Reza Aslan On Muslim violence myths

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Comments

  • dignin
    dignin Posts: 9,478
    badbrains said:

    This was a good watch. This guys very smart. Plz watch closely and listen to what he says.
    http://youtu.be/PzusSqcotDw

    Great find badbrains.

    Same guy who owned FOX News over a year ago.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt1cOnNrY5s
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    mickeyrat said:

    He's smacked down talking headless folks on Fox too. I like him. Patient and intelligent.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwWbPpFZ31s

    Thanks for posting this, mickeyrat. I really like Aslan's ability to firmly hold his ground yet remain strong and clear. It's ridiculous how that Fox interviewer just dismisses him outright with nothing but preconceived notions and obvious bias behind her weak and pathetic arguments. I also like how Aslan makes clear his credentials in a way that said slightly differently could sound like major ego boasting- but he's not. He knows his stuff (yes, rr, STUFF LOL) and he shows great poise and confidence. Definitely will check out his book.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • badbrains
    badbrains Posts: 10,255
    Awesome guys, ya this guys real smart. I believe he's a professor at cal state riverside in religion so he knows his shit.
  • benjs
    benjs Toronto, ON Posts: 9,367
    I'll be honest.. That second interview was just plain obnoxious to me. I blame three parties for that: first and foremost, his publicist who probably forced his hand to go on Fox. Next, that fairly useless interviewer who didn't even have the common courtesy to actually learn about the person she was interviewing. Unfortunately, understandably frustrated, all he could do was to continue to tout his credentials, but that level of ego is repulsive to me. I'm glad I watched the first video first, where he expressed a far greater level of humility, and was thankfully allowed to share his knowledge instead of tragically being forced to defend his right to speak and educate for the vast majority of the time.
    '05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2

    EV
    Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
  • oftenreading
    oftenreading Victoria, BC Posts: 12,856
    Drowned Out said:

    badbrains said:

    brianlux said:

    He doesn't attack all religions equally...have you seen Religulous? He portrays hardcore Muslims as extremist...hardcore Christians as misguided rednecks...and hardcore Jews as goofy inventors. Nary a word about crazy-as-fuck Jewish settlers or anything like that. Total white washing, despite cracking jokes about Judaism at the sart of the movie and trying to disassociate himself with it. Lost a ton of respect for him over that movie.

    When will we start to discuss the problem of the radical Buddhists?
    my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
  • benjs
    benjs Toronto, ON Posts: 9,367
    One more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL6E4eMX-4k

    I love some of the things he says when asked how, as a historian, he can still believe in religion.
    '05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2

    EV
    Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    oftenreading said:

    Drowned Out said:

    badbrains said:

    brianlux said:

    He doesn't attack all religions equally...have you seen Religulous? He portrays hardcore Muslims as extremist...hardcore Christians as misguided rednecks...and hardcore Jews as goofy inventors. Nary a word about crazy-as-fuck Jewish settlers or anything like that. Total white washing, despite cracking jokes about Judaism at the sart of the movie and trying to disassociate himself with it. Lost a ton of respect for him over that movie.

    When will we start to discuss the problem of the radical Buddhists?
    Radical Buddhists, eh. I think that might be an oxymoron, LOL!

    Actually, come to think of it, I've got a couple of books by guy who maybe could be considered a radical Buddhist, Brad Warner. Warner play bass in the hard core punk band, Zero Defex and went on to write two great Punk Zen books, Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up. Good stuff worth checking out, especially the first book which ends with this funny joke:

    How many Zen master does it take to screw in a light bulb?

    The plum tree in the garden!

    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    benjs said:

    I'll be honest.. That second interview was just plain obnoxious to me. I blame three parties for that: first and foremost, his publicist who probably forced his hand to go on Fox. Next, that fairly useless interviewer who didn't even have the common courtesy to actually learn about the person she was interviewing. Unfortunately, understandably frustrated, all he could do was to continue to tout his credentials, but that level of ego is repulsive to me. I'm glad I watched the first video first, where he expressed a far greater level of humility, and was thankfully allowed to share his knowledge instead of tragically being forced to defend his right to speak and educate for the vast majority of the time.

    I'm generally not a fan of people touting their credentials either, Ben, but what I heard most here was, "Hey, I'm not just some Muslim writing about Jesus. This is part of what I do." I think he was much more restrained than most of us would have been under the circumstances. Also, I'm glad he was on Fox. How best to reach those least likely to hear what you have to say!

    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • Thirty Bills Unpaid
    Thirty Bills Unpaid Posts: 16,881
    oftenreading said:

    Drowned Out said:

    badbrains said:

    brianlux said:

    He doesn't attack all religions equally...have you seen Religulous? He portrays hardcore Muslims as extremist...hardcore Christians as misguided rednecks...and hardcore Jews as goofy inventors. Nary a word about crazy-as-fuck Jewish settlers or anything like that. Total white washing, despite cracking jokes about Judaism at the sart of the movie and trying to disassociate himself with it. Lost a ton of respect for him over that movie.

    When will we start to discuss the problem of the radical Buddhists?
    That one sent me for a loop too.
    "My brain's a good brain!"
  • Idris
    Idris Posts: 2,317
    CNN did a follow up to that interview, it should be on YouTube.
  • oftenreading
    oftenreading Victoria, BC Posts: 12,856
    brianlux said:

    oftenreading said:

    Drowned Out said:

    badbrains said:

    brianlux said:

    When will we start to discuss the problem of the radical Buddhists?
    Radical Buddhists, eh. I think that might be an oxymoron, LOL!

