The Enlightenment is generally considered to have begun in the mid- to late 17th century and ended in the late 18th century. Karl Marx was born in 1818 and died in 1883. Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 and died in 1939. Neither could have possibly given birth to the Enlightenment, which preceded them. Neither, for that matter, gave birth to any enlightenment, either.
As I have noted before, nowadays if you parrot the accepted establishment opinions, you can be hailed as a “respected scholar” even if you’re, well, dimwitted and arrogant. If you oppose America’s defense against the global jihad, hate Israel, love those who wish to destroy both the U.S. and Israel, claim that Muhammad was peaceful and Jesus was violent, and profess to debunk orthodox Christianity, you can become the next media star: hence Reza Aslan.
Why does this matter? Because Reza Aslan is a quintessential example of how those whom the mainstream media elevates as authorities are generally of the Emperor’s-New-Clothes variety, and the entire view of the domestic and international political situation, and particularly of the global jihad, that the major news outlets present is out of focus, misleading, and bringing this nation to catastrophe — as is becoming increasingly apparent.
Reza Aslan is, despite his renown as a scholar, supercilious, foul-mouthed, and prone to howling errors of fact, such as his claim that the idea of resurrection “simply doesn’t exist in Judaism,” despite numerous passages to the contrary in the Hebrew Scriptures. He thinks Ethiopia and Eritrea are in Central Africa. He called Turkey the second most populous Muslim country, which was only about 100 million people off. He has also referred to “the reincarnation, which Christianity talks about” — although he later claimed that one was a “typo.”
He has also claimed that the Biblical story of Noah was barely four verses long — which he then corrected to forty, but that was wrong again, as it is 89 verses long. Aslan claimed that the “founding philosophy of the Jesuits” was “the preferential option for the poor,” but the Jesuits were founded in 1534, and according to the California Catholic Conference, “the popular term ‘preferential option for the poor’ is relatively new. Its first use in a Church document is in 1968.” He invoked Pope Pius XI as an example of how “historically, Fascist ideology did infect corners of the Catholic world,” apparently ignorant of the fact that Pius XI issued the anti-fascist encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge.
He also confuses “than” with “then”; apparently thinks the Latin word “et” is an abbreviation; and writes “clown’s” for “clowns.”
Another reason why this matters: he mocks Sam Harris in this video for allegedly saying he had a sinister agenda. But Aslan’s agenda is indeed insidious: he is a Board member of a lobbying group for the bloodthirsty and genocidally antisemitic Iranian regime. Aslan tried to pass off Iran’s genocidally-minded former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a liberal reformer and has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate with Ahmadinejad himself, as well as with the jihad terror group Hamas. Aslan has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as “the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon,” and has also praised the anti-Semitic, misogynist, Islamic supremacist Muslim Brotherhood, which is dedicated in its own words, according to a captured internal document, to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.” Aslan wrote: “The Muslim Brotherhood will have a significant role to play in post-Mubarak Egypt. And that is good thing.” Millions of Egyptians obviously disagree. He has also applauded and called for the forcible shutdown of the free speech of those who hates — a quintessentially fascist impulse.
(Thanks to John for the video.)
c matt says
Marx and Freud were certainly children of the enlightenment. Maybe Reza just doesn’t know English that well
Beagle says
Aslan is woefully ignorant, but drops names with confidence and style. Marx thought of religion as an opiate and a protest movement. I was forced to read Marx in college and I am almost certain he never notably treated religion in any other way.
On the other hand, actual Enlightenment figures were familiar with and utilized religious doctrine in their scholarship. But because Aslan named modern figures as Enlightenment he does not get even partial credit.
Jon says
My feelings about Reza Aslan are oddly mixed.
First, as a C.S. Lewis fan I find myself regretting that Lewis chose the name Aslan (Turkish for lion) for his Great Lion and Christ symbol. The name now reminds me of this guy.
However, I also feel an odd sense of gratitude to Reza. I always used to regret the fact that I never got a Ph.D and thus never joined the ranks of academia (which used to be an ambition of mine). Now, seeing this imbecile in action, I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that has him as a member.
