Reza Aslan Challenges ‘the Muslim Stereotype’
With extremism on the rise, the insinuation of Islam promoting violence and aggression is more and more common. Reza proves why “painting with a single brush” can be so wrong.
The Friday night preceding this interview, comedian Bill Mahar equated the extremist group ISIS to the greater majority Muslim countries of the world. Reza Aslan appeared on CNN to discuss Mahar’s comments with two of their anchors and to respond to their over-simplified enquiry: “Does Islam promote violence?”
It appears from the beginning of this interview that Don Lemon and Alisyn Camerota, the pair cross-examining Reza - have one objective in mind: Make him say that Islam is violent. The only difficulty of course, is that Reza knows every Muslim-majority country is dissimilar. It’s impossible to generalise a religion of 1.5 billion individuals. This doesn’t stop the pair from poking and jabbing Aslan further and further throughout the interview. The choice of Reza as an interviewee seems to link up to his Iranian ancestry, broad religious knowledge (having written books like Zealot) and his PhD in Sociology. Despite his background, none of the ‘cracks’ that the CNN pair make are racially-fuelled. The not-so-subtle digs at Islam and the inappropriate use of the words ‘Muslim countries’ however, are visibly provoking (despite his conversion to Evangelical Christianity). In reaction to Bill Mahar’s clip presented by the two CNN anchors, Aslan clarifies that while he has been on his show “a bunch of times” and that he “likes him”, Bill is “not very sophisticated in the way that he thinks” when debating religion, particularly Islam. …show more content…
Reza speaks calmly, almost cheerfully in quiet confidence. He highlights a key fact: female genital mutilation is NOT an Islamic problem, it depends on the Muslim-majority country. This is a repetitive argument that Reza drives constantly and it is painfully pertinent each time. Reza tells Don and Alisyn “It’s not an Islamic problem, it’s an African problem”, and Alisyn can’t seem to grasp his opinion.
She rudely interjects, following up Mahar’s claim that it’s a ‘Muslim country’ problem. Using these two words, Alisyn effectively establishes her manifestation as a thorn in Reza’s side. However, his calm demeanour remains and he responds as such. Firstly by pointing out that using the words ‘Muslim countries’ is “imperially and factually incorrect” and secondly by listing off considerable statistics on female genital mutilation in Muslim-majority countries. Regardless of the several attempts to break Reza’s calm and collectedness, Alisyn and Dom do not succeed in their efforts to embarrass Reza on air. His stable and accurate rebuttals force them to backpedal on more than one occasion, but one in particular only required a single word. Alisyn is under the impression that women not being able to drive or vote in countries like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan is not ‘Muslim extremist’ behaviour. Reza simply asks: “Why?” Alisyn continues on, believing that her aforementioned examples were “commonplace” in Muslim countries. Reza is attempting to remain polite and direct and to respond respectfully. He confirms that “It’s extremist when compared to the rights and responsibilities of Muslim women around the world.” Dom, unlike his associate, can grasp Reza’s point that the words ‘Muslim countries’ simply cannot be used to hold any sort of legitimacy in the conversation because of the
With extremism on the rise, the insinuation of Islam promoting violence and aggression is more and more common. Reza proves why “painting with a single brush” can be so wrong.
The Friday night preceding this interview, comedian Bill Mahar equated the extremist group ISIS to the greater majority Muslim countries of the world. Reza Aslan appeared on CNN to discuss Mahar’s comments with two of their anchors and to respond to their over-simplified enquiry: “Does Islam promote violence?”
It appears from the beginning of this interview that Don Lemon and Alisyn Camerota, the pair cross-examining Reza - have one objective in mind: Make him say that Islam is violent. The only difficulty of course, is that Reza knows every Muslim-majority country is dissimilar. It’s impossible to generalise a religion of 1.5 billion individuals. This doesn’t stop the pair from poking and jabbing Aslan further and further throughout the interview. The choice of Reza as an interviewee seems to link up to his Iranian ancestry, broad religious knowledge (having written books like Zealot) and his PhD in Sociology. Despite his background, none of the ‘cracks’ that the CNN pair make are racially-fuelled. The not-so-subtle digs at Islam and the inappropriate use of the words ‘Muslim countries’ however, are visibly provoking (despite his conversion to Evangelical Christianity). In reaction to Bill Mahar’s clip presented by the two CNN anchors, Aslan clarifies that while he has been on his show “a bunch of times” and that he “likes him”, Bill is “not very sophisticated in the way that he thinks” when debating religion, particularly Islam. …show more content…
Reza speaks calmly, almost cheerfully in quiet confidence. He highlights a key fact: female genital mutilation is NOT an Islamic problem, it depends on the Muslim-majority country. This is a repetitive argument that Reza drives constantly and it is painfully pertinent each time. Reza tells Don and Alisyn “It’s not an Islamic problem, it’s an African problem”, and Alisyn can’t seem to grasp his opinion.
She rudely interjects, following up Mahar’s claim that it’s a ‘Muslim country’ problem. Using these two words, Alisyn effectively establishes her manifestation as a thorn in Reza’s side. However, his calm demeanour remains and he responds as such. Firstly by pointing out that using the words ‘Muslim countries’ is “imperially and factually incorrect” and secondly by listing off considerable statistics on female genital mutilation in Muslim-majority countries. Regardless of the several attempts to break Reza’s calm and collectedness, Alisyn and Dom do not succeed in their efforts to embarrass Reza on air. His stable and accurate rebuttals force them to backpedal on more than one occasion, but one in particular only required a single word. Alisyn is under the impression that women not being able to drive or vote in countries like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan is not ‘Muslim extremist’ behaviour. Reza simply asks: “Why?” Alisyn continues on, believing that her aforementioned examples were “commonplace” in Muslim countries. Reza is attempting to remain polite and direct and to respond respectfully. He confirms that “It’s extremist when compared to the rights and responsibilities of Muslim women around the world.” Dom, unlike his associate, can grasp Reza’s point that the words ‘Muslim countries’ simply cannot be used to hold any sort of legitimacy in the conversation because of the