Reza Aslan (Persian: رضا اصلان‎, IPA: [ˈɾezÉ'Ë Ã¦sˈlÉ'Ën]; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American writer, scholar of religious studies and a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. He is a member of American Academy of Religion.
His books include the international bestseller No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, which has been translated into 13 languages, and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, which offers an interpretation of the life and mission of the historical Jesus.
Background
Aslan's family came to the United States from Tehran in 1979, fleeing the Iranian Revolution. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the age of 15 he converted to evangelical Christianity. He converted back to Islam the summer before attending Harvard. In the early 1990s, Aslan taught courses at De La Salle High School in Concord, California.
Aslan holds a BA in religious studies at Santa Clara University, an MTS at Harvard Divinity School, an MFA at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, and a PhD in sociology, focusing on the sociology of religion, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His dissertation was titled "Global Jihadism as a Transnational Social Movement: A Theoretical Framework".
In August 2000, while serving as the Truman Capote Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Aslan was a visiting professor of Islamic studies at the University of Iowa, becoming the first full professor of Islamic studies in the state.
Aslan was the 2012â€"13 Wallerstein Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Drew University Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict.
Aslan lives in Hollywood, California.
Career
Professional memberships
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He has served as Legislative Assistant for the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington D.C., and was elected President of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, Harvard Chapter. He serves on the board of directors of the Ploughshares Fund, PEN Center USA, and serves on the national advisory board of the Levantine Cultural Center.
Writing
Aslan has written articles for The Daily Beast as a contributing editor. He has also written for various newspapers and periodicals, including The Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Slate, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Guardian, the Chicago Tribune, and The Nation. He has made numerous appearances on TV and radio, including National Public Radio (NPR), PBS, The Rachel Maddow Show, Meet the Press, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Anderson Cooper 360°, Hardball, Nightline, Real Time with Bill Maher, Fareed Zakaria GPS, and ABC Australia's Big Ideas.
Analysis of War on Terrorism
Aslan refers to Al Qaeda's jihad against the west as "a cosmic war", distinct from holy war, in which rival religious groups are engaged in an earthly battle for material goals. "A cosmic war is like a ritual drama in which participants act out on earth a battle they believe is actually taking place in the heavens." American rhetoric of "war on terrorism", Aslan says, is in precise "cosmic dualism" to Al Qaeda's jihad. Aslan draws a distinction between Islamism and Jihadism. Islamists have legitimate goals and can be negotiated with, unlike Jihadists, who dream of an idealized past of a pan-Islamic, borderless "religious communalism". Aslan's prescription for winning the cosmic war is not to fight, but rather to engage moderate Islamic political forces in the democratic process. "Throughout the Middle East, whenever moderate Islamist parties have been allowed to participate in the political process, popular support for more extremist groups has diminished."
Protection of religious freedom
Aslan has argued for religious freedom and protection for religious minorities throughout the Middle East. He has called for Iran to protect and stop the "horrific human rights abuses" against its Baha'i community. Aslan has also said that the persecution and displacement of Middle Eastern Christian communities "is nothing less than a regional religious cleansing that will soon prove to be a historic disaster for Christians and Muslims alike."
Fox News interview controversy
On 26 July 2013, Aslan was interviewed on Spirited Debate, a Fox News webcast by anchor Lauren Green about his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Green was "unsatisfied with Aslan's credentials," and she pressed Aslan, questioning why a Muslim would write about Jesus. Aslan answered, “Because it’s my job as an academic. I am a professor of religion, including the New Testament. That’s what I do for a living, actually.†The interview lasted about ten minutes and focused "on Aslan's background more than the actual contents of the book." The video clip of the interview went viral within days and the book, which was up to that point selling "steadily", appeared at the 4th place on the New York Times print hardcover best-seller list. By late July 2013, it was topping the U.S. best-seller list on Amazon.
Academic credentials
Following Aslan's interview with Fox News, some questioned Aslan's academic claims. An article written by Manuel Roig-Franzia in The Washington Post entitled "Reza Aslan: A Jesus scholar who's often a moving target" observed that Green had asked "astonishingly absurd questions," but that Aslan was a "moving target" and described him as being "eagerâ€"perhaps overeagerâ€"to present himself as a formidable academic with special bona fides in religion and history" and "boast[ing] of academic laurels he does not have." The article quoted Aslan's dissertation adviser, Mark Juergensmeyer, as saying that he did not have a problem with Aslan's characterization of his credentials.
