish
It is beneficial for Turkish democracy that not all religious conservatives are united under one banner.
fall nation remained turkey
Turkey has never been colonized, so it remained as an independent nation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.