Reza Aslan Cannot Be Trusted

Reza oon is an author and professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside he makes regular media appearances commenting on religion and in particular Islam he's appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher several times he's done many News interviews in the US over the past few years he's been one of the loudest voices in public conversations about Islam and terrorism topics that have obviously become more important and widely discussed lately with the increase of Islamic terrorism all around the world over the last 15 years as well as the dramatic increase of a variety of types of Terror in the United States over the last year over the last few years however the terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase last year marked the biggest annual rise in deaths caused by terrorism with more than 32,000 people killed in attacks around the world The Institute for economics and peace has compiled its annual Global terrorism index and looked at the figures from 2000 to the end of 2014 it found terrorism is rising dramatically and private citizens are increasingly the targets terrorism is on the rise within almost fivefold increase in fatalities since 9911 after 13 years of spending trillions on two Wars with hundreds of thousands of Civilian casualties the annual count of Terror attacks has more than than quadrupled Resa ason has written two best-selling books no God but God the origins Evolution and future of Islam and Zealot the life and time of Jesus of Nazareth we've seen him promoting these books on TV and radio being regarded as a scholar of religion when he's interviewed and over the years he's become a very popular go-to commentator on the topic of Islam welome back my guest tonight he is a religious scholar a bestselling author his books include no God but God and Zealot please welcome back to the program Resa oen hello author and religious historian Rea oan appeared on Piers Morgan last night Reza let me start with you as a religious scholar as a Muslim as an American what is your reaction is a established Authority on religions we you know we had him on a few weeks ago on Huff Post Live and we had a really really substantive serious conversation he has the thankless task of setting the lazy and stupid media right like our show about Islam unfortunately progressives need to critically analyze asan's claims for themselves and that's exactly what we're going to do here before even getting into the analysis of asan's claims it's important to begin with how he represents his credentials and education in interviews on numerous occasions ocan has referred to himself as having a PhD in quote the history of religions I am an expert with a PhD in the history of religions we're already off track Resa oson does not have a PhD in the history of religions he has one PhD and it's in sociology his educational credentials include a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Santa Clara University a master of theological studies in theology from Harvard University a master of Fine Arts in fiction writing from the University of Iowa and a PhD in sociology from the University of California Santa Barbara ocon's biography on his own website says that he has a PHD in the sociology of religions not history but even this is not exactly true ocon's own graduate adviser at UC Santa Barbara was interviewed and confirmed that ocon's PhD is simply in sociology and nothing else that the words history religion or theology don't appear anywhere in the title of his degree and further that UC Santa Barbara has never even offered a PhD program called sociology of religions ocon's PhD dissertation is about political activism it's available online and it's purely a sociological paper not historical or theological he certainly doesn't have a PhD in the history of religion which is a specific and entirely different disciplinary field I am a a PhD in the history of religions asan has been confronted about this he acknowledges that his degree is in sociology and that it was given to him by ucsb's sociology department and that department alone but he responds by explaining that a significant portion of his classes focused on religion nevertheless ocan continues to receive criticism for the way he represents his degrees because most professional academics avoid repeatedly advertising their credentials or giving false definitive specifications about the names of their degrees in the interest of fairness ocon had actually started the PHD at UCSB originally in the religious studies department but he then chose to move to the sociology Department because as he claims the religious studies professors at UCSB were jealous of what was his latest book at the time and to be clear I just want emphasize this one more time I am a historian asan has no degree in history a number of professional historians and religious Scholars have publicly questioned the way that ason presents his qualifications like professor of religion at Columbia University Elizabeth castelli who wrote an article on thenation.com specifically about how ocon represented his credentials in the Fox news interview we've heard so much about she said that ason is less less of a historian and more of a reader of religious history who then translates the material for a wider sort of general public audience somewhat of a popularizer of religious history rather than a proper historian or researcher himself she said that ocon would probably be better received and criticized less by historians if he were to write books and present himself as an outsider to the field of religious history as opposed to constantly insisting how legitimate he is as a working academic historian uh well look I mean truly I was kind of embarrassed