Why, As a Muslim, I Defend Liberty is a little big book I wrote in 2021 for Lib​er​tar​i​an​ism​.org, a Cato project, to summarize the key Islamic arguments for classical liberalism. In 2023, its Swedish edition was published by Timbro: Varför Jag Som Muslim Försvarar Frihet. Three years later, in July 2026, it was launched in Pakistan, with the title: 

کیوں، بطور مسلمان، میں آزادی کا دفاع کرتا ہوں

— or, in plain English, “Why, As a Muslim, I Defend Liberty.”

The book, published by the Cato Institute, was translated into Urdu by Fida Ur Rahman, a lecturer in Islamic studies at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, who has also organized the printing of physical copies and the promotion of the book in Pakistan. At the same time, Lib​er​tar​i​an​ism​.org offered the free digital download of the book in PDF format.

On July 23, Khurshid Ahmed Nadeem, a prominent Pakistani intellectual, devoted his column in Dunya News, a national Urdu daily, to the question, “What is Muslim liberalism?” The piece is essentially a review of my book Why, As a Muslim, I Defend Liberty, whose Urdu edition was recently launched in Pakistan, and my edited volume, No Compulsion in Religion—No Exceptions: Islamic Arguments for Religious Freedom, which Cato published earlier this year.

Nadeem appreciated some of the ideas behind “Muslim liberalism”—of which he kindly described me as its “most prominent advocate”—but also shared some reservations about rethinking Islam “while taking the liberal paradigm as its standard.” I sent him a respectful response, which he graciously published in full in his own column. Its English version follows: 

It feels like we’re going back to the future today. Two years ago, I profiled Log Cabin Schoolhouse, which was created by Jennifer Wolverton, a homeschooling mom with an engineering background. Despite the old-fashioned name, Log Cabin embraced the latest technology, including AI, “smashing” it (as she put it) with classical education.

Jennifer has tossed any semblance of being old-fashioned aside and leaped fully into the future with her latest undertaking: MARS Microschool, a hands-on, AI-focused high school. 

As MARS begins its third year of existence, it’s undergoing major changes. For starters, it has a new location: a classroom Jennifer rents in the Space Camp Operations Building at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. (Jennifer stresses that MARS is simply renting space and is not affiliated with the center.) 

Although MARS isn’t affiliated with the center, Jennifer is excited because it will serve as an extension of the classroom. “We’ll have access to space for flying drones, hopefully including some of their FPV drones, a real lab with running water and safety infrastructure for chemistry, and the ability to request spaces throughout the plaza depending on what we’re working on that week,” she explains. The classroom is well equipped with technology, and students can go to the Space Camp cafeteria for lunch and hang out in the outdoor areas during downtime. She’s hoping they’ll be able to use the stage for their end-of-hackathon presentations. 

“I’m also excited about all the things we can’t predict yet—the mentors, partners, grants, speakers, equipment, and opportunities that may come simply because people can see what our students are building and doing there,” she adds. “But maybe the coolest part to me is that no matter where these kids go in life, when someone asks where they went to high school, they’ll have an easy answer that people everywhere will recognize: ‘I went to MARS in Huntsville for high school, and our campus was at Space Camp.’ That’s a pretty incredible way to experience high school.”

Another change is that enrollment is now limited to grades 9–12, allowing Jennifer to tailor her content to older students. “I used the words ‘motivated high schoolers’ when I did all my marketing,” she says. And she’s excited by the “really cool group of kids” who will be attending. 

One incoming freshman illustrates what she means. Before he’d set foot in a MARS classroom, he told Jennifer there was a class he was excited to take. She explained there was a coding class he needed to complete first. He finished it in 30 days, then asked for more, which led him to earn his Entry-Level Python Programmer certification before the school year even started. 

MARS Microschool is built around flexibility. Students who are in at least 10th grade spend Mondays and Wednesdays on dual-enrollment coursework. Tuesday is reserved for virtual learning, including a chemistry class that uses ChemExplained, a curriculum designed for homeschoolers that can award students college credits. There’s also an online book club that includes books from a variety of perspectives and genres. 

Students come together in person on Thursdays at the Rocket Center campus. A retired principal, new to MARS this year, runs the Thursday sessions. This will help free up Jennifer to work on yet another project—building software for microschools that she’s piloting at MARS first. Fridays are optional and are built around a CyberPatriot cyber defense team that MARS helps support. 

