Marina Nemat was born in 1965 in Tehran, Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, she was arrested at the age of sixteen and spent more than two years in Evin, a political prison in Tehran, where she was tortured and came very close to execution. She came to Canada in 1991 and has called …
Liberty and the Islamic faith are sometimes alleged to be incompatible, but does history tell a different story? How can Islam play a role in protecting liberty in the modern world? In this panel discussion, Ali Salman, Dr. Abdullah Ali, and Mustafa Akyol consider the interaction of Islam with free markets, entrepreneurship and the history …
Engage the Speaker Session for “C.S. Lewis, Law, and Liberty” (AU2021). Original Lecture description below. As Christians, we all agree corruption is bad. As citizens, we also agree corrupt behaviors must be punished by law. However, there are differences in how corrupt behaviors are perceived in different societies around the world, as well as in …
Engage the Speaker Session for “The Fire of Invention: Intellectual Property and the Power of Human Beings” (AU2021). Original Lecture description below. In the realm of invention and technology, what makes the difference between good and evil, prosperity and destruction, is not the material world itself but the way in which humans exercise our rational, …
The innovations of technology companies have benefited billions across the globe and impacted our lives daily. However, as their dominance and influence grows, some have voiced concern about their business model. Internationally, some governments exploit technology to create a surveillance state. This panel examines the threats of Big Tech and Big Government, the implications for …
The First Amendment prohibits the government from making any law which abridges freedom of speech or the press. In the recent past, state-funded universities have disinvited commencement speakers, technology companies have shut down accounts, and entire books have been erased from Amazon. This panel examines freedom of speech and freedom of the press in an …
How is faith reconciled with the formation of a civil government? This panel looks at human history and religious justification for constitutional government and the necessity of collaboration between religious institutions and the state. Humans need religion in order to flourish. Religious institutions are also necessary components of a civl society and recovering from a …
How should practitioners of the Muslim faith react to a rapidly changing world? What challenges do Muslim religious leaders face in modernity? In this discussion, Shaykh Yahya Cholil Staquf answers these questions and promotes a humanitarian understanding of Islam.
In the realm of invention and technology, what makes the difference between good and evil, prosperity and destruction, is not the material world itself but the way in which humans exercise our rational, creative powers. The Creator empowers his image-bearers to partner with Him to bring order out of chaos and prosperity out of poverty …
As Christians, we all agree corruption is bad. As citizens, we also agree corrupt behaviors must be punished by law. However, there are differences in how corrupt behaviors are perceived in different societies around the world, as well as in how effectively perpetrators are actually punished in every country – if punished at all. How …
At the age of 13, Jimmy Lai escaped China to experience freedom in Hong Kong and grew to be one of Hong Kong’s highest-profile media moguls. Through his work, Lai founded the anti-Beijing newspaper Apple Daily and became an outspoken critic of the People’s Republic of China, solidifying him as one of Hong Kong’s most …
In this lecture, Jay Richards, Ph.D. connects Aristotle’s account of happiness with modern sociological and psychological surveys of happiness, and explains how they overlap and differ. He then explores how our work, especially in a high tech information economy, can contribute to both our happiness, and the happiness of others.
American inner cities have been plagued by a set of problems that seem intractable. As we study inner-city life we are often confronted with the same questions: What is poverty? How can we attend it? Are these the right questions to ask regarding the condition of poverty? We will explore these questions with both an …
In a lecture titled “Islam and Freedom: The Challenge and The Hope”, Mustafa Akyol—senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity—discusses political and social problems that exist in the Muslim world, including authoritarianism and terrorism, and the prospects for finding ways to strengthen the idea of individual liberty within the Islamic …