Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, Dean of the Islamic Seminary of America, and Mustafa Akyol, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and Affiliate Scholar of the Collins Center, discuss “Should government and religion be separate?”
The Acton Institute’s Collins Center for Abrahamic Heritage organized this debate, moderated by Nathan Mech, as the first part in a series on the relationship between government and religion.
The Acton Institute is a think-tank whose mission is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles. This direction recognizes the benefits of a limited government, but also the beneficent consequences of a free market. It embraces an objective framework of moral values, but also recognizes and appreciates the subjective nature of economic value. It views justice as a duty of all to give the one his due but, more importantly, as an individual obligation to serve the common good and not just his own needs and wants. In order to promote a more profound understanding of the coming together of faith and liberty, Acton involves members of religious, business, and academic spheres in its various seminars, publications, and academic activities. It is our hope that by demonstrating the compatibility of faith, liberty, and free economic activity, religious leaders and entrepreneurs can contribute by helping to shape a society that is secure, free, and virtuous.
