talkpolitics | "Why discuss Jesus if you're Muslim?"

nairiporter.livejournal.com posting in

He said, "I am an expert with a Ph.D."
She heard, "I am Al-Qaeda."

This is a comment under a BuzzFeed article following last Friday's FoxNews show, Spirited Debate, where the host Lauren Green interviewed the theology scientist Reza Aslan, and it pretty much sums up what happened on screen. The whole interview may not only be a contender for the Most Provocative and Absurd TV Shows award, but also an eloquent manual of How Not To Do Journalism. And it speaks a lot about prejudice, and cultural insensitivity, and tolerance. Or rather, the lack thereof.

The guest Reza Aslan was introduced by Green as "a former Christian who turned to the religion of his ancestors (Islam), and authored a new book about Jesus Christ". The book, entitled Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, quickly became subject to criticism and accusations, primarily due to the religious affiliation of its author. And naturally, that was Green's first question to Aslan: why had he written a book about the founder of Christianity, if he himself was Muslim? After that introduction, the Iranian-American author decided to politely provide some clarifications about his background. He is a theology scholar with four PhDs (one of them, specifically on studying the Old Testament), he is fluent in ancient Greek, and has researched for decades on the foundations of Christianity. So he is "not just a Muslim writing about Jesus, but rather an expert on the history of religion".

However, this explanation wasn't sufficient for the host, who apparently insisted on creating the impression that Aslan's religion had a direct effect on the quality of his book. So she went on with "But this doesn't answer the question, why would you be interested about the founder of Christianity?" At this point Aslan, (who is also a professor at the University of California), with a certain hint of growing impatience, explained that this is actually his job, and it is what he does for a living.

In the course of the interview, the host cited several critical comments about Aslan's book. For instance, one pastor John Dickerson claimed that the treatise was not a historical research, but rather the personal opinion of some Muslim who happened to be educated about Jesus Christ. Aslan himself emphasised that anyone who had actually bothered to read the book would have known that he had clearly distanced himself from the official position of the Islamic doctrine on Jesus, in other words he didn't write the book as a Muslim, but certainly in his capacity of a scholar. According to Islam, Jesus Christ was indeed immaculately conceived, but was not crucified - a claim which Aslan went out of his way to disprove in his book. He believes it is exactly the crucifixion as a form of death penalty in 1st century Palestine that is a clear indicator about who Jesus was and what his social and historical role was. It was people who posed a real danger for the political establishment in the Roman Empire who were being punished by crucifixion. So his conclusion is that Jesus was indeed a rebel and a fighter for change in the then existing imperial order.

Reza Aslan argued that his book was not intended as an attack on Christianity. But the host pressed on, and forced him to go on the defense and explain that his mother and his wife are in fact Christian. The author, who has been researching and analysing the historical figure of Jesus Christ for more than two decades, said he found it unfair and wrong that, instead of debating the arguments and the contents of the book as a whole, the very right of its author to write it was being questioned, solely based on his religious affiliations.

When asked whether writing a scientific work about Jesus was comparable to a Democrat hypothetically writing a scientific work about Ronald Reagan, Aslan gathered what looked like his last remaining traces of patience and explained that there would have been nothing wrong in that, as long as said Democrat had some relevant expertise on Reagan's policies. But even then, Lauren Green did not quit accusing her guest that he hadn't openly declared his affiliation to Islam in advance. To which his response was that his faith was in fact mentioned in the very second page of the book - which only confirmed that Lauren Green had not bothered to read beyond the title and the name of the author.

All that said, from the dialogue in the interview the impression remains that Aslan's book will remain a "closed page" for Lauren Green and unfortunately, not only for her but also for many people who tend to share her approach. This is evident by the fact that a great number of people had voted on the Amazon page of the book with the lowest possible rating, stating reasons in the comments such as "he's just a Muslim, not a scholar". And that is some sad evidence that religious and cultural stereotypes are still alive and well even in a developed society in the 21st century, and are as persistent as they are absurd and irrational.

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