Cover photo: The Imam Reza shrine in Iran. Akyol states that the natural desire of Islamists to have space to practice their belief is normal, and they should channel this energy through civil society endeavours rather than push for the State to become an imposing one. Photo by Chan Kit Yeng.
The debate about Islam and Liberalism has been going on for decades, if not longer. Just as the case is with any other political discourse, Muslims have also fallen into the habit of labelling themselves, which can lead to lazy categorisations instead of proper critical analysis and thought.
“Liberalism is not the fundamentals of a religion but a political idea of how a government should conduct itself,” says Mustafa Akyol, a prominent Turkish writer and journalist. “If I am on an island by myself, I don’t need liberalism,” Akyol says, “but I need my faith – Islam.”
The self-described libertarian was in Penang earlier this year to deliver a lecture titled “Is liberty an Islamic value?”
While Akyol accepts that the debate tends to put liberalism at loggerheads with Islam, in particular with conservatives, he strongly disagrees that they are incompatible. Liberalism is not about the fundamental tenets of faith which Islam propagates. “It is more a political idea about how the government should rule society and how much it should intervene in people’s lives,” Akyol says. It is about upholding individual liberty and freedom, which he believes is not in contradiction to, but instead is part and parcel of, Islamic principles. “It does not teach us what is sin or what is not, what is moral or what is not.”
