Reza Aslan’s hilarious (to everyone else) Fox News interview perked up an otherwise boring weekend of news, and the religious scholar seems to be making light of the aftermath of a strange and insulting interview with Lauren Green on a web segment for the network.
In case you missed it, Reza Aslan appeared on Fox with Green to discuss his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.
But Dr. Aslan was in for a bit of a surprise, as Green simply seemed to want to take him to task for daring to, as a Muslim, write about Christianity.
Right out of the gate, she pressed Aslan about his decision to, as a religious scholar, address the topic of Jesus, saying:
“This is an interesting book. Now I want to clarify, you’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?”
Aslan responds:
“Well to be clear, 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. So it’s not that I’m just some Muslim writing about Jesus, I am an expert with a Ph.D in the history of religions … ”
Green incorrectly opines that Reza Aslan still “begs the question why” he’d be interested in Christianity, to which he answers with undeserved politeness:
“Because it’s my job as an academic. I am a professor of religion, including the New Testament. That’s what I do for a living, actually.”
Over on Twitter, Reza Aslan has retweeted a few jokes fellow tweeters have made about the silly interview, including:
@rezaaslan “I’m a vet who has a PhD in treating animals.” Lauren Green: “But you’re a human.” Reza Aslan: “But I have a PhD…”
— Radhika Madhani (@RadhikaMadhani) July 28, 2013
“Ms. Rowling, what gives you, a muggle, the right to write a book about wizards?” – @FoxNews http://t.co/9HtlTbT6tO @rezaaslan
— Chris Tackett (@christackett) July 28, 2013
Guess this means according to Lauren Green’s logic, as a jewish food writer I can’t write about pastrami and rye AND baba ganush @rezaaslan
— Iris Benaroia (@Iris9) July 28, 2013
@rezaaslan I have a PhD in oceanography, I study the ocean.” “But you live on the land” “Yes, but my area of study is the ocean.”
— Contra la Maquina (@lamaquinapls) July 28, 2013
“What right have you, Mr. Shakespeare, to write about the state of things in Denmark?” – @FoxNews (based on their interview with @rezaaslan )
— Samantha Handler (@SubSAMpling) July 28, 2013
Tell me, *Doctor* Tyson, you live on earth, but you obsessively study the stars. Is that because you have some kind of agenda? @rezaaslan
— Yastreblyansky (@Yastreblyansky) July 27, 2013
Watch above as Reza Aslan fields a series of baffling questions from Green on Fox.
