+1. The willful naievette that some "open minded" people display in their effort to show they are so much more evolved than muriccans is just so stupid.
No. Have you? I read the summaries of it from some blogs and huffingtonpost. This article represents most of what i know about the book. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3679466 If you read the book and have a different interpretation, good. Its still not a good idea to hand an argument about a guys overall work on one specific point of contention
A moot point. There is simply not enough direct historical evidence on Mohammed to write a book. While your point may be true it won't happen. So what's the point about crying over spilled milk that will never spill? Here's the book's author responding to the question: In that same vein of thought, is there hard evidence that Muhammad existed? Which religious figure has more physical evidence?
sounds like a boring book, I'd just stick to world war z and g.o.t. jesus from the J was a cool dude. His serving the poor movement would have ruffled a lot of feathers by those in power all over the world in modern day. may the old and new gods bless everyone.
Given your assumption that a Muslim must be biased against Christianity, I'm well aware of your ability to generalize.
There are plenty of books about Mohammed. This one here was at no. 31 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/b...tml?ex=1168923600&en=acb5c34abdb92f18&ei=5070 The author is an orthodox Christian who has a Master in religious studies. Not quite as accomplished as a scholar as Mr. Aslan, but the scenario is not that different: Someone from a different religion writes a book about the central religious figure of a religion that is not his own. The book can be seen as demystifying (or, depending on the perspective, slandering) said central religious figure. What do you think would happen if Mr. Spencer (the author of the book about Mohammed) were to be invited for an interview with Al-Jazeera (which I personally don't think would even happen)? Do you think that they would NOT make his own religious affiliation a topic at all? Do you think there would be more or less outrage about the author? How would gwatson86 and others react? Would they be angry at the Al-Jazeera reporter for making the author's own religious affiliation a topic of the conversation? After all, the author has a master in religious studies, right? Should he not be viewed primarily as a scholar? Oh, wait...there WAS backlash. Against the author, not against anyone who interviewed him. There was significant backlash. And guess who was involved: Mr. Aslan. Mr. Aslan came out and said that Mr. Spencer's organization "Stop Islamization of America" is an offshoot of an organization called "Stop Islamization of Europe", which Mr. Aslan claims is a neo-nazi organization. Mr. Spencer challenged Mr. Aslan to provide proof of this claim, which Mr. Aslan did not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Spencer_(author)#cite_note-autogenerated1-56 But there was a lot more backlash. Mr. Spencer has been denied entry to the United Kingdom. His book has been banned in Pakistan. The ADL is on Spencer's back. So - is it ok for a Muslim to write a book and demystify Jesus, depict him as a Jewish nationalist who was really a politician and not as peaceful a figure as Christians nowadays believe, but it is not ok for a Christian to write a very critical book about Mohammed? To me, both is ok. But the public reaction, especially on the left, is quite different. While they turn their anger against the moderator when a Muslim is questioned about his book about Jesus, they turn their anger against the author when a Christian writes a critical book about Mohammed. Admittedly, Spencer does more than writing a historical book, and he is obviously very anti-Islam. But Aslan's book also serves to demystify Jesus. The thing is, most Christians don't care very much. With that Mohammed book, Spencer should probably not dare to travel to the Arab world.
Well, as a PHD wouldn't you feel the need to be a little defensive you were brought on to a national news show to discuss your book but instead the reporter chooses to your right to write the book? As an educated person myself I was embarrassed and insulted by her questions and just to be clear, I am a Christian. I guess my question for her would have been along the lines of, "should Americans only write about American history?, Should Egyptians be the only ones allowed to research and write about the pyramids?" The reporter is the one that came across as defensive to me. She did not ask him one specific question about the damn book. She came across as a person so defensive about her religion that she was completely insulted that someone from another religion might actually be more educated on the subject than she was. Furthermore, she did not even appear to have bothered to read the book. I would have appreciated an interview where she might have questioned some of his claims about the Jesus described in the book vs. the Jesus that is represented in Christianity vs. the Jesus represented in the Muslim and Jewish faiths. Those would have been topics worthy of a national news show. I guess she was just too lazy to actually research the book.
