Incredibly Cringeworthy Interview

Sam Crow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY92TV4_Wc0

I know its Fox News, but Jesus! The interviewer is so incredibly ignorant, and downright rude. Surely there are more qualified, educated and knowledgeable people who could do that job.

The guy held his cool well, imo. Probably delighted with all the attention he's getting thanks to this video going viral.

Is this type of ignorance/intolerance of Islam widely ingrained in US society, or is this just a case, of a one off moron doing a bad interview?

For those who can't/don't want to watch the video. Its about an author Reza Aslan, who wrote a historical account of the life of Jesus. Its Called Zealot. The interviewer spends the entire 10 minute interview asking why a Muslim man is writing about Jesus, despite the fact he is a professional scholar of religions with a PhD in the subject, and has been writing about world religions for 20 years.

4zn76tysfajdxp

Sam Crow wrote: »

despite the fact he is a professional scholar of religions with a PhD in the subject, and has been writing about world religions for 30 years.

20 years. Let's not exaggerate now...

Sam Crow

Sam Helpless Equalizer wrote: »

20 years. Let's not exaggerate now...

Typo... my fingers were bashing the keyboard in such an indignant rage, that I hit the 3 instead the 2. Forgiveness please...

RGDATA!

funny enough, the host's bio page on fox site mentions that she's a classical pianist, but doesn't mention her religion! i take it that it's a religious affairs based show she's hosting but it seems she's "trying to hide her religion"!

Jonny7

aaaand now his book is a number 1 bestseller, some credit to Fox for their inadvertent hit-job turned advertisement

Cody Pomeray

He answered all of her ignorant questions firmly and eloquently, and should have put all her criticisms to bed.

Unfortunately, stupidity is such a relentless foe.

kfallon

Is it just me or does anyone else not really bother with random posted YouTube clips that are over 2 min long?

Ilik Urgee

kfallon wrote: »

Is it just me or does anyone else not really bother with random posted YouTube clips that are over 2 min long?

Yeah I'm the same. If there's an ad at the start of it I close it straight away.

downonthefarm

no wonder they think we are all pig-dogs

SweepTheLeg

I turned it off after a minute. I can't handle cringe videos.

Killer Wench

No, her beliefs don't represent American perceptions on Islam. Her bias attitude reflects the nature of Fox News and their strange agenda against Islam.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/29/206580444/book-news-outrage-after-fox-news-interview-with-zealot-author?utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130729

http://www.amazon.com/Zealot-Times-Jesus-Nazareth-ebook/product-reviews/B00BRUQ7ZY/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Gummy Panda

kfallon wrote: »

Is it just me or does anyone else not really bother with random posted YouTube clips that are over 2 min long?

you have the attention span of a peanut then

Fluorescence

Watched the first half and I have to say he is the one with the attitude problem. Yes it was a dumb question to ask, but he kept bring later questions back to, "I am an HISTORIAN. I have a P-H-D and T-W-E-N-T-Y years experience" etc etc even when she was asking unrelated questions.

Sofiztikated

How he kept his cool, and was polite to that woman is beyond me.

Duckworth_Luas

Typical nerd! Took him 40 seconds to mention he had a PhD!

TheBody

That was painful to watch. She was such a gobsh*te.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Sam Crow wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY92TV4_Wc0

I know its Fox News, but Jesus! The interviewer is so incredibly ignorant, and downright rude. Surely there are more qualified, educated and knowledgeable people who could do that job.
.

Yes, but they're very unlikley to be working for Fox.

Nodin

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Yes, but they're very unlikley to be working for Fox.

...unless they (a) need money or (b) have no conscience.

AngeGal

Fluorescence wrote: »

Watched the first half and I have to say he is the one with the attitude problem. Yes it was a dumb question to ask, but he kept bring later questions back to, "I am an HISTORIAN. I have a P-H-D and T-W-E-N-T-Y years experience" etc etc even when she was asking unrelated questions.

First question

You're a Muslim so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?

Second

It still begs the question, why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?

Third

I want to read you some quotes.

"It's not a historians report on Jesus. It's an educated Muslims."

She seemed determined to focus on him being a Muslim rather than his book, the implication being that he was biased, a pretty serious charge.

FouxDaFaFa

Fluorescence wrote: »

Watched the first half and I have to say he is the one with the attitude problem. Yes it was a dumb question to ask, but he kept bring later questions back to, "I am an HISTORIAN. I have a P-H-D and T-W-E-N-T-Y years experience" etc etc even when she was asking unrelated questions.