Wellington says
A well-timed and appropriate invocation of a fine Groucho Marx line, Jon. And further respecting the PhD degree, so many fools have attained one in recent times that I have suggested to close friends and associates that it should be altered to “DwD,” standing for “Dodo with a Doctorate.”
Reza Aslan could be the poster boy here for this. Oh yeah, easily.
umbra says
Some doctorates are bought, other are pseudo doctorates. Then there are doctorates that have been earned through real and useful contributions to human knowledge.
Vivienne Leijonhufvud (goldie) says
So true Umbra. I gather Saudi Princes bribe Oxford Professors!
Buraq says
Reza, Islam’s Justin Bieber. A shallow, passing fad who becomes more and more embarrassing as time passes. Each gaffe brings him closer to the brink of general derision.
Unenlightened clown!
Wellington says
What a pompous ass. And to claim that people like Freud and Marx were responsible for the Enlightenment (he mentioned Feuerbach and Schopenhauer in this context too) is so blatantly wrong, so transparently anachronistic, that this alone should disqualify him from ever again being taken seriously. I mean we’re talking here, re the correct dates for the Enlightenment, not just an ordinary error by Aslan but a ludicrous and monumental error.
The man is not only full of mistakes, he is a mistake. Actually, I think way down inside he knows he’s a bullshitter but he probably can only even half admit this to himself. What a phony.
Champ says
Great comment, Wellington!
Mirren10 says
” What a phony.”
Yep.
And doesn’t he just looove the sound of his own voice ? I bet he’s an absolute pain in the arse to live with. 🙂
jed says
People like Reza are just engaging in jihad through verbal diharrea. It takes more time to debunk the bs than it does to make it up. Its a double win for them. They produce disinformation, while wasting people like Robert’s and Pamela’s time.
I dont think its enough to just debunk te nonsense they come up with – there needs to be some public riducule involved so they pay a price for the BS. Eventually they dry up and go away. After all, most of the people who buy into the BS are ignorant of the topic, but no one is ignorant of being made an ass of. It has worked for thousands of years.
UneasyOne says
Once upon a time, Harris considered Aslan a friend and a moderate. Until he was looking for help getting Ayaan Hirsi Ali safely into the country. Aslan was anything but helpful: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/lifting-the-veil-of-islamophobia This is Harris and Ali recounting the ordeal.
Harris debated Aslan. After he got his butt kicked in the debate, Aslan spent considerable time and effort essentially saying (whenever granted access to a microphone) that Harris had no right to an opinion on the subject, given his lack of a doctorate in religious studies. Here is the debate.
nacazo says
Uneasy said:
“Aslan spent considerable time and effort essentially saying (whenever granted access to a microphone) that Harris had no right to an opinion on the subject, given his (Harris) lack of a doctorate in religious studies.”
….while Aslan himself only has a degree in sociology and is a professor of “creative writing”, whatever that is.
UneasyOne says
In fairness, Aslan does hold a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School. My reaction to this is, So what? He still got his butt kicked. And his whining about Harris reveals him as nothing but a sore loser.
gravenimage says
Aslan tries to do the same thing with the erudite Robert Spencer.
Kathy Brown, Esq. says
Hirsi Ali kicked idiot Aslan’s hindquarters in a debate some years ago. Given Ass-Land’s vicious Islamic mentality, that qualifies her for death. And a WOMAN!
So of course he hates her. Small peevish [homosexual] ‘Muslim’ that he is.
The debate is absolutely spellbinding by the way: http://youtu.be/rh34Xsq7D_D
UneasyOne says
Aslan’s attitude (I’m gonna digress) – and I watched several talks he gave, because the book “Zealot: the life and times of Jesus” (Or something like that; I’m not gonna look it up) had been recommended to me. and I wanted to see his qualifications and where he was coming from. After I watched the Harris debate, I saw several talks he gave at book signings,etc. His attitude was “I’m a religious scholar, that’s my job. So you have no real right to an opinion on these matters, because I am automatically right and if you disagree, keep your mouth shut.”
He is a master of taccyia (spelled wrong) and lies smoothly and without compunction.
