In this CNN piece, Reza Aslan purports to explain why he is a Muslim, and only ends up demonstrating that he is not a Muslim (although he is an Islamic apologist). Now, I can hear the chorus of outrage now through my office window: Muslim explains why he is a Muslim, bigoted “Islamophobe” says he isn’t — who is this non-Muslim to say who is a Muslim and who isn’t?
Of course. Reza Aslan is a Muslim because he says he is, and that’s that. At the same time, most Muslim authorities would say that some of the statements Aslan makes in this CNN piece place him outside of Islam, and one does not have to be an imam, or a Muslim at all, to see that. If Reza claimed to be a Christian but said he worshipped only Mithras or Vishnu, one would not need to be a scholar of Christianity, or a Christian oneself, to note that if he was a Christian at all, he wasn’t any kind of Christian that the world had hitherto seen. Or if he were a professing Hindu who said Jesus Christ was the Son of the one and only God — there again, even one outside the tradition can recognize that this bears no resemblance to Hinduism as it has ever been expressed.
And so when Reza Aslan says: “I am Muslim not because I think Islam is ‘truer’ than other religions (it isn’t), but because Islam provides me with the ‘language’ I feel most comfortable with in expressing my faith,” he is placing himself outside of Islam as it has been understood throughout history and today by most of its adherents. “And whoever desires other than Islam as religion, never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.” (Qur’an 3:85) Nor are most Islamic authorities likely, given Islam’s abhorrence for the cross (cf. Qur’an 4:157 and Muhammad’s prophecy about Jesus returning to earth to, among other things, “break the cross”), to look kindly upon the photo below of Aslan with what certainly could be something else but appears to be a cross marked on his forehead, as is given in the Roman Catholics’ Ash Wednesday observance.
Anyway, in saying that Islam isn’t truer than other religions, an idea that any Muslim could be expected to believe, Aslan is essentially saying that religion itself is all just a game, a charade. Truth is not an issue; just pick the one that makes you feel good, that you decide best expresses your nebulous “faith.” This is not only a silly trivialization of what has anchored human experience from the beginning of human history, but it is also a cavalier dismissal of the obvious fact that religions do indeed make truth claims. It also dismisses without examination one fact that is so very important in world affairs today: that Islam’s truth claims impinge upon the lives and well-being of all too many non-Muslims.
Aslan’s Leftist CNN readers will go away from Aslan’s piece thinking that he represents the enlightened, broadminded, tolerant tradition of Islam that they have heard so much about, when all he is really doing is fostering ignorance of and complacency about the fact that Islam’s truth claim is taken very, very seriously by many Muslims, and since that truth claim is inextricably bound up with violent, supremacist, authoritarian imperatives, people are getting killed because of it.
“Reza Aslan: Why I am a Muslim,” by Reza Aslan, CNN, February 27, 2017:
(CNN)As a writer and scholar of religions, I am often asked how, knowing all that I know about the religions of the world, I can still call myself a believer, let alone a Muslim.
It’s a reasonable question. Considering the role that religion so often plays in fueling conflicts abroad and inspiring bigotry at home, it is not always so easy to defend the value of religion in society. And, in a world in which reason and religion seem to be moving further apart, it is certainly understandable why so many people view religious faith as the hallmark of an irrational mind.Of course, as someone who has spent the better part of the last two decades studying the world’s religions — and having recently crisscrossed the globe for my new spiritual adventure series “Believer,” where I immerse myself in religious traditions both familiar and downright bizarre — I know better than to take the truth claims of any religion (including my own) too seriously.
But I also know this: Religion and faith are not the same thing.
‘A signpost to God’
Faith is mysterious and ineffable. It is an emotional, not necessarily a rational, experience.Religion is a fairly recent human invention. But faith, as I have elsewhere argued, is embedded in our very evolution as human beings.
And yet, in the end, faith is nothing more or less than a choice. You either believe there is something beyond the physical world (as I do), or you don’t. You either believe you are more than the sum of your material parts (as I do), or you don’t. You either believe in the existence of a soul (as I do), or you don’t.
No one can prove or disprove these things, not any more than anyone can prove or disprove love or fear or any other human emotion.
Religion, on the other hand, is the language we use to express faith. It is a language made up of symbols and metaphors that allows people to express to each other (and to themselves) what is, almost by definition, inexpressible.
After all, if there is a God, then that God is utterly beyond human comprehension.
How would one talk about — or even think about — something so completely foreign? We would need some kind of language to help us make sense of it, a set of symbols and metaphors we can all agree upon to help us define what is fundamentally indefinable.
That’s where religion comes in. Beyond the doctrines and dogma, the do’s and the don’t’s, religion is simply a framework for thinking about the existential questions we all struggle with as human beings.
It is, as the Sufi mystics say, a “signpost to God.”
