The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Mustafa Akyol, a public intellectual who is widely regarded as one of the most notable Muslim modernists and reformers in the world today. Named one of the world’s top 50 thinkers by the UK magazine Prospect, he is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity in Washington, D.C., as well as a senior lecturer at the Islamic Civilization and Societies program at Boston College and the director of the Islam and the Muslim World course at the Foreign Service Institute.
Mustafa has had a long career in journalism in Turkey and the United States, and for many years was a regular opinion writer for the New York Times. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the Times of India, among others, and has been featured on CNN, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and other news outlets. He is the author of many books, all of which have been translated into multiple languages, including Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance, and his most recent publication, The Islamic Moses: How the Prophet Inspired Jews and Muslims to Flourish Together and Change the World.
In his conversation with Callings hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton, Mustafa shares his vocational journey from Turkey to the United States as a journalist, an academic, and a political commentator. As he tells his story, he emphasizes the importance of being attentive to others and to the world around us. “Look, the other guys are not that bad in many situations,” he says about many of the conflicts we navigate, “and I think we need to cultivate that so we can live in a world of peace.”
So much of his life’s work and his writing reminds us of the hard, necessary, and fruitful work of respectful collaboration and mutual learning. Throughout the episode, he also reflects on religious liberty, the importance and fragility of democracy, and his hopes for peace in the Middle East.
Click hereto listen to the episode featuring Mustafa Akyol, “Liberty and Learning.”
Geoffrey W. Bateman is the editor of Vocation Matters.