    Actually, come to think of it, I've got a couple of books by guy who maybe could be considered a radical Buddhist, Brad Warner. Warner play bass in the hard core punk band, Zero Defex and went on to write two great Punk Zen books, Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up. Good stuff worth checking out, especially the first book which ends with this funny joke:

    How many Zen master does it take to screw in a light bulb?

    The plum tree in the garden!

    Yes, brianlux, I did mean it as a joke when I first posted, but since then have found out that there actually are "hard line buddhists", and guess what? They advocate violence against Muslims. You just can't get away from this tripe.

    But I like your joke.
    my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
  • Thirty Bills Unpaid
    Thirty Bills Unpaid Posts: 16,881
    There are marauding Buddhist Monks in Myanmar slaughtering women and children.

    (expressed in the video)

    This... I did not know.
    "My brain's a good brain!"
  • Thirty Bills Unpaid
    Thirty Bills Unpaid Posts: 16,881
    Well... I researched a bit.

    I came across a piece that offered the following: "Everybody is talking about the violence between Buddhists and Muslims," he said. "Nobody is interested in the dam on the Irrawaddy River. No one is interested in the gas pipeline. If somebody is controlling things, he is a smart man!"

    Is it entirely conceivable that a concerted effort is being made to distract the masses' attention to 'non-issues' so that agendas can play out with little to no resistance?

    Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23846632
    "My brain's a good brain!"
  • Idris
    Idris Posts: 2,317
    edited October 2014
    CNN's Chris Cuomo Says Reza Aslan's 'Tone' Shows Why People Are 'Fearful' Of Islam

    huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/03/chris-cuomo-reza-aslan-tone-muslims_n_5928464.html

    "He wound up kind of demonstrating what people are fearful about when they think of the faith in the first place, which is the hostility of it," he said, as though responding verbally to attacks on your religion is some sort of wild-eyed practice.

    "The Muslim world is responsible for a really big part of religious extremism right now," Cuomo continued. "And they are unusually violent. They're unusually barbaric in the places where it is happening.
    Post edited by Idris on
  • badbrains
    badbrains Posts: 10,255
    Idris said:

    CNN's Chris Cuomo Says Reza Aslan's 'Tone' Shows Why People Are 'Fearful' Of Islam

    huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/03/chris-cuomo-reza-aslan-tone-muslims_n_5928464.html

    "He wound up kind of demonstrating what people are fearful about when they think of the faith in the first place, which is the hostility of it," he said, as though responding verbally to attacks on your religion is some sort of wild-eyed practice.

    "The Muslim world is responsible for a really big part of religious extremism right now," Cuomo continued. "And they are unusually violent. They're unusually barbaric in the places where it is happening.

    =))
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    Obviously Chris Cuomo is tone deaf. :-D
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • dignin
    dignin Posts: 9,478
    Ben Affleck vs Bill Maher Battle over Radical Islam

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IafWePD1DVw

  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    dignin said:

    Ben Affleck vs Bill Maher Battle over Radical Islam

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IafWePD1DVw

    Interesting discussion. The question that keeps coming back to me is this: What can we as concerned people and Muslims who are not fanatical about killing anyone who leaves their religion and who are not in favor of oppressing women and homosexuals do to a) convince the rest of the world that this is not a commonly accepted part of Muslim doctrine* and b) change the behavior of those who are violently radical? One of the speakers (the fellow to our right of Maher) in the clip above states that the number of Jihadists and Islamists total about 20% plus add to that the conservative Muslims- that these members of the Muslim faith hold troubling views about human rights toward women and homosexuals. I don't know how accurate these figures are but I don't believe they are by any means the majority. What can be done to stop the oppression by the minority of people believe in oppressing and killing?

    The same basic questions can be asked of any fundamentalist religious people. How can we convince fundamentalist Christians to stop bombing everybody in the world who isn't Christian (OK- exaggeration, but you know what I mean.)

    To my way of thinking this all just points out how totally messed up fundamentalism in any religion is. It frustrates and infuriates me that many people from many walks of life are so bound up in their beliefs as to cause misery and suffering for others. More people have been killed in the name of their god than anything else in the entire history of humankind.

    *I was curious about this point and doing some research found that there is a lot of controversy over the issue of apostasy from Islam ranging from larger numbers of Muslims living in Middle East countries who support the notion of putting to death apostates to many Muslims in the West who are embarrassed by or opposed to that notion.


    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    Just saw that great old film, "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming". That movie is such a great example of how art (besides being entertaining and fun and all that) can be both enlightening and a vehicle for change. Watching the 2002 extras interview with Norman Jewison, you really get a clear picture of how that film helped changed people attitudes in both America and Russia.

    All that to say, maybe what we need is a film called, "The Muslims are Coming! The Muslims are Coming!" The common person in both our worlds are mostly good people who want pretty much the same thing and given the opportunity, would work together for a common cause. This may sound overly idealistic. Seeing that great old film and watching the Jewison interview, I would say definitely it is not overly idealistic at all. Art can change the world. We can change the world.
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • Staceb10
    Staceb10 Posts: 675
    Myth of Muslim violence? Not a myth when the masses embrace it. I used to think radical Islam was minority but not anymore.

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