Thanks for the link; I’ll watch.
UneasyOne says
Ms Ali was in that debate; Aslan was not.
Aslan is a liar, but there is no need to misrepresent his views to defeat his lies. I know it was accidental on your part. That guy looks like Aslan.
Kathy Brown, Esq. says
You’re right! Forgive my mistake-they do look alike.
I beg you tho’: Please don’t notify Sharpton or Jackson! They’ll think it’s RACIST TO THINK ASLAN AND MAJID LOOK ALIKE!
I can take plenty; but not hearing from those two dementos.
Champ says
Wow what a bunch of idiotic nonsense! …I want my four minutes back.
Wellington says
Me too, Champ. Think we could sue the turkey for historical, philosophical and theological malpractice? What the hell, we could pioneer whole new areas of tort law.
Champ says
Great idea, Wellington, since Reza dis’torts’ the Truth so badly it’s criminal, lol! 😀
Wellington says
Nice pun, Champ. Extra nice.
Champ says
Thank you! 😉
Mirren10 says
Very clever, Champ ! 🙂
RodSerling says
Lol, the litany grows. As I noted in an earlier post on this latest error:
“How did these [four 19th century thinkers mentioned by Aslan] “give birth” to something that started well over a century before the earliest of them, Schopenhauer, was even born? Through time travel? By the time Schopenhauer (born in 1788) was old enough to publish anything, the Enlightenment period was over, or pretty much so.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/10/uk-national-union-of-students-move-to-condemn-islamic-state-fails-amid-claims-of-islamophobia/comment-page-1#comment-1134512
What was Aslan saying about people offering opinions outside of their area of expertise? Someone remind me: What is Aslan’s area of expertise?
Wellington says
In full agreement, RodSerling. Indeed, the litany grows, as you put it.
Instructive, in detail, how argubaly the single greatest figure of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, died a full decade before the earliest of those four whom Aslan mentioned were responsible for the Enlightenment, i.e., Schopenhauer, was even born. Well, Aslan will have to address this embarrassing error by either 1) totally ignoring it; or 2) arguing he meant some kind of “different Enlightenment” than the “ordinary Enlightenment.”
Your turn, Aslan. Know full well, though, that many here at JW know your full worth. Oh yeah, many. Be of no doubt about this. None at all.
gravenimage says
And Wellington, don’t forget that Voltaire wrote “Mahomet”—full title, “Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet”—which focused on Mohammed’s ordering the murder his critics.
Voltaire himself described the play as “written in opposition to the founder of a false and barbarous sect to whom could I with more propriety inscribe a satire on the cruelty and errors of a false prophet”.
Incidentally, this play featured an Islamic suicide attack—which meant that Europeans where well familiar with the phenomenon over two hundred and fifty years ago.
The last time it was to be performed in France in 2006, ravening Mohammedans tried to shut down the play.
“Muslims ask French to cancel 1741 play by Voltaire”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2006/03/muslims-ask-french-to-cancel-1741-play-by-voltaire
Of course, the Mohammedans did not “ask”—they threatened, rioted, and set fires to garbage cans and a car.
Mirren10 says
Thanks for posting that article, graven. I’m gradually working my way through the archives, but hadn’t come across that one, yet.
And Mayor Hubert Bertrand refused to cave in ! Instead, he had police outside the performance hall, and when the mohammedans rioted, the flic chased them down the street ! Brava !
What the hell has happened to La Belle France, in eight short years ?
Ah well, viva Marine Le Pen, and the others who are getting their act together, and beginning to fight back, in all European countries.
Vive La Resistance !
Mirren10 says
I expect he’ll go for option 2, Wellington.
Like so many pompous, pseudo-intellectuals, he doesn’t have any moral or intellectual courage, and will twist facts into pretzels in order to avoid admitting he was actually in error.
He ought to be a politician, really.
R Cole says
Yesss – religion is a growing force in – Syria and Iraq.
::
Reza’s an expert on tearing down people.
A character assassin.
And he need say little else.
Though the guilt question got him!
He’s the ‘moderate’ who could not exist independently outside the western world.
