Mustafa Akyol
Mustafa Akyol was born in Ankara in 1972 and had his early education there. Later graduated from the Istanbul British High School and the International Relations Department of the Bosphorus University. He had his masters in History Department of the same university.
Since mid 1990's he has been voluntarily working with several modernist Islamic foundations of Turkey, especially with the ones focused on explaining modern science from a theistic point of view. The same focus put him in touch and cooperation with the Discovery Institute, based in Seattle, which defends a more objective paradigm of science and argues for a new theory of origins called "Intelligent Design."
He is currently working as a columnist in Turkish daily newspaper and is also the director of international relations at the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, which is founded by a moderate Muslim religious community in Turkey.
In the past years he has given seminars in the following universities on issues of faith, science, religious tolerance or inter-faith dialogue:
- University of Warwick (Coventry, UK)
- University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK)
- Loughborough University (Loughborough, UK)
- London School of Oriental and African Studies (London, UK)
- Birmingham University (Birmingham, UK)
- University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, US)
- Mesa College (San Diego, US)
- Loma Linda University (California, US)
- Andrews University (Indiana, US)
Mustafa Akyol's articles on Islamic issues, in which he mostly argues against Islamic extremism and terrorism from a Muslim point of view and defends the Islamic faith, have recently appeared on publications like The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, The American Enterprise, National Review, Frontpage Magazine and IslamOnline. He lives in Istanbul and is currently working on a book titled An Islamic Case for Liberty, which he plans to have published in 2006.
