Reza Aslan Challenges ‘the Muslim Stereotype’
With extremism on the rise, the insinuation of Islam promoting violence and aggression is more and more common. Reza proves why “painting with a single brush” can be so wrong.
The Friday night preceding this interview, comedian Bill Mahar equated the extremist group ISIS to the greater majority Muslim countries of the world. Reza Aslan appeared on CNN to discuss Mahar’s comments with two of their anchors and to respond to their over-simplified enquiry: “Does Islam promote violence?”
It appears from the beginning of this interview that Don Lemon and Alisyn Camerota, the pair cross-examining Reza - have one objective in mind: Make him say that Islam is violent. The only difficulty of course, is that Reza knows every Muslim-majority country is dissimilar. It’s impossible to generalise a religion of 1.5 …show more content…
Reza speaks calmly, almost cheerfully in quiet confidence. He highlights a key fact: female genital mutilation is NOT an Islamic problem, it depends on the Muslim-majority country. This is a repetitive argument that Reza drives constantly and it is painfully pertinent each time. Reza tells Don and Alisyn “It’s not an Islamic problem, it’s an African problem”, and Alisyn can’t seem to grasp his opinion.
She rudely interjects, following up Mahar’s claim that it’s a ‘Muslim country’ problem. Using these two words, Alisyn effectively establishes her manifestation as a thorn in Reza’s side. However, his calm demeanour remains and he responds as such. Firstly by pointing out that using the words ‘Muslim countries’ is “imperially and factually incorrect” and secondly by listing off considerable statistics on female genital mutilation in Muslim-majority
With extremism on the rise, the insinuation of Islam promoting violence and aggression is more and more common. Reza proves why “painting with a single brush” can be so wrong.
The Friday night preceding this interview, comedian Bill Mahar equated the extremist group ISIS to the greater majority Muslim countries of the world. Reza Aslan appeared on CNN to discuss Mahar’s comments with two of their anchors and to respond to their over-simplified enquiry: “Does Islam promote violence?”
It appears from the beginning of this interview that Don Lemon and Alisyn Camerota, the pair cross-examining Reza - have one objective in mind: Make him say that Islam is violent. The only difficulty of course, is that Reza knows every Muslim-majority country is dissimilar. It’s impossible to generalise a religion of 1.5 …show more content…
Reza speaks calmly, almost cheerfully in quiet confidence. He highlights a key fact: female genital mutilation is NOT an Islamic problem, it depends on the Muslim-majority country. This is a repetitive argument that Reza drives constantly and it is painfully pertinent each time. Reza tells Don and Alisyn “It’s not an Islamic problem, it’s an African problem”, and Alisyn can’t seem to grasp his opinion.
She rudely interjects, following up Mahar’s claim that it’s a ‘Muslim country’ problem. Using these two words, Alisyn effectively establishes her manifestation as a thorn in Reza’s side. However, his calm demeanour remains and he responds as such. Firstly by pointing out that using the words ‘Muslim countries’ is “imperially and factually incorrect” and secondly by listing off considerable statistics on female genital mutilation in Muslim-majority