Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance

The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Quran; a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days. Allah desires for you ease; He desires not hardship for you; and that you should complete the period, and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that perhaps you may be thankful.

[Quran 2:185]

The author's website has the NYT op-ed that led me to read this book. It in part seemed fitting to do so in the month of Ramadan. Since it has not updated to put in a page for this new book, here's his Cato page. See also, this review.  Mustafa Akyol has wrote other books on the same general theme as well as Jesus' role in Islam.  He writes here as a Muslim and does not defend the legitimacy of Islam.  He might do that elsewhere.

This helps add force to his argument for a liberal reading of the religion, one that promotes freedom of thought.  Akyol accepts that his position is a minority one, arguing that Islam has a lot of self-reflection to do. But, he offers historical and scriptural evidence that he path is both reasonable and has precedent.  At times, he even uses a form of originalism to argue the true original text and practice, as compared to years later, fits his approach.

How much that is true is something I leave to others who know such things more than I.  It helps when such a thing is at least reasonably left open. Akyol promotes a view where reason and basic morality/justice is basic and that Islam and the Koran should be applied in a way that the two don't clash. And, it helps that even without being creative, this is quite possible. So, there is a basic "no coercion in religion" verse, one that others challenge (such as tacking on "well, we mean no coercion to become a Muslim .... once you are ...."), as well as "let Allah judge." 

We get some discussion of a few people over the centuries with ahead of the curve views among Muslim thinkers.  The author, again, does accept that the Islamic World itself did not have an Enlightenment period, though tells us much less on why as compared to how the Islamic World moved on from a more libertarian position in the promotion of authoritarian rule.  That would have been interesting -- in the Middle Ages, Western Europe wasn't that backward, after all, but did have issues as compared to the Muslim World.   And, as the book shows, there were various sects of Islam and room for a freedom of thought approach.  

The book does touch on a bit on how the Ottoman Empire passed some reforms in the 19th Century and how even the strict approach today differs in degrees depending on the Muslim nation involved.  So, there is room for change, especially (as was the case for Christianity) since it is strategically a good idea to deal with current realities.  And, there are some open minds there -- for instance, it is appalling so many are open to the idea that apostates can be killed, but I note that the actual cases (even private action) does not reflect what the poll data might suggest is possible.

Anyway, the book is an interesting -- and mostly approachable (all the Muslim/Arabic terms after a while get a bit confusion) -- argument that reason and religion, human rights and Islam, can go hand in hand. In fact, huh, it might be the best reading of the tenets of the religion. I'm not quite sure how far reason can take you, in the modern era, to defend belief in Allah and all that, but religion mostly not heavenly beings anyways.