iranigirl2
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The Most Embarrassing Fox News Interview?
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iranigirl2
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Odd Fox News Interview Lifts Reza Aslan’s Biography on Jesus
Reza Aslan, the author of “Zealot,” a provocative new biography of Jesus, has found an inadvertent ally in generating book publicity: Fox News.
In an interview on Friday that was by turns bizarre and uncomfortable, Lauren Green, a host from “Spirited Debate,” a weekly Fox News webcast, pressed Mr. Aslan on the question of why, as a Muslim, he would choose Jesus as his subject.
“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms. Green asked.
“Well, to be clear,” Mr. Aslan said, his eyebrows lifting up in surprise, “I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.”
The nearly 10-minute video clip quickly entered the Internet bloodstream on Saturday after it was posted on Buzzfeed with the irresistibly clickable headline, “Is This The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done?”
Since then, the Buzzfeed page featuring the video has been viewed nearly four million times. Mr. Aslan quickly amassed an additional 5,000 Twitter followers. On Monday, Random House, Mr. Aslan’s publisher, said the interview had clearly helped the book: in two days, sales increased 35 percent.
On Friday, “Zealot” was in the No. 8 spot on Amazon.com, the nation’s biggest seller of books; by Sunday, it had hit No. 1.
Random House is rushing to meet the surge in demand for the book. On Monday, the publisher ordered 50,000 copies, bringing the total to 150,000 copies in print by the end of the week.
An investigation of the historical Jesus, “Zealot” has been praised by many reviewers since its publication on July 16. In a review in Tablet magazine, Adam Kirsch called “Zealot” a “coherent and often convincing portrait of who Jesus was and what he wanted.”
But some conservative critics have suggested that the book is not a work of scholarship, but merely “an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East,” as John S. Dickerson, an opinion columnist, wrote on FoxNews.com last week.
The reaction to the book has spread to Mr. Aslan’s Amazon page: on The Atlantic Wire, Alexander Nazaryan pointed out that browsing through dozens of one-star reviews on Amazon revealed that “plenty of readers of what seems to be a fundamentalist/Evangelical persuasion are furious that a Muslim published a book about Christianity’s origins.”
The book was already selling steadily before the FoxNews.com interview on Friday. Since the release of “Zealot,” Mr. Aslan has hit the publicity circuit, discussing the book on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “Weekend Edition” on NPR. “Zealot” had its debut at No. 4 on the New York Times print hardcover best-seller list that will appear in print on Aug. 4.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Aslan said that in three weeks of his book tour, he had received an “overwhelmingly positive” response to his work, and that it was anything but an attack on Christianity.
“I hope that people recognize that your faith, as Jesus said, is supposed to be built on a rock, not on sand,” he said. “I guess my message is: Relax.”
Mr. Aslan was born in Iran, moved to the United States with his family as a child and later earned degrees from Santa Clara University, Harvard and the University of Iowa. He is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.
Book Passage, a bookstore with two outlets in the Bay Area, hosted Mr. Aslan for a signing last week. Karen West, the director of events, said more than 250 people attended it. But the Fox News interview, she said, has exposed the book to consumers who aren’t regular book buyers.
“It’s moved now out of the NPR realm and it’s gotten into the broader culture,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Fox News did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Mr. Aslan said that after reading Mr. Dickerson’s essay on FoxNews.com, he was prepared for a similar line of attack from Ms. Green.
He was so eager to promote the book on Fox News that his publisher tried — in vain — to secure an interview spot on “Fox & Friends,” a morning show.
“I’ll be perfectly honest — I’m thrilled at the response that people have had to the interview,” Mr. Aslan said. “You can’t buy this kind of publicity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/b...ifts-reza-aslans-biography-on-jesus.html?_r=0
Reza Aslan, the author of “Zealot,” a provocative new biography of Jesus, has found an inadvertent ally in generating book publicity: Fox News.
In an interview on Friday that was by turns bizarre and uncomfortable, Lauren Green, a host from “Spirited Debate,” a weekly Fox News webcast, pressed Mr. Aslan on the question of why, as a Muslim, he would choose Jesus as his subject.
“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms. Green asked.
“Well, to be clear,” Mr. Aslan said, his eyebrows lifting up in surprise, “I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.”
The nearly 10-minute video clip quickly entered the Internet bloodstream on Saturday after it was posted on Buzzfeed with the irresistibly clickable headline, “Is This The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done?”
Since then, the Buzzfeed page featuring the video has been viewed nearly four million times. Mr. Aslan quickly amassed an additional 5,000 Twitter followers. On Monday, Random House, Mr. Aslan’s publisher, said the interview had clearly helped the book: in two days, sales increased 35 percent.
On Friday, “Zealot” was in the No. 8 spot on Amazon.com, the nation’s biggest seller of books; by Sunday, it had hit No. 1.
Random House is rushing to meet the surge in demand for the book. On Monday, the publisher ordered 50,000 copies, bringing the total to 150,000 copies in print by the end of the week.