::
As for sinister — Reza Aslan got his ultra-Left-wing buddy – to make the case for Constitutional change on free speech – to so-call ‘protect’ Islam from its critics.
How do you say Islamic States of America!
Lu says
“He also confuses “than” with “then”; apparently thinks the Latin word “et” is an abbreviation; and writes “clown’s” for “clowns.” ”
That is absolutely unacceptable for a public persona who acts as an apologist of islam. He is a joke … but not surprising. He just cannot hold a candle to Robert and other true scholars in islam.
Jerry says
Don’t be unfair to Aslan.
He is a previously intellectually disadvantaged individual, with diplomas to prove it from others who share that distinction.
voegelinian says
Descartes was Jesuit trained. The historian of medieval philosophy (which perforce was Christian) Etienne Gilson notes that the famous Cartesian Cogito ergo sum meditation was likely an extrapolation from typical Jesuit exercises young René must have learned at La Flèche .
TH says
In fact, “cogito ergo sum” was taken from St. Augustine., if not the exact words but almost.
JIMJFOX says
O/T but somehow fitting-
Monty Python best-ever parody- from the Australian Philosophers’ sketch;
“Renee Descartes was a drunken fart,
I drink, therefore I am”
voegelinian says
I’d like to see a debate among Tariq Ramadan, Reza Aslan, Maajid Nawaz, and Zuhdi Jasser — four shades of Good Cop, each successively trying to be a Better Cop (and the last two succeeding in hoodwinking even those who should know better, deep inside the Counter-Jihad — which is precisely where stealth jihadists need to penetrate).
pumbar says
You forgot mo ansar.
JamesonRocks says
Well, he does teach creative writing.
Mirren10 says
How can any one *teach* ‘creative’ writing ? One can either write good fiction, or one can’t !
Vivienne Leijonhufvud (goldie) says
Love this, teaching creative writers would be a better assessment. Either one can tell a good story or not but without that essential ingredient one’s Editor the good story might never see the light of day 😀
pumbar says
Maybe he can teach creative writers the difference between “then” and “than”. Ah, no he can’t… Wanders away scratching head and looking for a pre-perforated Ph.D. in a nearby gutter.
R Davis says
“why does it matter – because Reza Aslan is a quintessential example of those whom the mainstream media elevates as authorities”
Sam Harris is also one of those whom has been elevated by mainstream media.
So it depends which song they are singing – hey.
As long as they sing go America go Israel along party lines it’s okay (?)
A case of double standards on your part Robert.
saturnine says
I reckon “double standards” doesn’t mean what you think it means.
gravenimage says
More apologia for evil on the part of the egregious “R Davis”.
And his pretending that anyone “elevated by the media” is perforce of comparable intellectual and moral stature is simply ludicrous.
Soloview says
Ironically, the man who is generally agreed to have kick-started the French Enlightenment, Charles de Montesquieu, chose for a satirical portrait of French contemporary society under absolutist monarchy, two clueless potentates from Persia. His “Persian Letters (Lettres persanes)” featured two Muslims Isfahan visiting in Paris, proffering their opinions on everything under the sun and measuring the world of the infidel with their backward, tyrannical, “oriental” social order which they naively consider a world standard of greatness. I am sure Reza Aslan does not realize this but his view of the West (eg. on women) is as funny in its ineptness as that of Montesquieu’s Usbek, a man of means from Isfahan who seems to know everything about the ways of the infidel but cannot figure out why the women in his harem at home stage a revolt against his rule.
gravenimage says
A nicely ironic bit, Soloview—but one that would be entirely lost on the obtuse and meretricious Reza Aslan.
katarzyna says
To Robert Spencer
in my opinion RA was entitled to say that. i do not think he meant the epoch of Enlightenment but the intellectual attitude which is ascribed to it, mailny the imperative of sapere aude. RA said: “These were the people who gave birth to the modern world. They were the people who gave birth to the enlightenment”.(from RodSerling’s comment http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/10/uk-national-union-of-students-move-to-condemn-islamic-state-fails-amid-claims-of-islamophobia/comment-page-1#comment-1134512, i left my reply) ” the term “Enlightenment” is often used across epochs”(from wikipedia). Philosophy of Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche(not mentioned by RA) represent a new kind of enlightenment. these thinkers enlightened modernism.
i’m afraid RA can use the article against You and claim that You have “a sinister agenda”. but anyway as i said earlier “There are no facts, only interpretations”(Nietzsche).
