Fox News and the Religious Right Attack Muslim Author

[SecularMotion]

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The Fox News channel launched another interview attack on reason, logic, and scholarship over the weekend. Their chosen target was renowned religious scholar Dr. Reza Aslan, in regards to his new book “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”

The book focuses on the life and works of Jesus Christ from a scholarly and historical standpoint. So why the fuss? Aslan is a Muslim.

Since the book’s release, Aslan has been met with praise, as well as harsh criticism. Sadly, though, the negative criticism that Aslan has seen has been not from fellow scholars interjecting with their opinions, criticising the work, but rather from conservative blogging hacks and hardcore religious-right-wingers who attack Aslan’s reasons behind writing the book.

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2013/07/29/fox-news-and-religious-right-attack-muslim-author/

[tanyev]

1. Now #1 on Amazon, thanks Fox News!

[okasha]

7. I'm about to buy it for my Kindle.

Thanks, Fox!

[mr blur]

2. Well, being ignorant 'Christian' bigots doesn't stop Fox attacking Muslims, does it?

(NB - the inverted commas around Christian is because I know that not all Christians are ignorant bigots)

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Commentary from GD: Of Course Fox News Is Bad For Christianity

But it's also important to point out - whether you wish that religion well or ill - Fox News is a great enemy of Christianity. You've no doubt already heard about the above clip - the ugly Muslim-baiting Lauren Green attempts while interviewing Reza Aslan about his biography of Jesus Christ. Green embarrasses herself, as all who work for that company inevitably must, in her efforts to disparage Islam. But she manages to profoundly slander Christianity as well. She suggests very stridently that people who are not of the faith have no business critiquing Jesus. That academics who happen to be non-Christian don't have the right to focus their attention on his life. Nothing could be worse for this church than for people like her to gain influence. Nothing.

The day that Muslims, Jews, atheists, and agnostics stop talking about Jesus is the day that Christianity itself shrivels. Whether you believe he is God or not, it is a mark of his power that historians and philosophers of all backgrounds are still arguing over him and the astonishing things he said. Many of them criticize him and doubt the religious traditions surrounding him? That means he remains relevant.

By contrast, Lauren Green and her employer want to turn Jesus into L. Ron Hubbard. The sort of cheap cult leader whose memory can rally the faithful for political or commercial gain. But someone who just doesn't matter to the wider world. They do much to pander to the particularly ovine of the Nazarene's church.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023369386

[cbayer]

4. This interview has gotten more media attention than the book itself ever would have.

I can't watch the video but have read a couple articles about this.

Hopefully the author will experience some benefit of their ignorance.

[Rob H.]

5. It might be better that you can't watch it

I was laughing in disbelief at the interviewer's willful ignorance by the end of it. She obviously didn't do any research and learn anything about Dr. Aslan (other than "OMG MUSLIM!&quot nor did she seem to have taken even a brief glance at the book. She made a big deal about how it never comes up in TV interviews that he's Muslim (which he countered by pointing out that it's the one thing that always gets mentioned) and that he doesn't reveal he's Muslim in the book. He had to point out--more patiently than most people would have, no doubt--that it's mentioned on the book's second page. Watching Aslan have to keep explaining things to her was like watching an adult try to explain something to a child with ADD.

I don't think I've ever seen a more agenda-driven interview. She kept asking, "But why, as a Muslim, would you want to write a book about Jesus?" and followed it up later with, "Well, here's what other people have to say about your book..." rather than reading it herself and offering her own take on it. (The latter struck me as a newer, even hackier version of Fox's classic "Some people are saying..." canard.)

If she had any shame at all, she'd be embarrassed at such a piss-poor interview--then again, if she had any shame she wouldn't be working for FoxNews in the first place.

[cbayer]

6. Thanks so much for the synopsis, Rob.

She was apparently going for the "Fox Outrage Factor", but man, has this backfired on her.

I just looked at the news pages and every single article (and there are many) just rips her to pieces.

There isn't even anyone from the right defending her as far as I can see.

I suspect we may not see much of her in the future.

[okasha]

8. She doesn't seem to realize either

that Jesus (Isa) is regarded, right along with Muhammad and Moses, as a "Messenger," the highest rank of prophet/saint in Islam. And his mother, Mary, gets a full sura of the Quran to herself--more ink than she gets in the NT!

[rug]

9. Somebody missed the point. He's not a "Muslim Author". He's an historian.

[dimbear]

10. I look forward to Aslan's followup about 10 years down the road, when he

takes a serious scholarly look at Islam.