Read the full essay here.
Liberal Muslims believe that human beings are created free and that if you take away or diminish freedom, you are in fact contradicting human nature as well as divine will. Unlike the rather starkly opposed “liberalisms” of the United States and Europe respectively, Islamic liberalism emphasizes both the liberty of the community (ummah) from occupation and oppression, and at the same time the liberty of the individual within the community. Liberal Islam remains marginal only because its potentiality is politically suppressed; in truth, it represents the predominant political hopes of Muslims around the world.