Thank You for your great work. Regards.
Wellington says
NIce try. Well, not even a nice try. In any case, you failed. Yeah, you did.
BTW, there are facts, lots of them, though in this factually challenged age we live in I can see why some people like yourself would like to feel (yes, “feel” is the correct word and not “think”) otherwise.
As for Reza Aslan being able to “use the article against You {sic},” only in your dreams, pal. Hey, are you employed by RA or, perhaps, are you actually RA? Just wondering.
katarzyna says
Dear Wellington and gravenimage
TI – the idea is “there is no outside-text”(Derrida).
as there are only interpretations some people after reading my comments think, for example that i support isis, i am a Russian troll, i work for Mossad or RA, i cannot think rationally, i am a rotten person, a foe of free speech, a Iranian troll.
Thank you. You have made my day. as Nietzsche say: “From life’s school of war: what does not kill me makes me stronger”
i am glad that you are defending Robert. as Nietzsche would say:”I myself am still enough of a Pole to give up the rest of music for Chopin”(he liked to claim that, he was not a Pole).
voegelinian – i disagree with your opinion.
chalkoneup – yes, it could.
Regards to all of you.
gravenimage says
Why don’t you actually say what you think, katarzyna, instead of claiming—absurdly—that readers here may well think you “work for Mossad”?
As regards Derrida and the idea that “there are only interpretations”, I believe this is part of the problem.
The West is hobbled with false concepts that there is no truth and that everything is morally relative—which leaves all too many in the West weak and vacillating, and unable to recognize moral evil and an existential threat when they see it.
Islam has taken full advantage of this false, fashionable idiocy.
Wellington says
Gravenimage’s October 19th, 2:30 A.M. response to you, katarzyna, is spot on, though I doubt you will learn anything from it. As for Derrida, what he spouted was nothing more than high-class bullshit, including the deconstructionalism crap.
Be wary of intellectuals (as opposed to intelligent people with common sense). They have screwed up so much, as the great English historian, Paul Johnson, has observed and detailed. President Kennedy also had significant reservations about intellectuals. He said of them that he rarely met one “who had both feet on the ground.” Yeah, good way to put it.
voegelinian says
While there may be many periods of “enlightenment” generally speaking, there is only one “The Enlightenment” — and it was born in the 17th century (and patched and peeled in the 18th); not in the 19th century. There’s no way Reza can wiggle out of this tight spot.
Jay Boo says
Reza Aslan could easily be excused for extrapolating an analogy using “The Enlightenment” in a casual off hand manner merely to make a general impression of his point except for one glaring problem.
He is a such habitual liar that everything he says must be suspected of having a convoluted purpose.
gravenimage says
katarzyna wrote:
To Robert Spencer
in my opinion RA was entitled to say that.
……………………………
What rot. Robert Spencer never said that Reza Aslan was not “entitled to say that”.
Robert Spencer was—obviously—not trying to censor the moronic Reza Aslan, but to comment on what it was that he said.
Why do so many whose intent is to curtail freedom of speech pretend that part of it is that no one is allowed to critique what they say? (This is, of course, a rhetoric question).
More:
i do not think he meant the epoch of Enlightenment but the intellectual attitude which is ascribed to it…
……………………………
That’s not what he said—one could, of course, refer to those influenced by the Enlightenment, or refer to a “second Enlightenment” or some such, but this is not what Reza Aslan did.
Given that Alsan has shown gross ignorance on this scale before, there is no reason to assume that there was some mitigating factor here—unless one is an apologist for this creep, of course.
As for the assertion that Reza Aslan can “use this against” Robert Spencer—well, of course he can. Reza Aslan doesn’t believe that *anyone* should be allowed to question his bullsh*t.