Academically, students work through core subjects plus a rotating menu of extras that are mostly tech-based, including a Microsoft Excel certification, a game-design class using Unreal Engine, weekly drone flying, and coding.

Another extra this year will be ukuleles “because there’s nothing more adorable than a bunch of tech-bro teenagers with colorful ukuleles sitting in a circle playing,” Jennifer says. Elmarie Hyman, a friend who created a California homeschool resource center called Learn Beyond The Book, helped Jennifer connect with a “young and kind of cool” musician in Los Angeles who has written some movie scores. He’s going to meet online with the kids on Tuesdays for ukulele lessons.

To support the changes she’s made this year, Jennifer raised tuition from $2,000 to $7,000. When tuition was $2,000, Jennifer says people treated it like a club, not a school. With a new $7,000 price tag, which she says is still around half of what most private schools in the area charge, she finds people take it more seriously. The higher tuition also helps make MARS more sustainable. At the lower amount, she says it was essentially a hobby that she would have had to “quit at some point and close up.”

Jennifer is seeking accreditation this year so she can participate as a full-time private school under Alabama’s CHOOSE Act. Once approved, her families will have access to up to $7,000 for tuition through refundable tax credits in an education savings account. Without the accreditation, she can only be included as an education service provider for homeschoolers, who are limited to $2,000 per child with a cap of $4,000 per family. 

Today’s Friday Feature closes out our AI in Education week, which includes a series of blog posts (listed below) as well as an X space with several experts—Jennifer among them—who hold a variety of opinions on the topic. We hope you’ll check them all out!

Monday: “Kicking Off a Special ‘AI in Education’ Blog Series”

Tuesday: “AI in the Classroom: Why It Matters and Who Decides”

Wednesday: “AI Won’t Replace Great Teachers”

Thursday: “In the AI Era, School Choice Is Crucial”

Friday: “AI in Education: There Are No Solutions, Only Trade-Offs”

The US manufacturing sector has been on a nice run in 2026, and some Trump administration officials and protectionist pundits are crediting the president’s tariffs. In my new column for The Dispatch, I detail why we should doubt the pro-tariff story. In particular, both “soft” data (surveys) trumpeted by the administration and “hard” data on output, capacity, and utilization indicate that the sector’s recent growth is owed to other, nontariff factors and, if anything, would be even better without all the import taxes.

Everyone wants to know the “right” answer on AI in schools. Should it be banned? Required? Left up to teachers? Locked down with strict rules? The reality is that there isn’t one right answer. In this, as in much of life, economist Thomas Sowell’s brilliant insight rings true: “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.”

When it comes to AI in education, different families have different preferences. And the effects of decisions made today may not be known for years. Given the diverse views among parents and the ever-changing nature of AI, it’s crucial that we embrace freedom rather than mandates.

I have written extensively over the years about the lack of evidence of consumer myopia in the context of automobile fuel economy mileage standards. The standards were premised on the belief that consumers would not pay more for cars that used less fuel, even if the savings from reduced fuel use exceeded the extra initial cost of the more efficient vehicle. Instead, mileage standards sought to force automakers to produce higher-mileage cars and thereby reduce fuel use despite the supposed myopia of consumers. Subsequent economic research has shown that consumers were not myopic. Consumers’ willingness to pay for higher mileage capability is approximately equal to the expected future fuel-cost savings without government intervention.

Recently, the California Energy Commission enacted an analogous regulation regarding replacement tires. Replacement tires sold in the state must have the same rolling resistance on average as the tires sold with new vehicles by 2033. Currently, only about 30 percent of tires meet the 2033 standards. According to the commission, the tires would cost about $26 extra but would be offset by fuel savings of $179 over the life of the tire, resulting in a net savings of $153.

A former aerospace engineer and current homebrewer, Ohioan John Ream wants to distill spirits at home to enjoy with his wife. He would gladly register a still and pay the relevant federal tax, but an 1868 federal law prohibits home distilling. Operating a still in your home—or on a parcel “connected with” it—is a federal felony. Ream sued the government, alleging that this ban violates the Constitution.

The Sixth Circuit upheld the ban as a necessary and proper means of enforcing the federal tax on distilled spirits, thereby breaking with a Fifth Circuit decision issued just 11 days earlier. Cato filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to review Ream’s case and reverse the decision.