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Reza Aslan

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“Like a Jewish rabbi, a Sunni cleric is a scholar, not a priest. His judgment is followed not because it carries the authority of God (it does not), but because the cleric's scholarship, his intimate knowledge of tradition, and his unbreakable bond with the past grant him special insight into God's will.”

IslamReligion And PhiloshophyClericClericalismSunni Islam
Book:No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
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“It took many years to cleanse Arabia of its “false idols.” It will take many more to cleanse Islam of its new false idols-bigotry and fanaticism-worshipped by those who have replaced Muhammad's original vision of tolerance and unity with their own ideals of hatred and discord. But the cleansing is inevitable, and the tide of reform cannot be stopped. The Islamic Reformation is already here. We are all living in it.”

YearsVisionIdealsHatredOriginalsUnityIslamToleranceReformInevitableIslamicBigotryIdolsTidesReplacedFanaticismMuhammadReformationArabiaCleansingDiscord
Author:Reza Aslan
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“If you ask a Saudi Imam why women in Saudi Arabia can't drive, he'll say, 'Because Islam demands it.' But that's absurd, because - first of all - Islam demands no such thing; and secondly, the only country in the world in which women can't drive is Saudi Arabia. The inability to understand the difference between a cultural practice and religious belief is shocking among self-described intellectuals.”

IfsWorldFirstsSelfCountryWisdomRealityReligionAsksBeliefCommunityLeadershipDifferencesReligiousJusticeClassPracticeGenerationsHuman NatureDemandEqualEthicsIslamHuman RightsAbsurdIdeologyShockingInabilityEqual RightsArabiaSaudi ArabiaSaudisReligious Belief
Author:Reza Aslan
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“When I was in the US, I felt that the discourse there surrounding Muslims as the other, problematising Muslims and Islam as the other was very similar to what we find in Australia, which is that the image of Islam is a constructed image in the West. We are starting from a point of view that Islam and Muslims - well Islam is a violent, misogynistic, hateful religion and that is where the debate always starts from - that presumption underlies the discourse.”

WellsFeltViewsWestIslamStartingPoint Of ViewDebateViolentAustraliaDiscourseHatefulPresumption
Author:Reza Aslan
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“The religiously observant is lumped in with the nominal Muslim, the nominal Muslim is lumped in with the non-Muslim and the radical. If we want to make sense of this mess and stop pushing Muslims into the arms of the extremist, we need to make meaningful distinctions between the religion of Islam that a billion Muslims follow and see as a guidance as a peaceful righteous moral life and the puritanical Islam of a minority which so captures the media's attention.”

IfsWantNeedsAttentionMoralMediaArmsIslamBillionsMeaningfulPeacefulMessRadicalMake SenseGuidanceDistinctionMinoritiesPushingCaptureRighteousExtremistObservantMoral LifeReligion Of Islam
Author:Reza Aslan
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