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Acton Commentary

DEBATE: Yasir Qadhi vs. Mustafa Akyol | Islam and the State

    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.


    Nathan Mech oversees the Acton Institute's Collins Center for Abrahamic Heritage, which he helped found in 2022 to advance research and education from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic perspectives on economics, liberty, and human flourishing. Nathan is responsible for diversifying Acton Institute’s religious audiences and for overseeing the vision, strategy, and execution of the Collins Center’s programs, which include international conferences, debates, publications, and global network building. He previously spent several years on Acton Institute’s executive team as the