The recent news from Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized power once again to rule in the name of God, brings to mind a broader trouble: Islam, the second-largest religion in the world, has some harsh interpretations that defy human freedom--by imposing religious practices, discriminating against women or minorities, or executing "apostates" or "blasphemers. In Why, as a Muslim, I Defend Liberty, Cato Institute senior fellow Mustafa Akyol offers a bold critique of this trouble by frankly acknowledging its roots in the religious tradition, while also presenting counterarguments. Akyol argues that liberty is compatible with Islam if it is understood as a voluntary faith and not a coercive system, as many Muslims already see it. However, other Muslims understand Islam, indeed, as a coercive system that sees no difference between what is religiously right and legally enforceable. Moreover, these coercive Muslims' beliefs are not groundless: they rely on traditional interpretations of the Sharia (Islamic law). Yet the two fundamental sources of the Sharia--the Quran and the Prophetic example--also include seeds of freedom, Akyol argues. He explores little-noticed grounds for human rights, toleration and rule of law in the Quran, the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and the complex history of the Islamic civilization. It is past time, he argues, to grow those seeds into maturity and to reinterpret Islamic law and politics under the Quranic maxim, "No compulsion in religion."In short chapters, Akyol digs into big questions: Why do Muslims need to reform the Sharia? Is there something to revive in the Sharia? Should Muslims really glorify conquest and supremacy, or instead, believe in the social contract? Is capitalism really alien to Islam, which has a rich heritage of free markets and civil society? Finally, he addresses a suspicion common among Muslims today: What if liberty is a mere cover used by Western powers to advance their imperialist schemes?With personal stories, historical anecdotes, and theological insights, this is the little big book on the intersection of Islam and liberty.

A fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, making an argument for an ‘Islamic Enlightenment’ today. In Reopening Muslim Minds, Mustafa Akyol frankly diagnoses ‘the crisis of Islam’ in the modern world, and offers a way forward. Diving deeply into Islamic theology, and sharing lessons from his own life story, he reveals how Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries – and what the cost has been. He highlights how values often associated with Western Enlightenment – freedom, reason, tolerance, and an appreciation of science – had Islamic counterparts, which tragically were cast aside in favour of more dogmatic views, often for political reasons. Elucidating complex ideas with engaging prose and storytelling, Reopening Muslim Minds borrows lost visions from medieval Muslim thinkers to offer a new Muslim worldview on a range of burning issues: human rights, equality for women, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. By rereading the Qur’an, revisiting the Sharia, and ‘dismantling the theological roadblock’ that disallows such questioning, Akyol shows the path to a renewal in Islam.

A fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, making an argument for an Islamic Enlightenment today In Reopening Muslim Minds, Mustafa Akyol, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and opinion writer for The New York Times, both diagnoses "the crisis of Islam" in the modern world, and offers a way forward. Diving deeply into Islamic theology, and also sharing lessons from his own life story, he reveals how Muslims lost the universalism that made them a great civilization in their earlier centuries. He especially demonstrates how values often associated with Western Enlightenment -- freedom, reason, tolerance, and an appreciation of science -- had Islamic counterparts, which sadly were cast aside in favor of more dogmatic views, often for political ends. Elucidating complex ideas with engaging prose and storytelling, Reopening Muslim Minds borrows lost visions from medieval Muslim thinkers such as Ibn Rushd (aka Averroes), to offer a new Muslim worldview on a range of sensitive issues: human rights, equality for women, freedom of religion, or freedom from religion. While frankly acknowledging the problems in the world of Islam today, Akyol offers a clear and hopeful vision for its future.

A compelling book that casts the Qur'anic encounter with Jews in an entirely new light In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Meir Bar-Asher examines how Jews and Judaism are depicted in the Qur'an and later Islamic literature, providing needed context to those passages critical of Jews that are most often invoked to divide Muslims and Jews or to promote Islamophobia. He traces the Qur'anic origins of the protection of Jews and other minorities living under the rule of Islam, and shows how attitudes toward Jews in Shi'i Islam are substantially different from those in Sunni Islam. Bar-Asher sheds light on the extraordinary contribution of Jewish tradition to the Muslim exegesis of the Qur'an, and draws important parallels between Jewish religious law, or halakha, and shari'a law. An illuminating work on a topic of vital relevance today, Jews and the Qur'an offers a nuanced understanding of Islam's engagement with Judaism in the time of Muhammad and his followers, and serves as a needed corrective to common misperceptions about Islam.

When Reza Aslan's bestseller Zealot came out in 2013, there was criticism that he hadn't addressed his Muslim faith while writing the origin story of Christianity. In fact, Ross Douthat of The New York Times wrote that "if Aslan had actually written in defense of the Islamic view of Jesus, that would have been something provocative and new." Mustafa Akyol's The Islamic Jesus is that book. The Islamic Jesus reveals startling new truths about Islam in the context of the first Muslims and the early origins of Christianity. Muslims and the first Christians - the Jewish followers of Jesus - saw Jesus as not divine but rather as a prophet and human Messiah and that salvation comes from faith and good works, not merely as faith, as Christians would later emphasize. What Akyol seeks to reveal are how these core beliefs of Jewish Christianity, which got lost in history as a heresy, emerged in a new religion born in 7th Arabia: Islam. Akyol exposes this extraordinary historical connection between Judaism, Jewish Christianity and Islam - a major mystery unexplored by academia. From Jesus' Jewish followers to the Nazarenes and Ebionites to the Qu'ran's stories of Mary and Jesus, The Islamic Jesus will reveal links between religions that seem so contrary today. It will also call on Muslims to discover their own Jesus, at a time when they are troubled by their own Pharisees and Zealots.