islam – Religion & Liberty Online

July 25, 2025

Kuyper and Islam

Abraham Kuyper is remembered as a titan of Dutch politics, a preeminent Reformed political theologian, and someone many consider the ideological father of the Protestant strain of Christian democracy. In Kuyper’s vast output, comprising over 200 books and 20,000 articles, outstanding is his Om de Oude Wereldzee, “On the Old World-Sea,” an impressive travelogue of Kuyper’s tours of the civilizations along the Mediterranean, from Crimea to Spain. Continue Reading...

December 13, 2024

Recovering Islam and Judaism’s Shared Golden Age

“When I say we have no greater friends than Christian supporters of Israel, I know you’ve always stood with us,” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an evangelical audience in Washington, D.C., Continue Reading...

November 12, 2024

The Islamic Secular and the Seeds of Freedom

Once in a while a new book in religious studies comes out with a bold thesis, challenging old assumptions and raising some eyebrows. The Islamic Secular, a thick, dense, and elaborate monograph by Sherman A. Continue Reading...

February 15, 2024

The Michaela Way and Living in Community

Educators love innovation. Education reform is a perennial theme in political campaigns, and almost every government has new rhetoric about how to reverse plummeting test scores, declining student achievement, and increased school violence and truancy. Continue Reading...

July 07, 2023

The Taliban Exploit Islam to Protect Their Illegitimate Rule

Afghanistan, following the American withdrawal in 2021, has gained attention for several reasons, but the most prominent among them is the Taliban’s exploitation of Islam to suppress women and legitimize their illegitimate hold on power. Continue Reading...

June 15, 2023

Freedom of Religion Is Inherently Good

Growing up in Yemen, a conservative branch of Islam was ‎very popular in my household, school, and mosque. Freedom of ‎religion was a myth frowned upon. It was thought that Islam ‎is the right religion that will take us to Paradise, and the rest of ‎humanity is, alas, going to hell unless they accept our narrow, ‎stringent version of Islam. Continue Reading...

May 18, 2023

Liberty Is Not the Product of Any One Religion

Paul D. Miller, a professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University, has argued in a recent essay in Christianity Today that Christianity is not necessary for democracy. Miller challenges “conservative evangelicals” who believe that “Christianity is necessary for a free society.” Continue Reading...

August 25, 2022

Would Prophet Muhammad punish Salman Rushdie?

It seems that the infamous “death fatwa” that Ayatollah Khomeini issued against Salman Rushdie back in 1989 for his novel The Satanic Verses, which most Muslims found offensive, finally reached it mark on August 12 in upstate New York. Continue Reading...

July 28, 2022

Abolishing blasphemy laws in Pakistan will lead to more violence

Blasphemy laws pose a real challenge to religious liberty and democracy in several Muslim-majority countries, with 32 nations criminalizing blasphemy; in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia, it is punishable by death. Continue Reading...

July 14, 2022

Is Indonesia’s “Civil Islam” a model for the Muslim world?

The rise of “Islamic extremism” in France, the reemergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the recent drift toward Islamist politics—political efforts to enforce an orthodox interpretation of Islam on society—in Turkey have revived the debate about Islam’s relationship with democracy and liberty. Continue Reading...

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