He's been around a while. I'd say he knew how this interviewer was going to play it before going in.

I think he had to be aggressive in making his point because she would not get off the muslim thing, just kept coming back to it in a roundabout way.

The funny thing is, her point is that he wouldn't be able write an unbiased book about Jesus because he's a muslim. If that is so, nobody would. Christians would be biased in Jesus' favour. Other religions would perhaps be biased against. Atheists should be the "control sample" but would probably be accused of negative bias too. You can't win.

Killer Wench

How else was he supposed to address an individual who wanted to dismiss his scholarly background simply because he was Muslim?

Fluorescence

AngeGal wrote: »

First question

You're a Muslim so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?

Second

It still begs the question, why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?

Third

I want to read you some quotes.

"It's not a historians report on Jesus. It's an educated Muslims."

She seemed determined to focus on him being a Muslim rather than his book, the implication being that he was biased, a pretty serious charge.

Fair enough. Like I said, I gave up halfway through for sheer redundancy :pac:

Voltex

As soon as I saw Fox News I knew where this was gonna go.
Max Keiser on Russia Today is probably its antithesis.

Celly Smunt

He has a PHD,jeeeeez we get it.He doesn't half go on.

krudler

Celly Smunt wrote: »

He has a PHD,jeeeeez we get it.He doesn't half go on.

Yeah but she keeps asking him the same question over and over. It doesn't seem to sink into her brain that someone with a phd in religions that aren't Christianity should be allowed write about Jeebus.

dr gonzo

I have to say fair play to him for not just playing the most obvious card to shut her up, Jesus is a prophet and the messiah in Islam, and is mentioned twenty times more in the Quran than Muhammad. But he didnt say that because his religion had nothing to do with his book, his academic background did.

Thwip!

his interview on The Daily Show went better thankfully

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oslV3wlAoF0

omahaid

He's doing an AMA on reddit right now I think

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1jal04/i_am_reza_aslan_scholar_of_religions_author_of/

Media999

Fluorescence wrote: »

Watched the first half and I have to say he is the one with the attitude problem. Yes it was a dumb question to ask, but he kept bring later questions back to, "I am an HISTORIAN. I have a P-H-D and T-W-E-N-T-Y years experience" etc etc even when she was asking unrelated questions.

I have seen this video on God knows how many forums today and you are literally the only one ive seen that takes Fox News side.

You cant see how incredibly racist and ignorant Fox is no?

Fluorescence

Media999 wrote: »

I have seen this video on God knows how many forums today and you are literally the only one ive seen that takes Fox News side.

You cant see how incredibly racist and ignorant Fox is no?

I didn't take Fox's side. I think it was an utterly ridiculous question to pose. However my first thought when watching was that his response was OTT. He just kept re-iterating the fact that he's got PhDs coming out of his ears. The interview he did on the Daily Show was much better - if he'd given that answer instead to open up with then perhaps the Fox interviewer wouldn't have been so doggedly persuing the Muslim angle. She comes across poorly anyway, I think he could have done better. That said I watched it again and he is much more calm than I would have been if posed with such an insulting question.

FouxDaFaFa

Reza Aslan Reddit AMA.

--Kaiser--

Someone gets harangued on Fox News.
The shock!
the horror!

Hobbes

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Someone gets harangued on Fox News.
The shock!
the horror!

Except this time it is the presenter.

Ash.J.Williams

i was waiting for him to ask "is this questioning influenced by 911 at all?"

CiaranMT

Found this article on Foxnews.com, penned last week. She must have read it beforehand or something, because it's every bit as bad:

Fox News wrote:

Peter Johnson Jr

Reza Aslan, author of the new book, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” has been interviewed on a host of media outlets in the last week. Riding a publicity wave, the book has surged to #2 on Amazon's list.
Media reports have introduced Aslan as a “religion scholar” but have failed to mention that he is a devout Muslim.

His book is not a historian’s report on Jesus. It is an educated Muslim’s opinion about Jesus -- yet the book is being peddled as objective history on national TV and radio.

Aslan is not a trained historian. Like tens of thousands of us he has been formally educated in theology and New Testament Greek.
He is a bright man with every right to hold his own opinion about Jesus—and to proselytize his opinion.