An investigation of the historical Jesus, “Zealot” has been praised by many reviewers since its publication on July 16. In a review in Tablet magazine, Adam Kirsch called “Zealot” a “coherent and often convincing portrait of who Jesus was and what he wanted.”
But some conservative critics have suggested that the book is not a work of scholarship, but merely “an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East,” as John S. Dickerson, an opinion columnist, wrote on FoxNews.com last week.
The reaction to the book has spread to Mr. Aslan’s Amazon page: on The Atlantic Wire, Alexander Nazaryan pointed out that browsing through dozens of one-star reviews on Amazon revealed that “plenty of readers of what seems to be a fundamentalist/Evangelical persuasion are furious that a Muslim published a book about Christianity’s origins.”
The book was already selling steadily before the FoxNews.com interview on Friday. Since the release of “Zealot,” Mr. Aslan has hit the publicity circuit, discussing the book on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “Weekend Edition” on NPR. “Zealot” had its debut at No. 4 on the New York Times print hardcover best-seller list that will appear in print on Aug. 4.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Aslan said that in three weeks of his book tour, he had received an “overwhelmingly positive” response to his work, and that it was anything but an attack on Christianity.
“I hope that people recognize that your faith, as Jesus said, is supposed to be built on a rock, not on sand,” he said. “I guess my message is: Relax.”
Mr. Aslan was born in Iran, moved to the United States with his family as a child and later earned degrees from Santa Clara University, Harvard and the University of Iowa. He is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.
Book Passage, a bookstore with two outlets in the Bay Area, hosted Mr. Aslan for a signing last week. Karen West, the director of events, said more than 250 people attended it. But the Fox News interview, she said, has exposed the book to consumers who aren’t regular book buyers.
“It’s moved now out of the NPR realm and it’s gotten into the broader culture,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Fox News did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Mr. Aslan said that after reading Mr. Dickerson’s essay on FoxNews.com, he was prepared for a similar line of attack from Ms. Green.
He was so eager to promote the book on Fox News that his publisher tried — in vain — to secure an interview spot on “Fox & Friends,” a morning show.
“I’ll be perfectly honest — I’m thrilled at the response that people have had to the interview,” Mr. Aslan said. “You can’t buy this kind of publicity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/b...ifts-reza-aslans-biography-on-jesus.html?_r=0
iranigirl2
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The book is not critical of Jesus Christ, quite the opposite
gambit
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It does not matter. Keyword search for you: '**** christ'.
If we can tolerate that garbage, we can tolerate anything. Whereas the Muslims cannot tolerate even scholarly and objective mild criticisms of Islam and Muhammad.
kaisar1
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It DOES matters. Debates where the due respect and senstivity of the subject remains intact throughout, any cross analysis can occur without infuriating both sides.
You already proved yourself a fanatic from a different faith or association by considering a book (which im sure you havent read) as "garbage". Remind you, Fanatic as yourself is not a state of mind restricted to muslims but could be any person whose an imbecile halfwit defending - offending a certain belief just because he/she thought it must be done regardless. Theres no prior research required for dumbwits to do so cause it just has to happen due to contemporary cliches.
Contradictory as it is, You showed your limbo in just first two sentences saying, "it does not matter", "If we can tolerate that garbage". Hilarious!
Look at you reading a book by its cover. smh
isro2222
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Lord christ was Lord krishna. Lord christ came alot after Lord Krishna. Lord christ was Lord vishnu.
Hinduism Indian Religion Hindu Gods & Philosophies: Is Jesus Christ derived from Lord Krishna?
Hinduism Indian Religion Hindu Gods & Philosophies: Is Jesus Christ derived from Lord Krishna?
jaunty
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I thought Reza Alan was an Iranian.
Clearly that reporter is a religious bigot, the kind of people I hate. But then this is Fox news what else do you expect?
I have to agree with you, Muslims are in general very intolerant when it comes to their religion.
BeyondHeretic
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Reza aSlan not alan , his surname is turkic enough
iranigirl2
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Arsalan, Aslan and Arslan are male first names in Afghanistan, Albanian, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, various North Caucasian ethnic regions and (more rarely) the Arab Middle Eastern countries (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine).
kaisar1
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Should be? Why everyone has only an intent to speak but not to listen. Watch this interview again, guy just said hes discusses 4 religions mainly, including Islam. Im sure youtube ban in Pak is restricting you from doing further research
iranigirl2
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Mav3rick
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Actually, a Muslim may kill anyone who says anything critical about Hazrat Essa (PBUH) - or Jesus to you, too. Muslims consider Hazrat Essa (PBUH) as 1 of the 4 most important and blessed prophets who hold special position amongst the many thousands of messengers.
We consider the prophets of Christianity & Judaism as prophets of Islam. All of them preached the same message, as per our belief, the message of Islam.
Holy prophets and holy books are beyond ridicule, false propaganda and negative criticism.
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