This is evident especially when he portrays what he terms the "classical doctrine of jihad" as something formulated during the "height of the Crusades" and "partly in response to them." In fact, the doctrine of jihad demands that the "House of Islam" (Dar al-Islam) must subdue the "House of War" (Dar al-Harb, the non-Islamic world), although Aslan uses the softened (and misleading) phrase "in pursuit of "the "House of Islam." To focus on a single crucial issue, he asserts that "the most important innovation in the doctrine of jihad was its outright prohibition of all but strictly defensive wars," while Qur'anic verses such as 9:29, with the injunction to fight non-Muslims until they pay a poll-tax in a state of subjugation, are explained away as "directed specifically at the Quraysh (the pagan tribe in Mecca opposed to Muhammad) and their clandestine partisans in Yathrib (Medina, with the Jews opposed to Muhammad)."Īslan is of course entitled to his personal interpretation of the texts, but presenting it as the "true" view for a non-Muslim audience amounts to disinformation. It leads Aslan to make usual and predictable howlers. The result is not scholarship, but apologetics. In other words, to demonstrate that there is no need for a "clash of monotheisms."įundamental to Aslan's argument is that the message of Islam, as intended by its founder, is a "revolutionary message of moral accountability and social egalitarianism." Aslan is open about his apologetic intentions, making it clear that "there is no higher calling than to defend one's faith, especially from ignorance and hate." Indeed, as one reviewer noted, "this book is designed for the west." Denouncing "rising anti-Muslim vehemence that has become so much a part of the mainstream media's discourse about the Middle East," Aslan purported to demonstrate continuity between Islam and its predecessors, Christianity and Judaism. Aslan was alarmed by what he saw as a supposed "clash of monotheisms" through polarizing rhetoric in both the West and Middle East.
To understand the rise of Aslan, one must turn to his 2005 book No God but God. He has been hailed by an array of commentators, most notably the celebrity comedian Jon Stewart, who described him as "the fantastic Reza Aslan." But where did this reputation come from? More importantly, does it hold up to critical scrutiny? An author who came to widespread attention during the past couple of months over the release of his book Zealot (July 2013) on the life Jesus, Reza Aslan has been known primarily as an authority on Islam and the Middle East.
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