Zealot (Aslan) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—May 3, 1972
• Where—Tehran, Iran
• Raised—San Francisco, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Santa Clara University; M.T.S, Harvard
   University; M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop; Ph.D.,
   University of California-Santa Barbara
• Awards—see below
• Currently—lives in Hollywood, California


Reza Aslan is an Iranian-American writer and scholar of religions. He is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, a Research Associate at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy, and a contributing editor for The Daily Beast.

His books include the international bestseller No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam (2005, 2011), which has been translated into 13 languages, and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (2013), which offers an interpretation of the life and mission of the historical Jesus. Aslan currently  lives in Hollywood, California.

Background
Aslan's family came to the United States from Tehran in 1979, fleeing the Iranian Revolution. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the age of 15 he converted to evangelical Christianity. He converted back to Islam the summer before attending Harvard. In the early 1990s, Aslan taught courses at De La Salle High School in Concord, California.

Aslan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religions from Santa Clara University, a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. Aslan also received a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, focusing in the history of religion, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His dissertation was titled "Global Jihadism as a Transnational Social Movement: A Theoretical Framework."

In August 2000, while serving as the Truman Capote Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Aslan was named Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Iowa, becoming the first full-time professor of Islam in the history of the state.

Aslan was the 2012–13 Wallerstein Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Drew University Center on Religion, Culture & Conflict.

Writing
As Contributing Editor, Aslan has written articles for The Daily Beast. He has also written for various newspapers and periodicals, including the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Slate, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Guardian, Chicago Tribune, and The Nation. He has made numerous appearances on TV and radio, including National Public Radio (NPR), PBS, Rachel Maddow Show, Meet the Press, Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Colbert Report, Anderson Cooper 360°, Hardball, Nightline, Real Time with Bill Maher, Fareed Zakaria GPS, and ABC Australia's Big Ideas.

War on terrorism
Aslan refers to Al Qaeda's jihad against the west as "a cosmic war," distinct from holy war, in which rival religious groups are engaged in an earthly battle for material goals. "A cosmic war is like a ritual drama in which participants act out on earth a battle they believe is actually taking place in the heavens." American rhetoric of "war on terrorism," Aslan says, is a precise "cosmic dualism" to Al Qaeda's jihad.

Aslan draws a distinction between Islamism and Jihadism. Islamists have legitimate goals and can be negotiated with, unlike Jihadists, who dream of an idealized past of a pan-Islamic, borderless "religious communalism." Aslan's prescription for winning the cosmic war is to not fight, but rather engage moderate Islamic political forces in the democratic process. "Throughout the Middle East, whenever moderate Islamist parties have been allowed to participate in the political process, popular support for more extremist groups has diminished."

Religious freedom
Aslan has argued for religious freedom and protection for religious minorities throughout the Middle East. He has called for Iran to protect and stop the "horrific human rights abuses" against its Baha'i community. Aslan has also said that the persecution and displacement of Middle Eastern Christian communities "is nothing less than a regional religious cleansing that will soon prove to be a historic disaster for Christians and Muslims alike."

FoxNews controversy
On 26 July 2013, Aslan was interviewed on "Spirited Debate," a FoxNews webcast by anchor Lauren Green about his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Green was "unsatisfied with Aslan's credentials," and she pressed Aslan, questioning why a Muslim would write about Jesus. The interview lasted about ten minutes and focused "on Aslan's background more than the actual contents of the book. Reading comments from Aslan's critics, Green included negative criticism from William Lane Craig, a noted Christian apologist.

In the end, Green claimed that "Aslan had somehow misled readers by not disclosing his religion," whereupon he pointed out that his personal religious faith "is discussed on page two of his book" and called himself "quite a prominent Muslim thinker in the United States." Green was almost universally criticized for the premise of her questions during the interview.

The video clip of the interview went viral within days and the book, which was up to that point selling "steadily," appeared at the 4th place on the New York Times print hardcover best-seller list. By late July 2013, it was topping the U.S. best-seller list on Amazon.

Academic credentials
Following Aslan's interview with Fox News, some questioned Aslan's academic claims. An article written by Manuel Roig-Franzia in the Washington Post entitled "Reza Aslan: A Jesus scholar who's often a moving target" observed that Green had asked "astonishingly absurd questions," but that Aslan was a "moving target" and described him as being "eager—perhaps overeager—to present himself as a formidable academic with special bona fides in religion and history" and "boast[ing] of academic laurels he does not have." The article quoted Aslan's dissertation adviser, Mark Juergensmeyer, as saying that he did not have a problem with Aslan’s characterization of his credentials.

A day later, the New Republic printed an article critical of the Washington Post piece entitled "Now The Washington Post Owes Reza Aslan An Apology, Too." The Philadelphia Inquirer article entitled "Reza Aslan's 'Zealot': Muslim's book about Jesus stirs things up" also defended Aslan’s characterization of his academic credentials, noting that UC Santa Barbara "is famous for its interdisciplinary program—students tailor their studies around a topic, not a department. They choose a department only for the diploma." The Nation's Elizabeth Castelli wrote that Aslan "reasonably opened himself to criticism" on the basis of his claim to speak "with authority as a historian."

Awards
2013—Media Bridge-Builder Award, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
2013—Peter. J. Gomes Memorial Honor, Harvard Divinity School
2012—East-West Media Award, The Levantine Center (Author bio from Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/16/2014.)