I mean there's nothing more distasteful than an academic having to like trout out his credentials I mean you really come off as a jerk when you do that I write books about what's going on in the Muslim world because I have an expertise in what's going on in the Muslim world my credentials as a scholar of religion my credentials as a scholar of religion all of the universities that have educated me and all of the universities that have employed me the that as as the Islamic scholar as the person with the PHD in Islam in this conversation nevertheless an expert on uh the Bible and on Judaism and Christianity and Islam well to be clear I am a scholar of religions with four degrees including one in the New Testament and fluency in biblical Greek who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades so asan regularly refers to himself as a scholar academic and professor of religion but again he actually has minimal academic Authority among circles of formal religious academics and historians compared to most scholars in his area of study ocon actually has very little work published in peer-reviewed journals also those who call themselves professors or academics usually have consistent employment teaching or researching within their field of study while ocan has taught religion during the two brief guest teaching positions in the past one at Drew University and the other at his Mater University of Iowa the only consistent academic position ason has ever had is Professor of creative writing at UC Riverside which is what he still does currently normally Scholars are intentionally careful to avoid overstating their qualifications often giving disclaimers about the narrowness of their expertise for fear of overstepping in the presence of other Scholars ocon does the opposite when participating in debates or interviews he frequently and enthusiastically reasserts how credible and scholarly he is while taking the Liberties we've described when talking about his degrees Beyond his debatable status as a working scholar of religion and the way that he represents his degrees the more important problem is the substance of asan's commentary and rhetoric he goes out of his way to defend organized religions more so Islam and the Muslim World in ways that are often inconsistent with a realistic understanding of religion's relationship to to modern society to say the least let's begin with ressa ocon's numerous dubious claims about female genital mutilation in the Muslim World sometimes incorrectly known as female circumcision FGM is practiced mostly in different African Middle Eastern and Asian countries it's a procedure that sometimes kills the girl involved either by bleeding or infection victims of FGM can also experience lifelong health issues like chronic pain or infer infertility Rea asson has denied that female genital M mutilation has any sort of connection with Islam in 2014 Bill Maher made some comments on his show about Islam and mentioned FGM afterwards asan appeared on CNN to respond to Bill Mah and in his criticism of marah's comments ocon claimed that female genital mutilation is not an Islamic problem but a Central African problem it's a Central African problem ocon then referred to a July 2013 UNICEF study about FGM which included this map just by glancing at the map you can quickly realize that ocon's claim about FGM being a Central African problem is not quite right first of all this study which asan cited clearly illustrates that FGM spans all across Africa and the Middle East and includes the country of Egypt which is politically more associated with the Muslim world than Africa you know frankly when it comes to the topic of religion he's not very sophisticated in the way that he thinks I mean the argument about the female genital mutilation being an Islamic problem is a perfect example of that it's not an Islamic problem it's an African problem on this map which ocon posted to Twitter we can see the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East that UNICEF chose to study because of their high percentiles of FGM within their entire female population aside from whether the countries are geographically in Africa of the 29 countries studied most with an FGM problem are majority Muslim the countries with the top four largest percentages of FGM are all majority Muslim and in those countries girls are almost universally subjected to mutilation among the top eight FGM countries on the map seven of them are majority Muslim according to that same UNICEF report that asan cites Muslim women women from a variety of the African countries say that FGM is their Islamic duty while there is disagreement about FGM in the Muslim World there are definitely Islamic experts and leaders who explain that Islamic scripture mandates condones or at least fails to prohibit FGM Muhammad said quote circumcision is a sunna tradition for the men and makuma an honorable deed for the women the most often mentioned narration reports a debate between Muhammad and um habba this woman known as an exciser of female slaves was one of a group of women who had immigrated with Muhammad having seen her Muhammad asked her if she kept practicing her profession she answered affirmatively adding quote unless it is forbidden and you can order me to stop doing it Muhammad replied yes it is allowed come closer so I can teach you if you cut do not overdo it because it brings more Radiance to the face and it is more pleasant for the husband uh nowhere else in the Muslim Muslim majority States is female genital mutilation an issue outside of Africa nowhere else in the Muslim world is FGM an issue this is an incredible statement because not only is FGM a problem in Muslim countries outside of Africa FGM is almost exclusively a Muslim problem outside