A fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, making an argument for an Islamic Enlightenment todayIn 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
“A welcome expansion of the fragile territory known as common ground.” —The New York TimesWhen Reza Aslan’s bestseller Zealot came out in 2013, there was criticism that he hadn’t addressed his Muslim
A Turkish newspaper columnist examines the ideological and historical roots of political Islam, going back to the 632 AD intellectual "war of ideas" between two opposing schools of Islam, and asks whe
From furious reactions to the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad to the suppression of women, news from the Muslim world begs the question: is Islam incompatible with freedom? With an eye sympathetic to Wes
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 Yor