After all, this would not be allowed in the Islamic Republic of Iran, now would it?
katarzyna says
i said what i think and you thought that i am a foe of free speech etc. coz as Derrida says “there is no outside- text”(his claim is your defence).“work for Mossad”- i was referring to readers in Poland(not here) in order to show that your claims are not so ridiculous.
the leftist idea of equality(every culture, religion etc are the same, moral relativism) is the problem. for me Derrida was writing about the Signifier and Signified problem.
for example in poland one professor(a head of bioethics and philosophy at polish university, a member of political party(leftist party)) ‘proposed’ a discussion on depenalising of incest. he was removed from the party, the university started disciplinary procedure against him, and of course many Polish were outraged at his remarks. even one party decided that the banner of fight with leftism(leftist ideas) can be useful in upcoming election.
Regards.
Wellington says
Put Derrida on the shelf, will you, and simply start thinking for yourself. You could make a good start in this direction by writing coherent, grammatically correct sentences.
Right now, you strike me as one who overthinks things and who considers such overthinking as something wise and wonderful. Well, I got news for you———–it isn’t. Wise up, because you’ll make no progress here at JW by proffering an arid and pointless intellectualism. So far, this is all you have done. So get with it or get lost.
chalkoneup says
You know what? I’m going to give this one the benefit of the doubt. In all honesty, none of us would have any way of knowing if Aslan was referring to The Enlightenment or the enlightenment. Within the context, it could, in fact, go both ways.
voegelinian says
You don’t get it: there is no “the enlightenment” that is not “The Enlightenment”. All other “enlightenments” are not referred to as “the enlightenment”.
Jay Boo says
I already posted the following above but it would apply here as well.
Reza Aslan could easily be excused for extrapolating an analogy using “The Enlightenment” in a casual off hand manner merely to make a general impression of his point except for one glaring problem.
He is a such habitual liar that everything he says must be suspected of having a convoluted purpose.
Jay Boo says
in reply to chalkoneup
Beagle says
I think Bacon, Hume, Locke, and Spinoza are at least as important as Descartes in sparking the Age of Reason. No one philosopher did it on his own.
I would add Pico as well, though technically Renaissance.
Beagle says
Locke was not limited to abstract metaphysics or epistemology. He could have simply assumed existence, like most do, and his work would have inspired the Founding Fathers regardless. Locke had his issues, but his influence on the US puts him at the top of my list.
Locke also relied on Aristotle, Aquinas, and Plato for logic. I think Descartes gave a detailed answer to a question only philosophy wonks were asking.
gravenimage says
Certainly, one can argue about the roots and great figures of the Enlightenment, and who exactly belongs in the canon—I think that some of the Scottish thinkers have been a lot more influential than they are generally given credit for.
But Aslan, of course, is not expressing an educated difference of opinion here, but just his own woeful and seldom challenged ignorance.
Ken D says
Beagle- I agree with you partially, but I think a great debt is owed to the (Islamic Golden Age) thinkers Averroes and Ibn Sina here, who rediscovered and used Aristotle’s works when they were not only lost to the Christian West, but verboten. Aquinas would never have known about Aristotle if not for these transitional thinkers, and science would have been almost non-existent.
I think the link between Christianity and the Enlightenment is overstated, to say the least. (Similarly, I think the heroes of the “Islamic Golden Age” were the least Islamic figures of their age).
But what would one expect from an non-academic atheist like me…
For Aslan to (both anachronistically and a-philosophically) attribute the birth of the Enlightenment to a bunch of German Romanticists is ridiculous, but not out of character, it seems.
Revisionism writ large,but I would not be surprised if this is intellectual orthodoxy these days.
I, too, am reminded of a Monty Python skit where a Mr.Singeon Polevaulter claims to have written all of Shakespeare’s works, though he was born “more than 400 years after they were first performed”.
Wellington says
I’m not a big Jean-Paul Sartre fan, but I do think he had a point when he opined that what Descartes really should have said was “cogito ergo cogito sum.” Hume, with all his glorious skepticism, would have appreciated this I believe.
gravenimage says
Good grief, Ken D—are you claiming that Islam is responsible for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment?