Can you have faith without religion? Of course! But as the Buddha said, if you want to strike water, you don’t dig six 1-foot wells; you dig one 6-foot well. In other words, if you want to have a deep and meaningful faith experience, it helps — though it is by no means necessary — to have a language with which to do so.
So then, pick a well.
Different words, same thing
My well is Islam, and in particular, the Sufi tradition. Let me be clear, I am Muslim not because I think Islam is “truer” than other religions (it isn’t), but because Islam provides me with the “language” I feel most comfortable with in expressing my faith. It provides me with certain symbols and metaphors for thinking about God that I find useful in making sense of the universe and my place in it….
BlueRaven says
I like to leave this moron alone because that is what he is:
How does he know that Islam defines the framework for God while in the same breath he states God is beyond comprehension?
Idoit !!
VRWC member77 says
Reza says “But I also know this: Religion and faith are not the same thing.”
To which can be said: Almond Joys and boots aren’t the same thing,………….but you can walk in a pair of boots while eating an Almond Joy.
Both statements are equivalent on the same level of mental midgetry which of course Reza qualifies with flying colors.
umbra says
He is spewing garbage … as creative writing.
abad says
Reza is the very typical Muslim.
When asked what he thinks he believes he goes “Duh.”
Were he to be asked what Islam believes, he parrot quotes the Quran and Hadith front to back.
What can you expect when you have a religion that does all of your “thinking” and “doing” for you.
Islam even tells one how to go to the bathroom and use the left hand for wiping because bath tissue is “unsanitary” don’t you know.
Terry says
A Turkish ‘scholar’ some time back ( was in JW) said that IT IS OKAY FOR A MUSLIM TO USE TOILET PAPER TO WIPE ONE’S BUTT.
They (at least in Turkey) look to be entering the early 20th century, in terms of ass wiping.
Rob says
@BlueRaven, How can you be so disrespectful?
Reza’s a professor of religions, a scholar with TWO degrees in religious bigotr… er history; and he’s fluent in biblical Greek and disingenuous bulls#!t…
Oh – and his actual “professorship” is in creative writing… though his attempt at being creative when he describes Islam as “not truer than other religions” could get him killed by some of his more serious fellow Muslims.
L Ron Hubbard was a “creative writer” too; and his stories of Niburu persuaded John Travolta and Tom Cruze, so they MUST be true…
Female genital mutilation, in Reza’s self-aggrandising, professional opinion, is not a Muslim practice – it’s an “African” one. With such deep understanding of genital mutilatio, it’s no wonder he told Cenk Uygur (completely without embarrassment or irony) that “…It’s embarrassing having to trot out your qualifications in public…”.
Not so embarrassing though, that he’d stop telling porkies about them…
Mohammad says
As a proper muslim living in Saudi Arabia, This article despite its bias against islam, is quite true regarding reza hahaha. Also, I must comment the picture of reza is not catholic cross, its a voodoo ritual from his TV show the believer in episode 3 season 1.
“else but appears to be a cross marked on his forehead, as is given in the Roman Catholics’ Ash Wednesday observance.”
Max Publius says
Asslan is the queen of the 90-109 IQ club (not idiots, but not too bright either), a very large group to specialize in profiting from.
billybob says
I understand and accept his explanation. Robert does make a good point though when he says Aslan’s Leftist CNN readers will go away from Aslan’s piece thinking that he represents the enlightened, broadminded, tolerant tradition of Islam that they have heard so much about, when all he is really doing is fostering ignorance of and complacency about the fact that Islam’s truth claim…
I am also concerned when these news programs bring in an Ahmadi Muslim to provide context to some story, without bothering to explain that Ahmadis are nothing like Sunni or Shia, and represent an insignificant minority of Islamic thought.
However, we can never count on the MSM to properly explain Islam anyhow. If we could count on them, Robert would be redundant.
john spielman says
sufi islam is a target for extermination by sunni ISIS etc
it seems poor Reza believes everything/anything / nothing?
Jesus said in John 3:18 – “he who believes in Me are not condemned (has eternal life) but those who do not believe, stand condemned already- because they do not believe in the ONLY SON of God!”
mortimer says
Islam is highly codified. There is no ‘private interpretation’ of Islam. Reza Aslan’s view is that THERE IS A PRIVATE INTERPRETATION of Islam as long as it is HIS OWN private interpretation.
Reza Aslan sees Islam as a VESSEL or VASE into which he pours the content of his choosing. In Islam, such PERSONALIZED Islam is called ‘bida’ or INNOVATION. All such innovation is deemed to be from SATAN. Reza Aslan’s bida is thus deemed by orthodox Muslims to be SATANIC.
He is fooling a lot of Westerners, but the mullahs and sheikhs are not so easily fooled by this fool.
