Fox Reporter Shows Massive Anti-Islamic Bias

[zdaddy]

Fox News recently aired one of the most painfully biased interviews I think I've ever seen. The reporter interviews an academic about his new book on Jesus, all the while insinuating that because he's a Muslim he's trying to unfairly smear the Christian faith instead of doing scholarly research.

It’s got plenty of competition but this may just be the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview on Fox News. At least in recent memory. Fox News anchor Lauren Green had religious scholar Reza Aslan on her FoxNews.com show Friday to talk about Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, his book that has been stirring up some online controversy recently. And right off the bat, Green gets to what is important: “You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Aslan seemed a little flabbergasted: “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.”*


But Green just wouldn’t let it go: “It still begs the question though, why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?” Aslan then starts talking to Green slowly, as if she were a child: “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.” But Green insisted, accusing him of failing to “disclose” that he’s a Muslim and at one point asking him about a stupefying claim on whether a Muslim writing a book on Jesus isn’t sort of like a Democrat writing a book on former president Ronald Reagan.

www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/07/28/video_fox_news_lauren_green_asks_reza_aslan_why_muslim_would_be_interested.html

[swamp]

Don't you know that muslims can't study any religion other than their own, duh?

[djAdvocate]

Jul 29, 2013 16:02:14 GMT -5 swamp said:

Don't you know that muslims can't study any religion other than their own, duh?

actually, i think you are being generous.

being a Muslim means that you have lost all credibility.  even to flip burgers.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 29, 2013 16:01:26 GMT -5 zdaddy said:

Fox News recently aired one of the most painfully biased interviews I think I've ever seen. The reporter interviews an academic about his new book on Jesus, all the while insinuating that because he's a Muslim he's trying to unfairly smear the Christian faith instead of doing scholarly research.

It’s got plenty of competition but this may just be the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview on Fox News. At least in recent memory. Fox News anchor Lauren Green had religious scholar Reza Aslan on her FoxNews.com show Friday to talk about Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, his book that has been stirring up some online controversy recently. And right off the bat, Green gets to what is important: “You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Aslan seemed a little flabbergasted: “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.”*


But Green just wouldn’t let it go: “It still begs the question though, why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?” Aslan then starts talking to Green slowly, as if she were a child: “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.” But Green insisted, accusing him of failing to “disclose” that he’s a Muslim and at one point asking him about a stupefying claim on whether a Muslim writing a book on Jesus isn’t sort of like a Democrat writing a book on former president Ronald Reagan.

www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/07/28/video_fox_news_lauren_green_asks_reza_aslan_why_muslim_would_be_interested.html

he should have asked her if she has disclosed to her viewers that she is a bigot.

[Tennesseer]

I saw the interview.  Embarrassing for Fox News.

[swamp]

she's not a bigot.  she's an upstanding God fearing Christian American.  The way Americans are supposed to be.

None of that brown skinned Allah loving praying to Mecca garbage!

[zdaddy]

Looking into her background, I'm amazed Fox still has her on the payroll. I really hope this is a good chance to clean house.

[swamp]

Jul 29, 2013 16:16:21 GMT -5 zdaddy said:

Looking into her background, I'm amazed Fox still has her on the payroll. I really hope this is a good chance to clean house.

<<waiting for a certain few posters to show up and defend fox>>

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

<<waiting for a certain few posters to show up and defend fox>>

Not me - I was about to say to the zdaddy that his first mistake was tuning into FOX news.

[zdaddy]

Jul 29, 2013 16:27:00 GMT -5 ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ said:

<<waiting for a certain few posters to show up and defend fox>>

Not me - I was about to say to the zdaddy that his first mistake was tuning into FOX news.

Trust me - I didn't hear about this until it became international news. Sadly,there are news stations in the Middle East and Europe pointing to this one interview as an example of what the average American believes.

Granted, it seems to be getting blown out of proportion. But there is no reason that this journalist should still have a job IMHO.

[Cookies Galore]

That was painful. Just painful. Ouch.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jul 29, 2013 16:01:26 GMT -5 zdaddy said:

Fox News recently aired one of the most painfully biased interviews I think I've ever seen. The reporter interviews an academic about his new book on Jesus, all the while insinuating that because he's a Muslim he's trying to unfairly smear the Christian faith instead of doing scholarly research.

