LIBERAL MEDIA LOVE NEW JESUS BOOK "ZEALOT", FAIL TO MENTION REZA ASLAN, THE AUTHOR, IS MUSLIM

Update 7/29/13 - Rez Aslan has been getting quite a bit of press recently.  From First Things: "Reza Aslan Misrepresents His Scholarly Credentials";  World Magazine: "Fawning Over Falsehoods";  Pamela Geller - "Reza Aslan is Academia's Anwar Awlaki"

(Original article) - I found this news maddening.  John S. Dickerson writes:  (HT: Drudge)

Reza Aslan, author of the new book, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” has been interviewed on a host of media outlets in the last week. Riding a publicity wave, the book has surged to #2 on Amazon's list.

 

Media reports have introduced Aslan as a “religion scholar” but have failed to mention that he is a devout Muslim.

His book is not a historian’s report on Jesus. It is an educated Muslim’s opinion about Jesus -- yet the book is being peddled as objective history on national TV and radio. . . .

 

As a sincere man, Aslan’s Muslim beliefs affect his entire life, including his conclusions about Jesus. But this is not being disclosed. “Zealot” is being presented as objective and scholarly history, not as it actually is—an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East.

"Zealot” is a fast-paced demolition of the core beliefs that Christianity has taught about Jesus for 2,000 years. Its conclusions are long-held Islamic claims—namely, that Jesus was a zealous prophet type who didn’t claim to be God, that Christians have misunderstood him, and that the Christian Gospels are not the actual words or life of Jesus but “myth.”

 

I am really bothered by media dishonesty.  The media loves to pounce on the latest negative assertions towards Christianity, yet fail to provide due diligence in gathering essential background information.  As Dickinson notes, Aslan's assertions represent standard Muslim fare.  Doesn't anyone in the media know this?  I'm not sure.  But surely they could at least introduce Aslan as a Muslim, which he is.

  

   A few minutes of moderate research on Reza Aslan has taught me a great deal.  His arrogance is quite breathtaking.  He ridicules Pamela Gellar, Emerson, and Robert Spencer, each of whom deserve enormous respect for their warnings of Islamism and jihadism.  In an interesting article (11/2/2012), Spencer notes that Aslan

has recently been unmasked as a Board member of a front group for Iran’s bloody Islamic regime. Aslan is also a Left-fascist who has called for obstruction of our freedom of speech by means of vandalism of our pro-freedom ads. He has tried to pass off Iran’s genocidally-minded President Ahmadinejad as a liberal reformer. He has called on the U.S. Government to negotiate with Ahmadinejad himself, as well as with Hamas – that is, with two of the most barbaric and murderous adherents of Sharia. Aslan has even praised the jihad terror group Hizballah as “the most dynamic political and social organization in Lebanon,” as well as the Jew-hating, women-hating, kuffar-hating Muslim Brotherhood, which is dedicated in its own words to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.” Aslan wrote: “The Muslim Brotherhood will have a significant role to play in post-Mubarak Egypt. And that is good thing.” We see now just how “good” things are becoming for non-Muslims and women in Egypt under Brotherhood rule.

Elsewhere Spencer says,

Aslan is lionized and respected because he holds the proper politically correct opinions: contemptfor America, hatred for Israel, and endless justification for Islamic supremacists and jihadists.

Reza Aslan, author of the new book, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” has been interviewed on a host of media outlets in the last week. Riding a publicity wave, the book has surged to #2 on Amazon's list.

 

Media reports have introduced Aslan as a “religion scholar” but have failed to mention that he is a devout Muslim.

His book is not a historian’s report on Jesus. It is an educated Muslim’s opinion about Jesus -- yet the book is being peddled as objective history on national TV and radio. . . .

 

As a sincere man, Aslan’s Muslim beliefs affect his entire life, including his conclusions about Jesus. But this is not being disclosed. “Zealot” is being presented as objective and scholarly history, not as it actually is—an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East.

 

“Zealot” is a fast-paced demolition of the core beliefs that Christianity has taught about Jesus for 2,000 years. Its conclusions are long-held Islamic claims—namely, that Jesus was a zealous prophet type who didn’t claim to be God, that Christians have misunderstood him, and that the Christian Gospels are not the actual words or life of Jesus but “myth.”  . . .