Reza Aslan on The Daily Show
Published by Haseeb January 26th, 2006 in Current News, Islam, Videos 
Reza Aslan on The Daily Show
(If link doesnt work, click on Reza Aslan here: The Daily Show: Celebrity Interviews)
Reza Aslan (Iranian-American scholar, author and journalist) gives a great interview. I liked how he expalined that people untrained in well-established institutions (such as Bin Laden, Zarqawi) have no authority to issue fatwas and Islamic rulings. Reza argures that Osama has created this:
“radically individualistic version of Islam in which anyone can issue a fatwa or declare Jihad. It is in direct opposition to these institutional authorities. … For 14 centuries, only a Muslim cleric who is affiliated with one of the established schools of law (madhab) in Islam had the right to even interpret Islam (to say what the Quran means, to delcare jihad, to issue fatwas, etc.). By doing all this himself, Bin Laden is setting himself up in direct opposition to the clerical institutions. He is trying to appeal to Muslims who are fed up with the institutions who think they have nothing to offer. And they are looking for other sources of leadership, and they have found it.”
Great interview! Inshallah id like to see a Shaykh Hamza or Imam Zaid on one of these shows!
By the way has anyone read his book, No god But God? It has good reviews on amazon, and seems like a good read. If anyone has read it please reply in a comment with your feedback. Thanks
8 Responses to “Reza Aslan on The Daily Show”
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from: United States us
Pingback on Mar 26th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
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from: United States us Pingback on Apr 27th, 2006 at 12:45 am
I saw this interview the other night as well, and Aslan brought a lot of good points about radical individualist [like Bin Laden] into perspective.
By the way, I have been reading your blog for the past week or so and well, great blog.
Reza Aslan… who is he actually? God that name sounds so familiar…
I saw it too. He did an *excellent* job. We need more Muslims like that up on the screen: calm, collected, articulate, intelligent, and well-balanced. It’s much better than the usual “burn-the-effigy” Muslims we usually see.
I browed thru his book in Borders when I used to study there, when it was out in hard cover - it seemed very interesting. Now that it’s in paperback I think I’m going to go out and get it and put it on my bookshelf so I can look at it everyday and hope that I can read it when I’m done with residency insha Allah
.
I’d be interested to see his views on various things… and find out where he was educated.
Salams to all,
Saleem
PS - by the way do you realize the Jon Stewart said “La ilaha illa Allah
” several times!? (when he was reading the name of the book “No god but God”) That’s awesome! JON STEWART IS MUSLIM! TAKBIR! 
I saw the interview as well. To be honest, when Jon Stewart introduced Reza, I thought he was going to be alot different. Masha’Allah
he did a great job. I was impressed.
I’ve been reading this blog for about a week too.. *thumbs up*
i stumbled across your blog a couple months ago through a friend .. and yes ive read reza aslan’s book and its incredibly good, i highly recommend it. very well written, perhaps some things that one might wish to contest but overall does a really great job at addressing the issues. he also has a really solid grasp on history, combined with a progressive approach to religion/politics and great writing style. the chapter on sufism was my favourite part..
I bought the book. I’m sure I’ll review it when I finish.