Mustafa Akyol

Mustafa Akyol studied at Nişantaşı Anadolu Lisesi, Boğaziçi University and TED Ankara College Foundation Schools. The recorded working language is Turkish and English. The field of work recorded is journalism, Islam and political aspects of Islam. Employment is recorded with Fatih University, Wellesley College and Cato Institute.

• Name — Mustafa Akyol • Born — 20 February 1972 • Birthplace — Turkey • Occupation — Writer, journalist • Website — mustafaakyol.org

Akyol has written regular columns for Turkish dailies like Hürriyet Daily News. He has criticized both Islamic extremism and Turkish secularism, which he likened to Jacobinism and fundamentalism. Akyol's earlier articles in Turkish newspapers were often friendly to the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP). In later commentary in a U.S. newspaper, he criticised the party's governance as having "adopted the very authoritarian habits it used to oppose" and thus having "failed as a model of liberal Islamism." He also spoke at TED, giving a lecture on "Faith versus tradition in Islam". Akyol is also author of the English-language book Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case For Liberty (W.W. Norton), an argument for religious freedom in the Muslim world. Since 2018, Akyol has been a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. He is also an affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute. Akyol used to be an outspoken promoter of intelligent design and was identified as a former spokesman for Science Research Foundation (Bilim Araştırma Vakfı), an Islamic creationist group, started by Adnan Oktar. Akyol later noted that he had ended all his "cooperation with [Bilim Araştırma Vakfı]... due to some serious disagreements on issues other than intelligent design." He was also affiliated with the Discovery Institute. Akyol has testified in the Kansas evolution hearings in favor of introducing intelligent design and arranged a government-sponsored intelligent design conference in Istanbul. In 2019, he said he changed his mind, noting that "the theory of evolution is perfectly compatible with the faith."

In September 2017, he was detained for 18 hours in Malaysia following a talk on the commonalities between the Abrahamic religions by Malaysia's Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (JAWI), for allegedly teaching religion without getting authorization from the government. His book Islam Without Extremes was subsequently banned by the Home Ministry for being "not suitable to the societal norms".

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