It’s got plenty of competition but this may just be the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview on Fox News. At least in recent memory. Fox News anchor Lauren Green had religious scholar Reza Aslan on her FoxNews.com show Friday to talk about Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, his book that has been stirring up some online controversy recently. And right off the bat, Green gets to what is important: “You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Aslan seemed a little flabbergasted: “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.”*


But Green just wouldn’t let it go: “It still begs the question though, why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?” Aslan then starts talking to Green slowly, as if she were a child: “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.” But Green insisted, accusing him of failing to “disclose” that he’s a Muslim and at one point asking him about a stupefying claim on whether a Muslim writing a book on Jesus isn’t sort of like a Democrat writing a book on former president Ronald Reagan.

www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/07/28/video_fox_news_lauren_green_asks_reza_aslan_why_muslim_would_be_interested.html

Is there something inherently unreasonable or hostile in a journalist's questioning why a Muslim would write a book on Jesus? And is the author's failure to disclose his Muslim background a little shady? Almost as shady as misrepresenting his scholarly credentials? In case you're not up to speed he lied and claimed his PhD in Sociology was a "PhD in history and world religions".

www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/07/29/scholarly-misrepresentation/

Aslan does have four degrees, as Joe Carter has noted: a 1995 B.A. in religion from Santa Clara University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa and wrote his senior thesis on “The Messianic Secret in the Gospel of Mark”; a 1999 Master of Theological Studies from Harvard; a 2002 Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of Iowa; and a 2009 Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

None of these degrees is in history, so Aslan’s repeated claims that he has “a Ph.D. in the history of religions” and that he is “a historian” are false.  Nor is “professor of religions” what he does “for a living.” He is an associate professor in the Creative Writing program at the University of California, Riverside, where his terminal MFA in fiction from Iowa is his relevant academic credential. It appears he has taught some courses on Islam in the past, and he may do so now, moonlighting from his creative writing duties at Riverside. Aslan has been a busy popular writer, and he is certainly a tireless self-promoter, but he is nowhere known in the academic world as a scholar of the history of religion. And a scholarly historian of early Christianity? Nope.

What about that Ph.D.? As already noted, it was in sociology. I have his dissertation in front of me. It is a 140-page work titled “Global Jihadism as a Transnational Social Movement: A Theoretical Framework.” If Aslan’s Ph.D. is the basis of a claim to scholarly credentials, he could plausibly claim to be an expert on social movements in twentieth-century Islam. He cannot plausibly claim, as he did to Lauren Green, that he is a “historian,” or is a “professor of religions” “for a living.”

Are we really at a point where the rest of the media isn't just biased, but openly attacks journalists who ask reasonable questions?

[Tennesseer]

Jul 29, 2013 17:25:12 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Jul 29, 2013 16:01:26 GMT -5 zdaddy said:

Fox News recently aired one of the most painfully biased interviews I think I've ever seen. The reporter interviews an academic about his new book on Jesus, all the while insinuating that because he's a Muslim he's trying to unfairly smear the Christian faith instead of doing scholarly research.


www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/07/28/video_fox_news_lauren_green_asks_reza_aslan_why_muslim_would_be_interested.html

Is there something inherently unreasonable or hostile in a journalist's questioning why a Muslim would write a book on Jesus? And is the author's failure to disclose his Muslim background a little shady? Almost as shady as misrepresenting his scholarly credentials? In case you're not up to speed he lied and claimed his PhD in Sociology was a "PhD in history and world religions".

www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/07/29/scholarly-misrepresentation/

Are we really at a point where the rest of the media isn't just biased, but openly attacks journalists who ask reasonable questions?

I would swear in the Fox interview the book's author stated he disclosed he was Muslim on page two of the book.  Is that not true?  What does page two state?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Yet another example of the left thinking they've found a story ripe for one of their prescripted and well rehearsed phony outrage flip outs ending up in a fizzle.

Here- take my virtual hanky and wipe that egg off your faces.

Can't wait for the post duped again spin on this one.

[mmhmm]

Why would a scholar of religion who happens to be Muslim not write a book about Jesus?  Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, just as does Christianity.  Seems logical, to me.


