Islamic Foundations of a Free Society

Mustafa Acar, Souad Adnane, Azhar Aslam, Hasan Yücel Başdemir, Kathya Berrada, Maszlee Malik, Youcef Maouchi, Hicham El Moussaoui, M. A. Muqtedar Khan, Bican Şahin, Atilla Yayla, Nouh El Harmouzi, Linda Whetstone, Nouh El Harmouzi, Linda Whetstone

• Publisher: London Publishing Partnership
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN:
  9780255367301
• Edition: 1

Islam is growing rapidly both in its traditional homelands and in the West. Some in the West view Islam with a mixture of fear and suspicion. However, it is also fair to say that there is widespread ignorance about Islam, and especially about its relationship to political systems and the economy. Is Islam compatible with a free society and a free economy? Is the fact that many Muslim-majority states do not have free economies or polities a result of an incompatibility between Islam and political and economic freedom, or does it result from an unfortunate series of historical events? What role has past colonialism played in encouraging Muslim extremism? Exactly what does Islam have to say about freedom in economic, political and religious life? This book, written by a range of Islamic scholars, sheds a great deal of light on these crucial questions. It is an important book for those in the West who need to understand Islam better. It is also important for those in Muslim countries who can influence the development of political systems and economic policy. The publication of this book could not be more timely.

Table of contents

• The authors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgement
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The condition of social, political and economic thinking in the Islamic world from a classical liberal perspective
• 3 Reason versus tradition, free will versus fate, interpretation versus literalism: intellectual underpinnings of the negative outlook for the Muslim world
• 4 Welfare beyond the state: ‘ihsani’ societal-based welfare
• 5 The individual, freedom of choice and tolerance in the Quran
• 6 Economic freedom: the path to women’s emancipation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region
• 7 Jihad and political change: a perspective based on Quranic sources
• 8 Islam and politics today: the reasons for the rise of jihadism
• 9 Islam and a free-market economy: are they compatible?
• 10 Islamic finance: between the reality and the ideal
• About the IEA