Mustafa Akyol: Rational Islam and Reopening Muslim Minds

In this video I have the pleasure of talking to journalist and Muslim public intellectual Mustafa Akyol. Mustafa Akyol studied political science and history at Bogazici University. Since the early 2000's, he has been writing regular opinion columns for Turkish publications like Hurriyet Daily News, and recently for the Middle-East focused Al-Monitor.com. Since fall 2013, he is also a regular contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. He has published six books in Turkish, including “Rethinking the Kurdish Question: What Went Wrong, What Next?” (2005). His 2011 book, “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty” an argument for Islamic liberalism, was published in the W.W. Norton. In Feb 2017 he published another book, "The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims" was published by St. Martins Press. In January 2017, Mr. Akyol joined The Freedom Project at Wellesley College, based in Massachusetts, USA, as a senior visiting fellow. In June 2018, he joined the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. as a senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, to work on the intersection of public policy, Islam, and modernity

We discuss especially, some of Mustafa's ideas in his most recent book "Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance." published in 2021 by St. Martin's Press. We touch on many topics associated with interpreting the Qur'an and contemporary theological debates around contextualizing the Qur'an within the biography of Muhammad.

You can find Mustafa's books, talks, and articles here: http://www.mustafaakyol.org/

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