*That said, I'm going to move this to Current Events.  It has nothing to do with politics, or the markets.

mmhmm, P&M Moderator

[Virgil Showlion]

I can sympathize with the author.

I mean... how many times has the peanut gallery demanded to know why I--a Canadian--should feel compelled to discuss American politics on NMSNM.

But Green insisted, accusing him of failing to “disclose” that he’s a Muslim and at one point asking him about a stupefying claim on whether a Muslim writing a book on Jesus isn’t sort of like a Democrat writing a book on former president Ronald Reagan.

There's some merit to that argument.

We can reasonably conclude that if Mr. Aslan believed Christ's teachings--including that Christ was the Son of God, and the Word made flesh--he would be a Christian rather than a Muslim. You cannot follow all of Christ's teachings and be a Muslim, nor can you follow all the tenants of Islam without violating many of Christ's teachings. The two religions are fundamentally different in many respects.

Hence we have a book about Christ being authored by a man who has implicitly rejected Christ's teachings in favour of Islamic doctrine. Islamic doctrine is a competing doctrine in a sense. It's the interviewer's job to ask tough questions--especially tough questions that the audience would likely ask. And one of the toughest but likely questions is: Given you adhere to a competing doctrine, why should we trust your objectivity?

She's giving him an opportunity to tell the audience why they should trust his analysis despite the fact that he's implicitly rejected Christ's teachings and adopted the teachings of a "competing" religion. In a sense, she'd be remiss not to ask the question.

[swamp]

You don't have to believe the teachings to study them. 

[Shooby]

I think it was a fair question.

[mmhmm]

Ms. Green didn't focus on why Mr. Aslan's objectivity should/should not be trusted.  Ms. Green wanted to know why a religious scholar, who happens to be Muslim, wrote a book about Jesus, recognized as a prophet by Islam.  Seems like a pretty stupid question to me.

[Virgil Showlion]

Jul 29, 2013 17:45:29 GMT -5 swamp said:

You don't have to believe the teachings to study them. 

And you don't have to be an American to discuss American politics. And yet posters often ask me why I'm here. Especially when what I have to say about America isn't all that flattering.

It's a fair question.

[Shooby]

If that is an example of "massive anti Islamic bias" well then that is quite on par with the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy!
LMAO!

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jul 29, 2013 17:37:09 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Why would a scholar of religion who happens to be Muslim not write a book about Jesus?  Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, just as does Christianity.  Seems logical, to me.


*That said, I'm going to move this to Current Events.  It has nothing to do with politics, or the markets.

mmhmm, P&M Moderator

The only logical conclusion here is that this guy's real mission is advancing an Islamic geopolitical point of view. That is why his PhD is in Sociology and hy he wrote his thesis is entitled Global Jihadism as a Transnational Movement: A Theorhetical Framework 

And it's logical that he would lie about that, because an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing department (what hereally does for a living) whose relevant credential is his terminal MFA in Fiction from Iowa who wrote a thesis on Global Jihad probably wouldn't attract near the audience, and might actually raise more eyebrows than just the uniquely astute journalists at Fox, to his book on Jesus.  

Face it: You libs have been had. Again.  I did literally five seconds of research and discovered the guy is a fraud. He deserved the questions he got, and now he owes an answer to the question of why he outright lied in response to Green's questions.

[Virgil Showlion]

Jul 29, 2013 17:51:04 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Ms. Green didn't focus on why Mr. Aslan's objectivity should/should not be trusted.  Ms. Green wanted to know why a religious scholar, who happens to be Muslim, wrote a book about Jesus, recognized as a prophet by Islam.  Seems like a pretty stupid question to me.

Maybe not everybody in her audience (of millions) knows that Christ and Christians are referenced in the Quran.

At least part of her job is to ask him questions on behalf of the public.

[Shooby]

Massive Bias? Um yeah a bit overly dramatic. I was disappointed when I opened the thread.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 29, 2013 17:37:09 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Why would a scholar of religion who happens to be Muslim not write a book about Jesus?  Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, just as does Christianity.  Seems logical, to me.