of Africa prac practically all FGM outside of Africa is practiced by Muslims in the Middle East and Asia here is every country outside of Africa that has a significant FGM problem they are all majority Muslim countries except for five and in those five the FGM is only practiced by the Muslim communities within the country in in Kurdish Iraq 72% FGM rate among Kurdish females in Indonesia a 98% FGM rate among Muslim Indonesian females Indian boras a 90% FGM rate among Shia Muslim Bora females in India in Malaysia a 93% FGM rate among Muslim Malaysian females in Thailand FGM is practiced by Thai Muslims and in Yemen there is a 30% FGM rate among yemeni females despite the reports we've gotten from those countries confirming FGM there are a number of factors suggesting that such statistics in the Middle East are actually unreliable and underrepresented in the Middle East and in many Muslim countries sexuality and genital mutilation Traditions are almost never discussed in public or even between men and women African societies are more open about such things thus it is easier to collect data in Africa than it is in the Middle East and in the rest of the Muslim World about FGM in addition autocratic regimes in the Middle East are notorious for preventing independent surveys about human rights from being conducted within their borders and they instead often Supply their own data to International organizations one might infer from this that the disclosure of FGM is probably often suppressed by the same Islamic power structures that encourage it another reason that FGM is underrepresented in the Middle East is that researchers and organiz ganizations are often in fear of seeming bigoted specifically islamophobic for hypothesizing or proving that there is a causal relationship between Islam and FGM this is why people like asan can be dangerous not only is asan going around and saying that FGM has nothing to do with Islam he helps to establish a sort of environment of political correctness among liberals and intellectuals which goes to inhibit Global Research about these things in the first place ason says quote all of this is to say that while it is almost impossible to come up with some sort of connection that binds countries that have a female genital mutilation problem it is clear that whatever that connection is it's not religious ocan is very quick to come to the defense of injustices in the world despite how little ground he may have to do so for the most part it is not a a free and open Society for women in those States well it's not in Iran it's not in Saudi Arabia it's certainly is in Indonesia and Malaysia it certainly is in Bangladesh Bangladesh and Malaysia are quote free and open societies for women Bangladesh is known for its Islamic vigilantism against women and in Malaysia Islamic Sharia courts notoriously treat women unfairly not giving them full parental rights and not regarding their testimonies to be as trustworthy as men's Malaysian courts require women to obey their husbands and men are entitled to women's inheritance because it is mandated by Islamic scripture and by by the way 93% of Muslim females in Indonesia are victims of female genital mutilation asan has said that in Indonesia the world's largest Muslim nation that quote women are absolutely 100% equal to men according to the US state Department's human rights report Indonesian migrant women have disproportionately been victims of arbitrary strip searches and theft by police unmarried women are not given proper access to contraceptives and the legal definition of rape is extremely narrow Islamic Sharia courts in Indonesia regularly drop charges on rape suspects if they take an Islamic oath of innocence and by the way 98% of Muslim females in Indonesia are victims of female genital mutilation another example of asan baselessly Defending Islam is in the instance of Isis and their young female sex slaves asan has tried to distance Isis from the rest of Islam by claiming that the Quran forbids slavery and that one of the first things Muhammad did was quote free the slaves nowhere in the Quran is slavery forbidden there are actually specific verses in the Quran that discuss how to treat one's slaves as a religious scholar asan also isn't telling you that in the Quran Allah gave sex slaves to Muhammad Muhammad also brought slaves and enslaved infidels the quote freed slaves that Aslan referred to were the Muslims who were freed in the Quran while the non-muslims stayed enslaved over the years both Israel and Hamas in their ongoing conflicts have been accused of using human Shields this is the act of having a military position in a populated area or in a structure full of civilians in an attempt to avoid an attack on that area by the enemy it is irrefutable that Hamas did this during the summer 2014 unrest between Israel and Gaza Resa asan has denied that Palestinians were doing this during that time 85% of them civilians hundreds of children are being killed every day with American putting them in front of them that is that is nonsense that is not nonsense that's the absolute say this all these are terrorists who have a two-front war going on against Israel and their own people but there are many examples of this the idea that any serious scholar of religion and Judaism and Islam and the Middle East could deny this is is bewildering here are rockets in Gaza being fired next to a un building and a hotel full of guests in the middle of a residential Gaza neighborhood enclaved 80% of Gaza hello Gallagher are you all right yeah can you hear me I'm back the camera what happened fine this was this was a rocket this was a rocket Rockets were just shot right next to where we're standing numerous intern National reporters witnessed hamas's use of human