A day later, The New Republic printed an article critical of the Washington Post piece entitled "Now The Washington Post Owes Reza Aslan An Apology, Too." The Philadelphia Inquirer article entitled "Reza Aslan's 'Zealot': Muslim's book about Jesus stirs things up" also defended Aslan's characterization of his academic credentials, noting that UC Santa Barbara "is famous for its interdisciplinary programâ€"students tailor their studies around a topic, not a department. They choose a department only for the diploma." The Nation's Elizabeth Castelli wrote that Aslan "reasonably opened himself to criticism" on the basis of his claim to speak "with authority as a historian".
Criticism of New Atheists
In 2014, Aslan was interviewed by New York Magazine's Jesse Singal on his response to the recent intense criticism of Islam by the New Atheists. In the interview Aslan criticizes the "armchair atheism" of atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, who have no university background in the study of religion and are therefore unable to effectively comment on how it shapes human behavior, despite having studied religion outside of universities. He contrasted them to the "philosophical atheism" of earlier thinkers who "were experts in religion, and so they were able to offer critiques of it that came from a place of knowledge, from a sophistication of education, of research."
Criticism of media coverage of Islam
On 29 September 2014, Antonia Blumberg in The Huffington Post stated that Reza Aslan, on CNN, "criticized comedian Bill Maher for characterizing female genital mutilation as an 'Islamic problem,' in addition to making several other sweeping generalizations about the faith." Prachi Gupta, in Salon, wrote that Reza Aslan believed that the United States was partnering with Saudi Arabia while simultaneously condemning ISIS. Aslan was reported as saying that "To say "Muslim countries", as though Pakistan and Turkey are the same… it’s frankly, and I use this word seriously, stupid!"
On 8 October 2014, Reza published a New York Times article titled, "Bill Maher Isn’t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion" writing that, "Bill Maher is right to condemn religious practices that violate fundamental human rights. Religious communities must do more to counter extremist interpretations of their faith. But failing to recognize that religion is embedded in culture â€" and making a blanket judgment about the world’s second largest religion â€" is simply bigotry."
Religious views
Aslan was born into a Muslim family. He converted to evangelical Christianity at the age of 15, and converted back to Islam the summer before attending Harvard.
On 22 October 2005, The Guardian called him "a Shia by persuasion".
In a 2013 interview with WNYC host Brian Lehrer, Aslan said: "... I'm definitely a Muslim and Sufism is the tradition within Islam that I most closely adhere to." He also proclaims himself a 'genuinely committed disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.'
In 2014, in an interview with Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, Aslan described Islam as "a man-made institution. It’s a set of symbols and metaphors that provides a language for which to express what is inexpressible, and that is faith. It’s symbols and metaphors that I prefer, but it’s not more right or more wrong than any other symbols and metaphors. It’s a language, that’s all it is."
Personal life
Aslan and his ex-fiancée, journalist Amanda Fortini, ended their engagement in 2008.
He married entrepreneur Jessica Jackley who is a Christian, forming an interfaith family. They have two sons.
Awards
- 2014 Intersections Honoree, Intersections International
- 2013 Media Bridge-Builder Award, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
- 2013 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Honor, Harvard Divinity School
- 2012 East-West Media Award, The Levantine Center
Criticisms
Some negative reviews of Aslan's book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth come from The New York Times, writing that the book "suffers from common problems in popularization, like proposing outdated and simplistic theories for phenomena now seen as more complex"; The Nation, claiming that Zealot argues "against the scholarly consensus"; and USA Today citing professors and pastors stating "that Aslan has simply created his own version of Jesus."
Regarding No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, The Washington Post reported that Aslan's "good storytelling occasionally interferes with accuracy," that he minimizes "gender inequalities enshrined in the Koran," and he "ascribes undocumented feelings and motives not only to Muhammad but also to later figures -- a technique sometimes endorsed in creative nonfiction courses but not recommended for historians." The Guardian writes that the book's "aim is to appease western ideologues."
Publications
- "The Struggle for Islam's Soul", in Will Marshall (ed.), With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006.
- "From Here to Mullahcracy", in Lila Azam Zanganeh (ed.), My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices, Beacon Press, 2006.
- "Losing the War", in Gilbert H. Muller (ed.), The New World Reader, CUNY Press, 2010.
- How to Win a Cosmic War, published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in a Globalized Age, 2010.
- Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East (editor), W. W. Norton, 2011.
- Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalities, Contentions, and Complexities (co-editor), Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
- Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Random House, 2013.
References
External links
- Official website
- Works by or about Reza Aslan in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Reza Aslan at the Internet Movie Database
