The media has launched a massive campaign to promote Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Some links with examples of his misrepresentations are at bottom*). The book, as does the greater part of similar works by non-Christians that are designed to deconstruct the life work and message of Jesus of Nazarene, presents a picture of Christ not only utterly opposed to what Christians believe about him, but also includes a deliberate misrepresentation of the words of the Gospels. The intent is clear - deluge the public arena with high praise for one worthless book after another about Christianity, Israel, or Western Civilization.
In a manner similar to that which Leftists employ with the US Constitution, denigrating its meaning on one side while pretending it means something other than what does on the other, Muslims such as Aslan enthusiastically expend tremendous efforts to change the meaning, and ignore the wording of, the New Testament - this while the official Muslim position is that the Gospels themselves have been largely corrupted by Christians. Here is the rub; Muslims deny the credibility of the New Testament, (Muslims also assert that spurious books such as the Gospel of Barnabas** were supposed to have been included), yet Reza Aslan purports to study the New Testament as if he believes that it is a credible source. To put it bluntly, Reza Aslan wants to have it both ways - deny the NT among his coreligionists while implying to us that he believes it is a source worth studying for meaning. He then simply tells the reader that the NT does not mean what you see in black and white.
A reading of the Koran will dispel any confusion about what Muslims believe about Jesus. The NT has four Gospels that detail his teachings and events of his life, but the Koran merely has a brief note about Jesus (Isa) having a few words with his apostles, who do little more than answer '....We believe in Allah....". Aside from maybe one other quick mention, that's it; a few Jews responding to Jesus' words and saying that they believed in God (Hebrew Elohim). Recall that the Koran holds that Jesus was not crucified either.
"When Jesus found Unbelief on their part He said: "Who will be My helpers to (the work of) Allah?" Said the disciples: "We are Allah's helpers: We believe in Allah, and do thou bear witness that we are Muslims.
Our Lord! we believe in what Thou hast revealed, and we follow the Messenger; then write us down among those who bear witness."
—Quran Surah Al-Imran 52-53"
One more thing should be noted about Aslan's credibility. He routinely engages in the Islamic practice of Taqiyya - the allowance for Muslims to lie with impunity as long as the purpose of the lie is to advance the cause of Islam.
The reader can run a check on lack of credibility of Aslan's book. The rest of this post will contain examples of the attitude and behavior of the author himself. You see, Reza Aslan is one of the most horrid, nasty, and false witness-bearing individuals of whom I am aware:
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http://www.jihadwatch.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/br0nc0s/managed-mt/mt-srch.cgi?search=aslan&IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20
Dear Robert Spencer. Stop begging for my attention. I'll never take U seriously. P.S. I don't think UR fat & gay. I think UR fat & stupid.
May 23, 2012 11:21am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@rezaaslan
Reza Aslan
Robert Spencer freaks out bc I called Israeli immigration officials "assholes." What's the big deal? I call Spencer an asshole all the time.
April 16, 2012 10:46am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that the Buzzfeed link below had so many examples of Aslan's foul and abusive language that any attempt to put them here would have made this post a mile long:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/author-attacked-by-fox-news-is-actually-kind-of-a-jerk-on-tw
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*http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2013/08/05/reza-aslans-zealot-so-fanciful-even-liberal-religion-scholar-prothero-
*http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2013/08/02/fox-versus-the-islamboosting-mainstream-n1654510/page/full
*http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/14-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-book-zealot
**English versions (Called commentaries as true Korans must be in Arabic) are replete with footnotes that detail the Muslim position on the New Testament and non-canonical books such as the Gospel of Barnabas)
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