Western Canadian says
Either Ken was trying, and failing, to inject some humour into this train of thought, or he’s a idiot.
Ken D says
Western Canadian-
At the end of my response to Gravenimage, above, (Oct 20 5:35 pm) there is a comment addressed to you.
Ken D says
Hi GravenImage- What I’m saying is that the line of reason (which Beagle drew above) from Aristotle to the Enlightenment would have been broken if not for (at least) Ibn’ Sina and Averroes (whom, as I stated above, were in this rational respect distinctly “Un-Islamic”).
In any case, Aristotle’s works had to be re-translated from the Arabic in order for Aquinas to read them.
(I knew this comment had the possibility of being misunderstood,and so I thank you for your polite question.)
The Enlightenment is generally regarded as an age of Reason and Science, both of which flourished for a brief time in Islam while entirely dormant in Europe. I’m surprised to find absolutely no credit being given where credit is due here in the comments section (where Islam is often criticized as “satanic”). Yes, Islam is barbarous and evil, but it was not always thoroughly so. I think that the thinkers I admire from its history are mostly seen from within as somewhat heretical and now have ultimately been rejected in Islamic Theology. The Mu’ Tazila, for example, relied on Reason and Logic (even going so far as to say that God, too, was bound by them) when Europe was mired in the philosophy of the mind-hating Augustine.
That’s what I meant.
Western Canadian:
I welcome correction,but not abuse. If you can’t correct me, jerk your knees at someone else, thank you.
livingengine says
Has anyone else noticed that everything Reza Aslan is saying about Sam Harris is a much better description of Reza Aslan.
I see why Robert Spencer keeps calling attention to this person who is aping an intellectual.
Ominous.
Don McKellar says
Yes, obviously Asslan is a fake, a retard, and an Islamic homosexual in deep denial. Anybody with brain and able to approach reality with a clear head can see that. However, will his endless, ENDLESS, string of stupid, uneducated claims and assertions ever be recognized for what they are by those in the power to enable his decpetions and lies (in the documented service of the Iranian regime, no less) to be shut down at last. No. I don’t think so. This closet gay is a useful tool for too many, and will not be shut down and dimissed in the near future because he speaks the “party line” like a perfect puppet. That is hard to find.
Mirren10 says
Unfortunately, these puppets are *not* ”hard to find”. There are all too many of them, a consequence of the degradation of education, and critical thinking, since at least the Thirties.
They use their ‘education’, and are used by others, to tell lies, and obfuscate the truth, as does the risible and foolish Aslan. There are so many people who will believe what they want to believe, and are told, rather than using their, as Wellington puts it, ”God given bullshit meter”.
gary fouse says
UC Riverside’s shining star of a professor (LOL)
DogOnPorch says
Sam Harris on the ‘Last Word’ with Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, 10-9-2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo7z2Ml2tI0
Harris and O’Donnell discuss the fallout.
Ben says
This is gold, and shouldn’t be overlooked. Basically, Reza spends almost the entire interview extolling his own expertise whilst denigrating Harris’; he makes juvenile arguments from authority of the kind you’d find in high school debate class.
Yet, he simultaneously declares claims:
a) that Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud (as well as Feuerbach and Schopenhauer) are amongst his greatest heroes, and
b) that they ‘gave birth to the Enlightenment’
Proclamation b) alone is anachronistic and clumsy enough to warrant slapping an F on any undergraduate History paper. Yet, if a) is true, and they are Aslan’s heroes, how could he not know that they are not Enlightenment figures? And this is coming from a self-proclaimed ‘historian’ with ‘4 PhDs’!
It’s fine for public intellectuals not to know every historical detail, but this is basic. And you can’t excuse it by claiming he was speaking of a ‘different enlightenment’, because there is unambiguously only one ‘The Enlightment’. And that began in the 1600s and ended in the late 1700s, spearheaded by ‘natural philosophers’ (or ‘philosophes’) such as Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes who revolutionized not only the philosophical approach to reason and discovery but also the empirical. Karl Marx was a German philosopher and political theorist, not an Enlightenment figure.
