Back to the future

Afzal Amin | 1st February 2022 | Uncategorised

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Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance. A new and erudite examination of Islamic philosophy and history by Mustafa Akyol

Mustafa Akyol, it would seem, did not really write this book for others as much as for himself. He takes the reader on a deeply personal journey as he grapples with enormous wave after wave of historical and religious issues spanning not only the 1,400 years of Islam but back into Ancient Greece. Akyol deals with fundamental questions of what it means to know what is good and why; he examines every aspect of what being a believer means as it relates to behaviour. His narrative methodically goes through problems in the Islamic world such as compulsion in faith and silencing of speech. He starts with this “freedom deficit” and it remains the main feature of the work. He argues, powerfully, that at the crux of belief must be the freedom to believe or not believe. He skilfully weaves this theme through examples of how Muslim leaders in the past and the present have employed their authority into the religious domain. Akyol highlights the historical uses of this practice to crush dissent ...

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