ISIL Freedom Network: Global > Introductions and FAQs > Religion and Liberty

Christianity and Free Enterprise
Source: Policy
Author: Robert Clark
City: Sydney, Country: Australia

The author argues that free enterprise is completely compatible with Christian teachings -- it is the best means of both loving your neighbour, and ensuring that he gets enough to eat.

What's 'Jewish' about minimum wage laws?
Source: Scott Ryan
Author: Scott Ryan
Country: United States

"[U]sing the power of the secular State to pick other people's pockets is not a form of tzedakah. On the other hand, Moses Maimonides notes that the very highest level of tzedakah is to provide someone with the means and opportunity to earn his own living, to be self-supporting. That's just what the free market does." (2000)

Must a Christian be a libertarian?
Source: Advocates for Self-Government
Author: Clifford F. Thies
Country: United States

The author discusses the foundations of his political views in his religious faith, and the exaggerated differences between the Christian and libertarian world-views. (1996)

Profile: Ibn Khaldun
Source: Acton Institute
Country: United States

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), considered the greatest Arab historian, thought that those things mandated by God can be shown scientifically to be the best social policies. He denounced high taxation and government competition with the private sphere because they lower productivity, take away the incentive of people to work hard, and ultimately ruin the state. (6/96)

Profile: St. Thomas Aquinas
Source: Acton Institute
Country: United States

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) helped relax traditionally negative views of mercantile trade. "For Aquinas, trade itself is not evil; rather, its moral worth depends on the motive and conduct of the trader. In addition, the risk associated with bringing goods from where they are abundant to where they are scarce justifies mercantile profit." (8/98)

Interview: Rabbi Dr. Meir Tamari
Source: Acton Institute
Country: United States

The rabbi, an author and economist, defends the role of private property and business and speaks in favor of a limited, if not libertarian, state. (11/93)

Terror in one nation or Islam and Marxism: Part II
Source: Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies
Author: David Yerushalmi
Country: Israel

"In the first of this two-part essay, two myths were singled out ... The second myth is ... that average Moslems identify passionately with bin Laden and the murder and mayhem he inflicts on America -- are not really the products of Islam at all ... It's the corrupt, despotic Islamic regimes that drive Arabs and Islamists to murder." But the real drive behind terrorism and tyranny is Islam itself.

Terror in one nation or Islam and Marxism: Part I
Source: Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies
Author: David Yerushalmi
Country: Israel

"There are two very dangerous myths promulgated today by the Peace Processors in the US and abroad that will spell tragedy for America and the Western democracies in a way that will make September 11 look like a mild beginning. The first myth is that Islam is a peaceful, tolerant religion that has been captured and held hostage by the bin Ladens of the world." This article debunks the first myth.

Not a threat: the contributions of Christianity to Western society
Source: Probe
Author: Rick Wade
Country: United States

Christianity has been a key element in the development of Western society; it has exerted significant positive influence in many areas, including human freedom, the development of science and medicine. "Those who deride Christianity as being detrimental are either tremendously biased in their thinking or are ignorant of history".

Islam and free-market capitalism
Source: NCPA
Author: Butler Shaffer
Country: United States

"Contrary to popular belief, the hatred of capitalism behind the terrorist World Trade Center bombing does not come from Islam. Indeed, one could argue that Islam is the most pro-business of all the world's major religions." (09/19/01)

Chanuka, the freedom holiday
Source: The Progress Report
Author: Fred E. Foldvary
Country: United States

"Chanuka (also spelled Hanukkah) is a Jewish freedom holiday that can be appreciated by gentiles as well. ... The festival celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people in Israel from the Hellenist-Greek rule which sought the assimilation of the Jews into an alien Greek culture and religion." (1998)

To recommend changes in this directory, e-mail isil@isil.org.

	Search WWW Search ISIL