I'm not saying she did a great job. I am just trying to get people to at least consider the question how they would view this if it was a Muslim TV network interviewing a Christian author who had written a book about Mohammed that could be perceived as a negative book. Personally, I think that the same people that are complaining now would not be complaining then. Just like any author and probably any TV show moderator has a bias, so does the crowd. But speaking as objectively as possible, yes, she came across as unprepared, and doing a bad job.
As a One Direction fan, I'm going to write a book about Justine Bleeber. Maybe I'll be interviewed by angry Nickelodeon journalists.
Maybe Robert Spencer is a bad contrast because he has founded two anti-Islam organizations that have been listed as hate groups? Has Aslan done anything similar? Spencer's book also seems to be far more of an attack on Islam than Aslan's book would be against Christianity. From what I have read he is only trying to provide an historical context/biography of Jesus and paint him as very dangerous to the Roman government. From the reviews I have read (serious ones, not hyperbolic) Aslan's biggest problem is he doesn't really have a grasp of the full scholarship (because it is not really his area) but that he provides some interesting points of discussion. I have read what look tombemmuch better accounts of the historical Jesus (by liberal and conservative biblical scholars) so I will not be reading this book but I know it is not as radical as the extreme critics are making it out to be. There have been far harsher histories written that didn't get the press because they were written by people without Muslim sounding names. But, yes, his book sales are shooting up since the Fox interview.
So the point here is that a Muslim cannot write a book about Jesus because he has a bias to disprove the notions christianity are built around? With that logic then a Christian has no business writing about Jesus since they will have a bias to prove the notions of christianity are as presented in the bible. It is so easy for people to claim bias when it goes against the prevailing view points of the society it is being presented in and to completely ignore that what they would consider "okay" (ie: Christian writing about Jesus) has just as much bias (if not more) in it. On a side note I am not making any knock against Christians. I am a follower myself. I am just stating that crying foul due to bias is pretty ignorant.
Who has listed them as "hate groups"? Do you think those who listed them as hate groups have no bias of their own? Doesn't Aslan's attempt to actively paint Spencer as a neo-nazi indicate that he is a pro-Islam activist? Anyway, fine, let's forget about Spencer. What about this book then? Until recently, the author, Ibn Warraq, didn't even appear in public, out of concerns for his safety. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Warraq
I click into this thread and the first thing I see is ATW talking about Islam. That seems to happen a lot. On another note, that interview was painful to watch.
Well, isn't that part of what the thread was about? I am assuming it gets moved to the D&D, not sure why it was started in the Hangout. Anyway, I didn't start the thread.
1. platypus's point still stands: there is a lot more info available about Christ. 2. are we really comparing Al Jazeera to Fox now? 3. I really don't understand your point. Is this it: It is reasonable and expected for a reporter (sic) to ask about the author's religion when they write a religious book -- it is fair game. 4. *If* I'm correct that your main point is #3, then we totally agree! I have no problem with the question. I just thought it was funny that there was basically NO other question and that it was repeated so many times. :grin: I'm sorry, it's just clear that the reporter (more like her producers) had NO interest in the actual topic (which is fascinating) and 100% interest in divisiveness and "contrIversy." The only thing that would have been *more* funny is if she asked about Trayvon Martin. :grin: "Okay, fine a book about Jesus. What do you think Jesus -- your weird Muslim version of Jesus -- would have said about the Trayvon Martin case?" 5. If we could actually stick to the topic for a moment, what did you think about this "interview" with the author? Was it a good interview about a book? Haven't read the book and won't. To me, there's enough good work out there about the historical Jesus, and I really don't love academic books that much anyway. Cheers!
Well Islam has something to do with this thread but really nothing with those books you posted. I would maybe understand if Aslan was challenging Warraq's and Spencer's motive to write their books strictly because they are not Muslim themselves.
If there was a funny video, like this one, I would STILL say it was funny. It's almost like an SNL skit. "But... you're muslim/Christian... yeah, but... what I'm asking is... you're muslim/Christian, right? ... I mean, why did you do this? ... as a muslim/Christian I mean?" :grin:
