Reza Aslan

Reza Aslan

Infobox Writer
name = Reza Aslan


imagesize = 200px
caption = Reza Aslan
birthdate = 1972
birthplace = Tehran, Iran
occupation = Writer

Dr. Reza Aslan (PerB| رضا اصلان , born 1972 [ [http://www.parstimes.com/books/reza_aslan.html Reza Aslan ] ] in Tehran, Iran) [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/bio.html Reza Aslan - Bio ] ] , is an Iranian-American Muslim writer [No god but God] and scholar [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/bio.html Reza Aslan - Bio ] ] of religions.

Aslan is also a regular commentator for American Public Media's Marketplace, and the Middle East Analyst for CBS News.

His most recent book is "" (published 2005), and is currently Assistant Professor at the University of California, Riverside.

The Guardian newspaper in Britain reports that Aslan is a Shi'a Muslim. [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,6121,1597905,00.html Waiting for an Islamic Enlightenment | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books ] ]

Background

He has been both Visiting Assistant Professor of Islamic and Middle East Studies at the University of Iowa and the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Aslan has written for numerous newspapers and periodicals including Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Slate, Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Chicago Tribune, the Nation, and others.

He has also appeared on several TV programs, including "Meet the Press", "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", "The Colbert Report", "Anderson Cooper 360°", "Hardball", "Nightline" and "Real Time with Bill Maher".

He has served as a legislative assistant for the Friends' Committee on National Legislation in Washington D.C., and was elected president of Harvard's Chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, a United Nations Organization committed to solving religious conflicts throughout the world. He is a member of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and serves on advisory boards of both the Council of Foreign Relations and the Ploughshares Fund, which distributes grants to further peace and diplomacy throughout the world.

He moved to the United States in 1979, during the Iranian Revolution [ [http://www.parstimes.com/books/reza_aslan.html Reza Aslan ] ] and currently lives in Santa Monica, California.

His aunt is Iranian singer Leila Forouhar. [ [http://bloggingheads.tv/video.php?id=318 Bloggingheads.tv - diavlogs ] ]

Currently

He is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

In Santa Monica he is currently a Research Associate at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy.

He has, with Amanda Fortini, founded Detox Films, a production company founded with a number of television and film projects in pre-production.

He is writing a historical novel set a thousand years ago, about a caravan traveling from the Arabian peninsula to India. [ [http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2006/the-muslim-hipster/13219/ LA Weekly ] ]

Written and Spoken works

His first book, "No god but God", (Random House, 2005), has been translated into half a dozen languages, was short-listed for the Guardian (UK) First Book Award, and nominated for a PEN USA award for research Non-Fiction. [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/bio.html Reza Aslan - Bio ] ]

His next book, "How to Win a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror", will be published by Random House in the Fall of 2008.

As well as writing books, Aslan has written numerous articles [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/articles.html Reza Aslan - Articles ] ] , commentaries (for radio and newspapers) [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/commentaries.html Reza Aslan - Commentaries ] ] , book reviews [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/bookreviews.html Reza Aslan - Book Reviews ] ] internationally.

He has also appeared on the radio [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/radio.html Reza Aslan - Radio Interviews ] ] and television [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/tv.html Reza Aslan - TV Appearances ] ] and has appeared numerous times in documentaries on Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. [History Channel, Discovery Chanel, Biography Channel]

He tours the world giving talks [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/schedule.html Reza Aslan - Tour Schedule ] ] , and has written many press articles. [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/press.html Reza Aslan - Press Coverage ] ]

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

Qualifications

Reza Aslan has a BA in Religion from Santa Clara University, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of Iowa. He holds a Ph.D. in History of Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Sociology of Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Quotes

*"I believe we are living in the time of the Islamic reformation. In fact, I think we are living in the twilight of that reformation. For me, the word reform is defined by its inevitability. This process cannot be stopped; it can be slowed down for a time but reform is inevitable. It's an historic reformation taking place within Islam — it's adapting itself to the realities of the world around it. I think we'll see the same process we saw in the Christian reformation from doctrinal absolutism to doctrinal relativism; toward a truly indigenous Islamic enlightenment. And it's up to us as Muslims in the US to give voice to that for our brothers and sisters who don't have the voice or the same ability to speak out as we do." [ [http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/08/203604.php Interview: Reza Aslan, Author "No god but God" ] ]

*"It is pluralism—the peaceful coexistence and legal equality between different ethnic, religious or political ideologies—that defines democracy, not secularism." [ [http://www.digitalnpq.org/archive/2006_winter/aslan.html NPQ ] ]

*"The veil is seen as a symbol of Islam but like all symbols, it's meaningless unless interpreted. The veil is as much a symbol of oppression of women as it is an expression of Muslim femininity. The strangeness of this is that if you go to a country where the veil is either mandatory or there is a lot of pressure to wear it, you'll find the vast majority of women are against it. But, if you go to a country like Turkey where the veil is outlawed in much of the public realm — in the latest polls, 70 percent of the Muslim women want to remove that law." [ [http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/08/203604.php Interview: Reza Aslan, Author "No god but God" ] ]

*"Iraq should look to Israel for a model that combines democracy and religious belief." [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/writings/PM_may05.html Reza Aslan - Articles - PM June '05 ] ]

*"Despite the apartheid state that has resulted from over half a century of bloody territorial conflicts with its neighboring Palestinian territories, few would deny that the state of Israel is a democracy. At the same time, Israel is a country founded upon an exclusivist Jewish moral framework, which offers all the world's Jews - regardless of their nationality - immediate citizenship, providing them with a host of benefits and privileges over its non-Jewish citizens. It is a country in which the Orthodox rabbinical courts have jurisdiction over all matters relating to Judaism (including who is a Jew); where religious schools ("yeshivas") are subsidized by the state, and marriages are religious, rather than civil affairs (meaning no official will marry a Jew to a non-Jew); and the government is dominated by religious parties such as the ultra-Orthodox Shas, the Yahadut Hatorah, and of course the ruling Likud. In short, Israel is, in every sense of the term, a Jewish democracy." [ [http://www.rezaaslan.com/writings/PM_may05.html Reza Aslan - Articles - PM June '05 ] ]

*"If we don't figure out a way to strip these conflicts of their religious connotations, then we will never figure out a way to put an end to them. Because as long as these remain cosmic conflicts, they will go on for eternity." [ [http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x45127 Reza Aslan on "How to Win a Cosmic War" - Part 1/6 (with Q&A) - Democratic Underground ] ]

*"A lot of scholars, myself included, believe the future of Islam, especially Islamic democracy, rests in the Shia world. It’s Iran and Iraq where the most exciting experiments are being carried out." [ [http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2006/the-muslim-hipster/13219/ LA Weekly ] ]

ee also

*List of Islamic scholars

References

External links

* [http://www.rezaaslan.com/ Reza Aslan's Website]
* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20080103 Interview with Reza Aslan] from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
* [http://community.livejournal.com/rezaaslan Reza Aslan's Intellectual Groupie's on Livejournal]
* [http://www.myspace.com/rezaaslan Reza Aslan's Intellectual Groupie Fan site on MySpace]
* [http://www.parstimes.com/books/reza_aslan.html His biography]
* [http://www.madrid11.net/articles/aslan280307 The Islamic reformation] Reza Aslan speaks with Madrid11.net
* [http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2006/the-muslim-hipster/13219/ LA Weekly Interview]
* [http://www.islamicamagazine.com/content/view/168/59/ Reza Aslan Interview with Islamica Magazine]
* [http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/pdblog_main/author/Reza_Aslan/ Aslan's articles in the Public Diplomacy Blog]

Video and Audio

* [http://www.hotpotatomash.com/2008/04/video-exclusive.html Reza Aslan interviewed by Bree Walker] March 30, 2008
* [http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=89 Reza Aslan talks about The Future of U.S./Iran Relations (video)]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1393002645436679402&q=reza%20aslan&hl=en Reza Aslan in Conversation with Jack Miles (video)]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5og-hyD3A7A Reza Aslan vs. Sam Harris Debate]
* [http://bloggingheads.tv/video.php?id=318 Diiavlog with Reza Aslan] - on BloggingHeads.tv with Bruce Feiler
* [http://www.kuow.org/defaultProgram.asp?ID=12298 Raza's talk, "How to Get Out of the Cosmic War in the Middle East."]


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