[6][7] In later commentary in a U.S. newspaper, he criticised the party's governance as having "adopted the very authoritarian habits it used to oppose" and thus having "failed as a model of liberal Islamism.

[6] Stephen Schwartz critiques the Akyol's lack of full disclosure regarding his own family's Turkish history and involvement in politic in Islam Without Extremes.

He also faults Akyol for not carefully laying out the facts surrounding Turkish democracy and rushing to conclusions about the country's AKP political party that are not fully supported by the evidence.

[15][16] Akyol used to be an outspoken promoter of intelligent design[17][18] and was identified as a former spokesman for Science Research Foundation (Bilim Araştırma Vakfı), an Islamic creationist group, started by Adnan Oktar.

[19] Akyol later noted[20] that he had ended all his "cooperation with [Bilim Araştırma Vakfı]... due to some serious disagreements on issues other than intelligent design."