If Aslan wrote his nonsense in Iran or Saudi Arabia, he would be quickly arrested, then tortured and likely stay in jail a long time. If he refused to repent, he would likely be executed in those countries.
KrazyKafir says
I believe this is tactic is done on purpose, and for a reason. It creates a false safe impression for the gullible dhimmis to cling to. The whole truth would stop the invasion in its tracks.
Westman says
” I know better than to take the truth claims of any religion (including my own) too seriously.”, and, “…I am Muslim not because I think Islam is “truer” than other religions (it isn’t)…” – Reza Aslan
Now that his statements of being Agnostic-Kafir are in public view, he needs to go to Pakistan or Saudi Arabia to get more material for his “Believer” series. Would he return?
somehistory says
He should ask himself, just what *language* God accepts for someone “thinking” about Him and telling others about Him and what *language* God accepts in prayer or praise. Those things don’t seem to concern him, only what makes him *feel good.*
How anyone could accept islam as a way to “feel good” is beyond common sense. islam is evil, without virtue, without knowledge, without guidance.And most importantly, without God.
DFD says
News from Europe
==============.
UK: Something sad. Because of new transgender idiocies, sorry, regulations, the ladies serving in the RAF will in future prohibited to wear skirts at parades. Though, there is no final decision, yet. Any bets? …. Well, we men will certainly miss these sights, see here https://assets.jungefreiheit.de/2017/02/8908594-860×360-1488300504.jpg
Sweden: They have a problem with those “young, unaccompanied children”. Namely the monies they require to bring their wives and children to Sweden… You read that correctly. Oh, and here’s an interview with members of the Swedish Ambulance Union, and their requirement for police protection. https://youtu.be/ta5a02MzWjE Protection? Today in Malmö a man was injured due to hand-grenade, another grenade was found at or in a police station in Kista/Stockholm. Ahhhh, the religion of blown to pieces. Sorry, peace.
Germoney: For looking after those poor Mohajiroun the two primary churches receive €30.00 a day, from the taxpayer. At a total of ~2million (2015/16 & 17, plus family reunifications) that comes to €60million per day. Well, Bishops do not live on bread alone, do they?
Personal comment: That was probably my last off topic posting, unless I get very bored. Too many comments on these, you know…
LB says
Please don’t stop, I very much enjoy your updates about Europe. There are people who do sift through all comments (like me, but I rarely post). I said it before that you should turn this into a daily/weekly series in video or written form. It saves a bunch of time gathering info by browsing lots of small blogs and alt media.
Stephanie says
… cause I love ‘amputate hands’ without anesthesia, also from cute kids 🙂
http://quran.com/5/38-40
mortimer says
Exactly… also “I am a Muslim because I LOVE wife-beating (doesn’t everyone?), I LOVE political assassination, I LOVE repression of KAFIRS, I LOVE the perpetual slave-status of WOMEN, I LOVE sex slaves, I LOVE jihad/warfare against the disbelievers, I LOVE PLUNDERING kafirs, I LOVE the sun setting in a muddy spring in the flat earth!”
Islam is LOVE and PEACE … after we get rid of all the kafirs, Jews and those awful SUNNIS who love to kill SHI’ITES.
Crusades Were Right! says
An anagram of “Reza Aslan” is “Anal Arse Z”.
Yeah.
; ¬)
JawsV says
What’s that mark on the clown’s forehead supposed to be?
Hindu American says
Could be Hindu or Sufi. Either one invites immediate death from the islamists.
john spielman says
it looks to me like the sign of the cross in ashes ( ash wednesday tomorrow)
abad says
No I don’t think that’s it. Aslan may have faked his own “ash cross” but no priest makes an ash cross that looks like that upon a Christian’s forehead.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
That photo of Reza is disturbing. Where was it taken, and who are those people in the background? The mark on his forehead is too red to be Ash Wednesday ashes. It looks like a skin lesion of the kind caused by banging one’s head on an unsanitary surface. Reza, disinfect your prayer mat!
Elizabeth in Delaware says
I won’t waste a precious minute of life watching Reza’s Appalling Adventure to confirm it, but the photo suggests the offense on his forehead might be Santaria in origin. Otherwise known as “voodoo”, the religion mashes together African/Caribbean animism with Roman Catholicism. Chickens and their blood are used for many rituals, and that cross on his head resembles blood.
Surely this coming CNN series will make clear to all what a shallow twerp and non-scholar Reza Aslan is. I don’t need to watch to prove THAT.
Boston Tea Party says
Unfortunately, huge swaths of people calling themselves “Christians” nowadays have the exact same logic: they think Christianity is “good”, but they don’t really think it’s true–and they don’t care if it is or not. Large portions of society no longer value logic or truth–but instead prefer sentiments, emotions and “being nice.”
What do Muslims actually believe? “It doesn’t matter, because we’re nice, and they’re nice, and we’re all human beings who want to be nice.”
