Mustafa Akyol Books

A fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, making an argument for an 'Islamic Enlightenment' today.

The book presents a compelling argument for a transformative movement within Islam, paralleling the Lockean revolution in Christianity that harmonized faith with individual freedom. It explores the necessity of this reconciliation in contemporary society and highlights the potential for such a shift within Islamic thought. Through accessible language, it aims to inspire readers by demonstrating that a similar evolution in belief and practice is not only needed but also achievable.

“A delightfully original take on…the prospects for liberal democracy in the broader Islamic Middle East.”—Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street Journal As the Arab Spring threatens to give way to authoritarianism in Egypt and reports from Afghanistan detail widespread violence against U.S. troops and women, news from the Muslim world raises the question: Is Islam incompatible with freedom? In Islam without Extremes, Turkish columnist Mustafa Akyol answers this question by revealing the little-understood roots of political Islam, which originally included both rationalist, flexible strains and more dogmatic, rigid ones. Though the rigid traditionalists won out, Akyol points to a flourishing of liberalism in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire and the unique “Islamo-liberal synthesis” in present-day Turkey. As he powerfully asserts, only by accepting a secular state can Islamic societies thrive. Islam without Extremes offers a desperately needed intellectual basis for the reconcilability of Islam and liberty.

The intriguing connection between Christianity and Islam, through the lost heresy of Jewish Christianity