Reza Aslan

Reza Aslan
Aslan on April 18, 2012
Born	(1972-05-03) 3 May 1972 Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iran
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	Santa Clara University Harvard Divinity School University of California, Santa Barbara University of Iowa
Occupation(s)	Academic, writer
Organization	Aslan Media Inc.
Notable work	No God but God
Spouse	Jessica Jackley
Children	2
Relatives	Leila Forouhar (aunt)

Reza Aslan (Template:Lang-fa; born May 3, 1972) is an Iranian-American writer and scholar of religions. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, a Research Associate at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy, and a contributing editor for The Daily Beast. 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 Bachelor of Arts degree in religions from Santa Clara University, a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. Aslan also received a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from 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 named Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Iowa, becoming the first full-time professor of Islam in the history of the state.

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

As Contributing Editor, Aslan has written articles for The Daily Beast. 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.

After the September 11 attacks, Aslan travelled throughout the state of Iowa speaking to public and private organizations, businesses, churches, mosques, and universities. His efforts in Iowa received national attention in such periodicals as USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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 to not fight, but rather 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."

Zealot controversy

On 26 July 2013, Aslan was interviewed on “Spirited Debate,” a FoxNews webcast by anchor Lauren Green on his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Green was "unsatisfied with Aslan’s credentials," and she pressed Aslan with a "but-why-would-a-Muslim-write-about-Jesus line of questioning." The interview lasted about ten minutes and focused "on Aslan’s background more than the actual contents of the book."

In the end, Green claimed that "Aslan had somehow misled readers by not disclosing his religion", whereupon he pointed out that his personal religious faith "is discussed in the introduction to his 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.

Other publications

• 'The Struggle for Islam's Soul', essay in With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty, Will Marshall, ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006.
• 'From Here to Mullahcracy', essay in My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices, Lila Azam Zanganeh, ed. Beacon Press, 2006.
• 'Losing the War', The New World Reader, Gilbert H Muller, ed., 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, 2013.

External links

• Official website
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