And I think people who have embraced this post-modern relativism have very little ability to even understand people who believe one religion more true than another. Their minds just don’t work that way.
David Ramseur says
Spot on!
terry says
My view–who really cares what he thinks-if he is or is not a Muslim?
Having read s number of his posts- I have reached the conclusion that he likes to argue- regardless of the issue. And has beliefs that might be somewhat fluid.
But, again- who really cares>? I don’t
Byzantium1683 says
I wouldn’t care either, if the media is not giving him power, and heck, the media is filled with little Rezas.
Then again, I hate lies, so I guess I would get angry anyway. But its even worse knowing that people like him are likely to outlive me ideologically. And their lies, so obvious, are taken as fact.
davej says
Reza is quite obviously a dissembling, deceiving lunatic.
Vic says
Reza is a conflicted fellow or something. Not much different from many Christian friends who don’t study the Bible much and pick and choose some scriptures they like and leave others they don’t much like. So Reza’s “open beliefs” deeply resonate with these people who believe in something. Makes them all feel virtuous to be so inclusive and tolerant or something.
John Hawk says
Islam State members are the purest of all Muslims. No one adheres to Islamic doctrine with their level of fervor or devotion. They do nothing without consulting some bearded buffoon about the justification for their actions as rooted in the Islamic texts.
They would behead poor Reza for blasphemy and dump his lifeless carcass in the desert. The news might make the Islamic State’s magazine, but not CNN. It probably wouldn’t fit the network’s narrative.
Mockingjay says
So islam, which is arguebly the most PROFOUNDLY arrogant religion as far as its truth claims go, and out of which it derives all sorts of rights to denigrate people who do not believe what they believe, – really isn’t an arrogant religion at ALL, according to this PROFOUNDLY arrogant Aslan figure (who I’d never heard of in Europe by the way, until I came onto this website).
How interesting.
Btw – he is looking REALLY daft in that picture, isn’t he?
He’s got kind of a special-needs-look about him.
abad says
Muslims are so unsure of their beliefs; Islam breeds uncertainty, insecurity on every level imaginable, thrives on desperation for validation.
Does all that sound familiar?
Because that is exactly how liberalism runs:
On uncertainty, insecurity, thrives on desperation for validation.
And when one is that clueless, muddled thinking is the rule not the exception.
No room for clear thinking in liberalism or Islam.
StacyGirl says
Sadder yet are the large number of people who have no historic or spiritual frame of reference from which to judge this belief system. As a child I was taught what “moslems” believed, and what they did throughout history. While my religion had its reprobates, they acted in opposition to our core tenets. Muhammad converted tribes of followers with the enticement that all vices could be engaged in for the sake of allah. Reza Aslan covers for these barbarians and he is probably worse.
Chetry Saw says
Do not trust a word Aslan says on any subject because his lies about his credentials and female genital mutilation. He is a liar and an apologist for radical Islam.
Buraq says
Interesting! It could be that this clown is preparing his exit route. Islam’s violent agenda is seeping into the public consciousness. Violent action in the name of Islam is on a vertiginous curve almost everywhere. He has probably calculated that some day he will need to say “I was never that committed.” Hence, leaving the door ajar to make a quick exit when Islam goes pear shaped.
Reza’s hesitancy could be a straw in the wind.
August West says
Nah he is just selling lies to idiots.
August West says
Yes Islam provides the language which is used to express Islamic faith. Jihad, Sharia, Sunni, Shiite, kaffir, apostate, blasphemy these are all part of that language. So is Twelver, Jafari, koran and hadith.
We should all learn this language which Aslan chooses to express himself.
Pax Romana says
Islamic language also include: Merciful, Generous, Compassionate, Loving, Guiding, Nurturing, Seeing Hearing, Living, Peaceful. These are the central concepts ( all names of God).
Jihad means struggle and can denote any type of struggle at all, not primarily armed conflict. Sharia means a path to a watering hole in the desert, as well as “God’s Law”. Blasphemy and Apostasy are not restricted to the religion of Islam, Christianity has exactly the same concepts. All religions have sects.
Angemon says
Quite the contrast with ISIS members, who, despite their actions placing them well deep inside islam and saying they are muslims, who are routinely not considered muslims.
Joanne says
There he goes, setting off my gaydar once again (with that pic). He is some kind of weird, whether gay or not.
Carolyne says
In Turkish, “Aslan” means “Tiger,.” This guy isn’t even a pussycat.
Carolyne says
He feels “Comfortable” with the “Language.”
“When you meet the unbeliever, strike his neck.” Very comforting, indeed.
Terry says
A Hindu would have no proglem saying “Jesus Christ was the Son of the one and only God”. But what a HIndu could never say is “Jesus was the only son of the one and only God”