As a sincere man, Aslan’s Muslim beliefs affect his entire life, including his conclusions about Jesus. But this is not being disclosed. “Zealot” is being presented as objective and scholarly history, not as it actually is—an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East.

Rest of article

It's woeful stuff

Sofiztikated

CiaranMT wrote: »

Found this article on Foxnews.com, penned last week. She must have read it beforehand or something, because it's every bit as bad:




Rest of article

It's woeful stuff

I think that is some of what she was talking about?

Wibbs

gobsh&#237 wrote: »

Like tens of thousands of us he has been formally educated in theology and New Testament Greek.

Yea a really common one on the CAO that is.

gobsh&#237 wrote: »

As a sincere man, Aslan’s Muslim beliefs affect his entire life, including his conclusions about Jesus. But this is not being disclosed. “Zealot” is being presented as objective and scholarly history, not as it actually is—an educated Muslim’s opinions about Jesus and the ancient Near East

Eh no. Maybe they should have taken theology themselves. Muslims believe that Jesus escaped crucifixion, whereas this Aslan lad sees this as a historical fact.

BTW how he escaped crucifixion is a doosie. Apparently Allah did the old switcheroo and swapped him for a bloke who looked like him. Oh yes. Brilliant. That wasn't a good day to be told "hey you know who you really remind me of? That Jesus guy from Galillee. No really Dave, you're the spit of him" *Puff of divine smoke* "Hey Dave where'd you go? Dave... Dave..."

Amerika

Gotta love Fox News… they’re not afraid to put powerful and strong interviewees from all viewpoints and will put it out there even if it makes themselves look bad. They're more Fair and Balanced then most of the media here.

Yes, Green didn’t do so well, and appeared she simply was reading questions given to her rather then having done the research herself. But Aslan played on tricks too, with little more than pseudo objectivity as his defense. And by his many of the comments here, most fell for it. I guess it’s now considered intellectually impossible for someone with 20 years of study and some nice credentials to write a hit piece towards something which is against their own views and ideologies. That’s his argument, right?

floggg

Amerika wrote: »

Gotta love Fox News… they’re not afraid to put powerful and strong interviewees from all viewpoints and will put it out there even if it makes themselves look bad. They're more Fair and Balanced then most of the media here.

Yes, Green didn’t do so well, and appeared she simply was reading questions given to her rather then having done the research herself. But Aslan played on tricks too, with little more than pseudo objectivity as his defense. And by his many of the comments here, most fell for it. I guess it’s now considered intellectually impossible for someone with 20 years of study and some nice credentials to write a hit piece towards something which is against their own views and ideologies. That’s his argument, right?

What's that your smoking on?

Just like you'll agree being a scholar doesn't preclude you from being biased being Muslim doesn't preclude him from writing an objective and thoroughly researched book on Josh Bin Yosef.

Stinicker

I am an expert of this, I am an expert of that etc. I have a pHD etc, I bet he was studying Jesus while other normal lads were out getting the shift and more. What a total nerd geek!

ScumLord

kfallon wrote: »

Is it just me or does anyone else not really bother with random posted YouTube clips that are over 2 min long?

I much prefer videos at least 10 minutes. One time I spent 40 minutes watching a guy make a wooden sphere on a lathe.

I much prefer he's view of Jesus. That he was a great man that changed the course of humanity but he wasn't a god.

Stinicker

ScumLord wrote: »

I much prefer videos at least 10 minutes. One time I spent 40 minutes watching a guy make a wooden sphere on a lathe.

I much prefer he's view of Jesus. That he was a great man that changed the course of humanity but he wasn't a god.

Wasn't he supposed to be the son of God?

ScumLord

Stinicker wrote: »

Wasn't he supposed to be the son of God?

So they say. I don't know if he actually did or whether he's followers made him out to be the son of god so others would listen to what he had to say.

Nodin

Stinicker wrote: »

Wasn't he supposed to be the son of God?

...that little argument has been the subject of a bit of bloodshed over the years.

woodoo

If it had have been bill oreilly bill would have shouted him down and then cut him off while proclaiming he was biased being a Muslim.

Cesira

The reporter obviously got her credentials out of a cracker jack box...her ignorance and bias is blaring. BTW...it is a good book!

sunflower27

Stinicker wrote: »

I am an expert of this, I am an expert of that etc. I have a pHD etc, I bet he was studying Jesus while other normal lads were out getting the shift and more. What a total nerd geek!

Yes. Correct. He states clearly at 8.04 that he is indeed still a virgin.