Shields firsthand during the conflict and Hamas tried to intimidate many of them into not documenting it which in part did work and aelon has tried to mislead people the same way about the same things Amnesty International the organization that ason cited on Bill Marsh's program while making this claim is notoriously anti-israeli and even they have since acknowledged the use of human Shields by Palestinians in Gaza during that time here is video of the same launch site during the day the UN building and children playing can be seen this right here is a launching pad for Rockets used by Palestinian militants now this type of setup is at the heart of the debate within the International Community but also between Israel and the Palestinian militants the Israeli Army has repeatedly accused Palestinian militants of shooting from within densely populated civilian areas and that is precisely the type of setup we have right here Hamas also has admitted to it and condoned it several times acknowledging that they have instructed civilians to become human Shields during the conflict that summer 70% of Palestinian casualties were civilians including 500 children according to Palestinian and United Nations reports asan uses ad hominum attacks against people he criticizes and against those who criticize him well I like Bill Maher I've been on a show a bunch of times he's a comedian but you know frankly when it comes to the topic of religion he's not very sophisticated in the way that he thinks I actually travel through the Muslim world I understand the conversations that are taking place so I I feel like in a sense I'm in a better position to sort of make judgments that's because Sam by the way that's because Sam Harris's research methodology is the television okay that's Sam Harris's research methodology this is not an expert on religion this is not a man who has done a day of field work he speaks no no uh you know biblical or or konic languages he's done absolutely no research whatsoever in the history of religions Sam Harris who asan frequently criticizes is a neuroscientist with a background in philosophy who has actually done extensive religious research and fieldwork and asan often resorts to calling people bigots as a counterargument accusing people of racism and bigotry are very effective ways of discrediting them and shutting down debate there's the justice system in Muslim countries you don't think is somehow more primitive or subjugates women more than in other countries did you hear what you just said you said in Muslim countries you know this is the problem is that these kinds of conversations that we're having aren't really being had in any kind of legitimate way we're not talking about women in the Muslim World we're using two or three examples to justify a generalization that's actually the definition of bigotry this is at the core of what makes Reza asan probably dangerous in discussions about Islam terrorism and human rights in Muslim countries he aggressively helps to enforce an overbearing political correctness among intellectuals politicians and media about Islam which makes it nearly impossible to criticize certain strands of bad ideas in the world without being labeled an islamophobe some some on the so-called left don't appreciate the pervasiveness of fundamentalism in the mainstream Muslim world and thus they underestimate the importance of these issues and the way they're discussed according to a 2013 Pew poll 86% of the world's Muslims believe that wives should obey their husbands 86% 68% of the world's Muslims believe that governments should abide by Islamic Sharia law 46% almost half Advocate death for adul and 36% believe in death for leaving Islam these are huge numbers it's asan's particular brand of over sensitivity about Islam that has made it somehow distasteful to condemn these ways of thinking made it outrageous to say publicly that jihadists are our enemies or that Isis is a Muslim group be it based on their own understanding of Islam a Muslim is whoever says he's a Muslim all true big and racism must be condemned people Muslims should not be hated but in a post-enlightenment world any idea itself should be subject to criticism Resa asan's tactics if not critiqued could produce a world where everyone is afraid of being labeled an islamophobe for criticizing Injustice inspired by the doctrines of Islam progressives are rightfully focused on the undeniable history of Oppression by the US in the Middle East but this causes many of them to overlook many truly deplorable things that have happened in the name of Islam and that happen in the name of Islam things that are not aligned with liberal principles like fundamentalism totalitarianism violence sexism and homophobia is the point that Rea Assan is a bad person no most people are good is the point that he's deliberately distorting facts to paint a particular picture that isn't supported in reality difficult to say whether someone makes claims out of a desire to distort or out of lack of knowledge what's clear is that when considering the role and reality of Islam in the world today Rea asan has made claims that are not based in fact and as progressives remaining based in fact must be a top priority

Channel: David Pakman Show

Views: 690,787

Keywords: reza aslan, islam, news, politics, government, liberal, conservative, political, democrat, republican, progressive, united, states, america, cnn, nbc, cbs, msnbc, fox, senate, fox news, david pakman show, david pakman, dave pacman, david packman, pakman, talk, radio, television, davidpakman.com, tdps, israel, palestine, gaza, human shields, fgm, female genital mutilation, muslim, gender, women

Id: E9RmAo6XVAA

Length: 25min 46sec (1546 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 11 2016