Is Islam Compatible with the Free Market?

POLICY FORUM
Friday, October 14, 2011
Noon (Luncheon to Follow)

Featuring Mustafa Akyol, Author, Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty (Norton, 2011); with comments from Kris Mauren, Executive Director, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty; moderated by Ian Vasquez, Director, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute.

Because of the ongoing construction in our building expansion, this Cato Institute Policy Forum will be held at
Mount Vernon Place • Undercroft Auditorium
900 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001

Watch the Event in QuickTime (M4V)

Islamist literature rejects central features of modernity common in the West, including capitalism. Many Muslim countries restrict economic freedoms necessary to sustain other liberties. Author Mustafa Akyol will describe how the theological attitude and historical experience of Islam toward business and profit-making is, in fact, consistent with an embrace of free markets. He will also discuss the un-Islamic origins of Islamic radicalism, pre-Islamic traits that have long characterized the Middle East and have left their mark on the religion, and how Turkey's conservative masses are experiencing a socio-economic boom due to that country's market reforms. Kris Mauren will compare the history of liberalism in Islam with that of Christianity.