Mustafa Akyol: Rational Islam and Reopening Muslim Minds 

Please don't give up with the work you do Dr. Gabriel Said Reynolds. I liked the video and really admire these more progressive ideas in the Muslim world.

Prof. Gabriel, I’m glad you started to open up and reaching out to even more public figures outside of the academia. While we need scholars and academics for the deep knowledge, someone like Mr. Mustafa Aykol here is what the public need as an educator and communicator, as someone who can be a starting point to understand Islam more deeply and intellectually. A first step for the public to be more understanding about Islam. Thanks for your good work, both of you. God bless!

Thank you for giving a platform to Mustafa, he's a bright light in Islamic thought

Appreciate such discussions which create understanding between people from various religion backgrounds. May I also add that I am from Kashmir and reading Mustafa Akyol's book tutled: "Reopening Muslim Minds."

Wow to Dr. Gabriel to his perfect pronunciation and knowledge of surahs …

I hope Prof Gabriel brings on people like Wael Hallaq and Timothy winter.

Historicity is all well and good. But you have to decide, either the Quran is a historical account of a prophetic movement, or it is scripture. If it is the latter, why is it so obscure as to what is eternal guidance and what is temporary? Couldn't God have done a better job communicating the essential morality etc, without all the confusing (and really irrelevant) details? If in the end it's up to us poor mortals to decide what God meant, to update the interpretations to our times, do we really need this scripture? Is it really guidance?

Salam Mr. Mustafa Akyol. It was the first that I watched your video and listen to your views about Muslims fighting Muslims. I like your program. You ask each of us why Muslims are fighting Muslims, and you suggest that we should change this question rather we should ask( WHO IS DOING THIS TO US? MAKING US FIGHT EACH OTHER ) The common answer to our question is, that outsiders are making us fight each other and that may be the Zionists, the American, the British, or the Western powers are causing the Muslim nation to kill each other. Sir, I'm from Iraq; I know the Arabic language and the classical Guranink language too. I'm very versed in the history of Iraq, from the past 7000 years until today. I'm knowledgeable of Islamic History. I know the history of the first Islamic establishment in Baghdad as their Capital. I know when Abasseen came to Iraq about 611 Ad or about. I know all that needs to know of the Islamic Empire. I know of the Ottoman Empire and its history until this day. May I please elaborate on your question and your suggestion? Sir, you may be right in suggesting that a foreign power is making the Muslim countries kill and attack each other. But--the answer is within you--------I think the evil that makes the Muslim nations kill each other is Islam itself. When Prophet Mohammad spread his Islamic faith to the Arab villagers, he did not do it in a peaceful way. . He spread his Islamic faith by the power of SWOR. He killed, invaded, forced others, took their goods by force, and demanded to kill in the name of God and in the of his Islamic faith. After the death of Mohammad, Islam became the most powerful force. When the Muslim Empire was a powerful force, it invaded all of the Middle East, Persia, and Turkey all the way to Spain and consolized Spain for five hundred years. When Baghdad became the capital of the Islamic nation, Arabs were still killing each other. After the death of Mohammad, his family killed each other for power control; that is why Sheeaa and Sinna, and the Alaween still kill each other for power. The Arabs and the Muslim world were killing each other then, and now. Nothing has changed. Actually, they do not need a foreign n power for them to keep the old habits of killing and invading each other going... May I remind you that during the Islamic Empire, there were no Zoinest, American, British, or Western powers? One may ask, then why were they killing each other? Especially If there was no interference from the foreign power. And, let us go further into the Islamic regime your country Turkey became the most powerful Ottoman Empire, and the Turks appointed themselves the keeper and the protector of the Islamic nations. Your government controlled all of Arabia and invaded most of Europe, forcing and converting other people of faiths to adopt the Islamic faith. May I remind you that your government took all the minerals the wealth of the Muslim countries without offering any improvements to their educational system or to the infrastructure, and then there was no America, Britain, Zoinest to make you take over the other Muslim countries? The Muslim nations must face the facts and the truth; they have been killing each other before Islam and during the expansion of the Islamic faith until this day. The problem is with the foundation of Islam; when you get rid of the foundation, maybe then you can have some peace and unity. The Islamic nations always blame others for their Chaise and for invading one another. A good example in our time is Iraq invading Kuwait and Saudi invading Yaman. America, Britain, Zionist, and the Western world were not in existence, and they did not have power during the Islamic Empire, Muslims still would kill each other because it is in their nature, it is in the Islamic faith. Sir, you said, let us ask questions and find a solution to our problem; Well, I am giving you the truthful answer to your puzzle, Muslims are killing Muslims I don't mean to be disrespectful to any Muslim or the Islamic faith, but you are the one who raised the question, and I'm giving it to you as I see it. Sir. Israel was established about 74 years ago. They started from nothing on the land, no homes, no streets, no hospitals, no railroads, no transportation, no schools, no colleges, no hospitals, and no government in place; they had nothing. In 1948 they started from zero; look at today's Israel; they are a democratic government; they have become advanced in every aspect of life and of a country and government. It has improved in Industry and Medicine, become as go as America and Europe, and has become the most developed country in the Middle East. Why? Because of their faith and unity as one people.. Islam came about 510 Ad; this is about 1500 years; they have been going backward and been killing each other forever. As a matter of fact, If America, Britain, and the Western countries did not extend the hand of help for all of the Muslim nation's improvements, you all would be in the stone age, and some of them still living in the stone age. The problem with you is Islam itself. Thank you. Wa Alaykoom Al Salam.

I would like to say thank you so much Mustafa The only Revelation Allaah sent to Human being it's QURAN ❤❤

Great job BUT much better to hone in on the use Nasara as a direct translation to Christian all these millenia. You must know this is an inaccurate translation, a false appreciation and I have confidence a very large percentage of Muslim scholars will agree with this. And same for how Jews of today are characterized in the quran. The quran if filled with ignorant accusations against the majority of Christians and Jews and not just today but from the time the quran came about. This requires rectification al haste.

Hey Gabriel... Your guest is lying .

Your guest is lying since (1) the translation of Muhsin Khan and Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali and that of Abdul Haleem both give the correct translation of the ayah without interjections. (2) all major scholars in hadith science have been critical (with varying degrees) and have stated why they take certain hadiths as authentic or otherwise. The case of Abu Hanifah, as explained by his contemporaries, was that some of the hadith texts that come from Madinh start at the size of the "palm" and reach to Iraq the size of an "arm". This is why he rejected some hadith. There is this ayah that many people ignor. Which is { فَتَعَـٰلَى ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡمَلِكُ ٱلۡحَقُّۗ وَلَا تَعۡجَلۡ بِٱلۡقُرۡءَانِ مِن قَبۡلِ أَن یُقۡضَىٰۤ إِلَیۡكَ وَحۡیُهُۥۖ وَقُل رَّبِّ زِدۡنِی عِلۡمࣰا } [سُورَةُ طه: ١١٤] Then High above all be Allah, the True King. And be not in haste (O Muhammad SAW) with the Quran before its revelation is completed to you, and say: "My Lord! Increase me in knowledge." I think you lack the ability (and will) to read Qura'an in a complimentary manner. But selective, deceptive, and incomprehensive

ASTAGFIRULLAH