Furthermore, why would Aslan laud someone like Marx as his hero, a man totally opposed to all forms of organized religion, and who famously made such un-nuanced statements such as ‘religion is the opium of the masses’? He seems to let Marx off the hook because he was an ‘expert in religion’. How so? Perhaps by the standard of his day, but he certainly was no ‘nuanced’ or empirical scholar like the kind Aslan claims to be. If anything, Marx was the kind of anti-religious polemicist Aslan accuses Spencer of being.
So the purpose of the interview is the extol Aslan’s expertise… but he ends up making himself look like an idiot.
Ben says
Oops. Second paragraph down should read: “Yet, he simultaneously declares:” (cross out the ‘claims’).
voegelinian says
“why would Aslan laud someone like Marx as his hero, a man totally opposed to all forms of organized religion, and who famously made such un-nuanced statements such as ‘religion is the opium of the masses’? ”
Many Shia Persians seem to find in Communism a useful vehicle for the Jihad.
Kathy Brown, Esq. says
Philip, I agree with you.
As for why Ass-Land would choose these two? Oh, that’s easily seen. Freud and Marx are both identified with the radical Left, the latter for obvious reasons.
Where Freud is concerned the Left’s identification is much less apposite. They love what they perceive of Freudian analysis, i.e., ‘if it feels good do it’; the invalidity of guilt, etc. And tho’ Freud was a Jew, he was an atheist. Which of course is heaven (you should excuse the expression) to the Left.
Ben says
Just to add, my hero is Steve Jobs, the man who gave birth to the Industrial Revolution.
gravenimage says
Hilarious, Ben.
Mirren10 says
Nice one ! 🙂
Raymond Hietapakka says
Professor of Creative Writing = Bullshit Artist
Champ says
LOL, good one! 😀
Kepha says
Aw, c’mon, guys! What else can you expect from someone who dusts off some shopworn idiocies of the Silly ‘Sixities, namely S.G.F. Brandon’s Jesus-as-Zealot meme, and passes it off as brilliant, original, interfaith “scholarship” [?]? Still, didn’t anyone call him out on Marx, and later Freud, being among the enlightenment’s big critics?
Gary Fouse says
This pseudo-intellectual has been smoking his socks. This is like saying Babe Ruth gave birth to the Civil,War.
citycat says
The pen is mightier than the sword.
I think Islam is using up the enemy’s fire here by throwing a stone into the weapon of communication pool.
nacazo says
Azzla says:
“I don’t read Sam Harris blog”
Then proceeds to quote exactly what he said.
Iran is not getting what they paid for but hey, azzlan also has to make a living with his ” creative writing” meaning utter lies.
The Vilest of Creatures says
Wow, Cenk Uygar and Reza Aslan together in the studio. Their combined IQ is still less than that coffee table between them.
fair_dinkum says
Marx and Freud were both Jews..
what’s he saying? that 2 Jews are responsible for the enlightenment?
good for him
Kathy Brown, Esq. says
Hahahahahahahahaha FD! I never thought of that! Good on ye.
Of course if this were true-which it isn’t-then the Muslim cretins would actually have a REASON for bypassing the Enlightenment.
Wait, I forgot. ‘Reason’ and ‘Islam’ are mutually exclusive.
fair_dinkum says
lol hes a cretin alright.
JohnnyAngel Advocacy Group says
Obama and Az..sslan, ahhh that is a conversation I would love to hear !! HERE HERE 🙂 🙂
Tom says
hi,
Sam Harris is going to “debate” Cenk from the young turks.
look at Sam harris twitter. send in your question!
gr,Tom
Vivienne Leijonhufvud (goldie) says
Are you suggesting Islam brought enlightenment to the world?
Mirren10 says
Wellington, or even;
“Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum — “I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.” 🙂
Wellington says
Good one, Mirren.
Ken D says
goldie- Not exactly. Please see immediately above for clarification.
Dennis Trisker says
Not surprising for Aslan. Really shows how poor our educational system is to give him a university job. Freud and Marx are the products of the Enlightenment. Both contributed a lot to thought. Unfortunately this enlightenment is rejected by most Muslims.
Pavelina says
Aslan says he’s married. He could still be homosexual, of course.