*That said, I'm going to move this to Current Events.  It has nothing to do with politics, or the markets.

mmhmm, P&M Moderator

Hey-if a Muslim cannot write a book about Jesus and the Christian faith then no Christian can write a book about Muhammad and the Muslim faith.  Simple!

[Virgil Showlion]

Jul 29, 2013 17:55:46 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Jul 29, 2013 17:37:09 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Why would a scholar of religion who happens to be Muslim not write a book about Jesus?  Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, just as does Christianity.  Seems logical, to me.


*That said, I'm going to move this to Current Events.  It has nothing to do with politics, or the markets.

mmhmm, P&M Moderator

The only logical conclusion here is that this guy's real mission is advancing an Islamic geopolitical point of view. That is why his PhD is in Sociology and hy he wrote his thesis is entitled Global Jihadism as a Transnational Movement: A Theorhetical Framework 

And it's logical that he would lie about that, because an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing department (what hereally does for a living) whose relevant credential is his terminal MFA in from Iowa who wrote a thesis on Global Jihad probably wouldn't attract near the audience, and might actually raise more eyebrows than just the uniquely astute journalists at Fox, to his book on Jesus.  

Face it: You libs have been had. Again.  I did literally five seconds of research and discovered the guy is a fraud. He deserved the questions he got, and now he owes an answer to the question of why he outright lied in response to Green's questions.

A Ph.D. in sociology is a relevant degree. If he studied religions during that time, I don't see that calling himself a religious scholar is disingenuous.

[Virgil Showlion]

Jul 29, 2013 17:58:58 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Jul 29, 2013 17:37:09 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Why would a scholar of religion who happens to be Muslim not write a book about Jesus?  Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, just as does Christianity.  Seems logical, to me.


*That said, I'm going to move this to Current Events.  It has nothing to do with politics, or the markets.

mmhmm, P&M Moderator

Hey-if a Muslim cannot write a book about Jesus and the Christian faith then no Christian can write a book about Muhammad and the Muslim faith.  Simple!

Let's make a compromise. If a Christian writes a book about Mohammed and shows up on CNN, we won't call it "Massive Anti-Christian Bias" if the interviewer asks why a Christian is interested in Mohammed.

Deal? Deal.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 29, 2013 17:56:34 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Jul 29, 2013 17:51:04 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Ms. Green didn't focus on why Mr. Aslan's objectivity should/should not be trusted.  Ms. Green wanted to know why a religious scholar, who happens to be Muslim, wrote a book about Jesus, recognized as a prophet by Islam.  Seems like a pretty stupid question to me.

Maybe not everybody in her audience (of millions) knows that Christ and Christians are referenced in the Quran.

At least part of her job is to ask him questions on behalf of the public.

Then they shouldn't even comments about the Muslim religion if they know nothing about it.  Yet many citizens in Tennessee (especially Mufreesboro) are up in arms about Muslims in the state.  I bet 99% of those ready to run Muslims out of the state don't know Christ and Christians are referenced in the Quran.

[mmhmm]

Jul 29, 2013 17:52:56 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Jul 29, 2013 17:45:29 GMT -5 swamp said:

You don't have to believe the teachings to study them. 

And you don't have to be an American to discuss American politics. And yet posters often ask me why I'm here. Especially when what I have to say about America isn't all that flattering.

It's a fair question.

I disagree.  I don't find it fair, at all, Virgil.  Being Canadian doesn't make you ineligible to discuss US politics, as long as you're willing to put in the time to learn something about what's being discussed.  Mr. Aslan is a scholar in the field of religion.  I'd say he's put in the time, wouldn't you?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jul 29, 2013 17:57:54 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Massive Bias? Um yeah a bit overly dramatic. I was disappointed when I opened the thread.

The Libs have been trained to freak out at the slightest indication of a wedge issue or story that can be used to illustrate their preconceived notions like Fox is "right wing" and conservatives are racists, bigots, sexists, and homophobes. It's practiced political strategy. That's why I nailed them on this thread. Substantively this thread was shut down by me after 5 seconds of Googling this author's name. They got sucked in by a phony story of allegedly outrageous conduct by their hated Fox News, and it turns out the real story is this Islamist fraud whose Thesis is on Global Jihad and who is an associate professor in the creative writing department.