Bill Maher Isn’t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion

[cbayer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/opinion/bill-maher-isnt-the-only-one-who-misunderstands-religion.html?_r=0

By REZA ASLAN
OCT. 8, 2014

BILL MAHER’s recent rant against Islam has set off a fierce debate about the problem of religious violence, particularly when it comes to Islam.

Mr. Maher, who has argued that Islam is unlike other religions (he thinks it’s more “like the Mafia”), recently took umbrage with President Obama’s assertion that the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS, does not represent Islam. In Mr. Maher’s view, Islam has “too much in common with ISIS.”

His comments have led to a flurry of responses, perhaps none so passionate as that of the actor Ben Affleck, who lambasted Mr. Maher, on Mr. Maher’s own HBO show, for “gross” and “racist” generalizations about Muslims.

Yet there is a real lack of sophistication on both sides of the argument when it comes to discussing religion and violence.

more at link

[Jim__]

1. It's typical that Maher gets to broadcast his ignorance weekly on national TV and informed crtitics,

... like Aslan, are mostly confined to much smaller venues.

[cbayer]

2. I like Aslan, but, unlike Maher, he is not in the entertainment industry, imo.

Because of that, he gets more respect when he does speak, I think.

[kwassa]

3. I was going to post this article as well ....

great stuff in the middle of it ...

What both the believers and the critics often miss is that religion is often far more a matter of identity than it is a matter of beliefs and practices. The phrase “I am a Muslim,” “I am a Christian,” “I am a Jew” and the like is, often, not so much a description of what a person believes or what rituals he or she follows, as a simple statement of identity, of how the speaker views her or his place in the world.

As a form of identity, religion is inextricable from all the other factors that make up a person’s self-understanding, like culture, ethnicity, nationality, gender and sexual orientation. What a member of a suburban megachurch in Texas calls Christianity may be radically different from what an impoverished coffee picker in the hills of Guatemala calls Christianity. The cultural practices of a Saudi Muslim, when it comes to the role of women in society, are largely irrelevant to a Muslim in a more secular society like Turkey or Indonesia. The differences between Tibetan Buddhists living in exile in India and militant Buddhist monks persecuting the Muslim minority known as the Rohingya, in neighboring Myanmar, has everything to do with the political cultures of those countries and almost nothing to do with Buddhism itself.

No religion exists in a vacuum. On the contrary, every faith is rooted in the soil in which it is planted. It is a fallacy to believe that people of faith derive their values primarily from their Scriptures. The opposite is true. People of faith insert their values into their Scriptures, reading them through the lens of their own cultural, ethnic, nationalistic and even political perspectives.

[pinto]

4. Excellent observations, imo.

[edgineered]

7. And yet there are those unwilling to recognize this.

Some of them are frequently heard in various discussions here. Unbelievable!

[cbayer]

14. Who would that be and how do you conclude that they are "unwilling to

recognize this"?

[YoungDemCA]

12. Great excerpt

Thanks!

[cbayer]

15. Good except and I tend to agree with him.

It is often an identity issue and I think that strengthens the argument for treating people without prejudice whether they are believers or not believers.

I like that he compares it to things that are not choices, as I believe that for some religious belief or lack of belief is not a choice.

It also makes the strong case for not lumping all people together just because they embrace a common label. Being able to see the differences and come to understand each person as an individual is crucial for a progressive or liberal thinker.

[trotsky]

5. Reza Aslan is Wrong About Islam and This is Why

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2014/10/05/reza-aslan-is-wrong-about-islam-and-this-is-why/
(A guest post on Friendly Atheist written by ex-Muslims Muhammad Syed and Sarah Haider.)

This isn’t the first time Reza has stated half-truths in defense of his agenda. In his book No God But God, he misleads readers about many issues including the age of Muhammad’s child-bride Aisha. Scripture unanimously cites Aisha’s betrothal at age 6 or 7 and consummation at 9. Similarly, he quotes Mariya the Copt as being a wife of the prophet when overwhelming evidence points to her being Muhammad’s concubine.

We believe that Islam badly needs to be reformed, and it is only Muslims who can truly make it into a modern religion. But it is the likes of Reza Aslan who act as a deterrent to change by refusing to acknowledge real complications within the scripture and by actively promoting half-truths. Bigotry against Muslims is a real and pressing problem, but one can criticize the Islamic ideology without treating Muslims as themselves problematic or incapable of reform.

There are true Muslim reformists who are willing to call a spade a spade while working for the true betterment of their peoples — but their voices are drowned out by the noise of apologists who are all-too-often aided by the Western left. Those who accept distortions in order to hold on to a comforting dream-world where Islamic fundamentalism is merely an aberration are harming reform by encouraging apologists.

[edhopper]

6. Sounds like

Christians and Jews who don't acknowledge the bible condones slavery, rape and genocide.

[trotsky]

8. I can't identify with the folks who only see in black and white.

Religions aren't pure and noble and good all the time. There are horrible ideas in just about all of them. Anti-human, anti-woman, anti-environment, anti-tolerance, anti-progressive ideas. These EXIST, people. Putting on the blinders and saying no, religion is fine, it is never to blame for being the source of these bad ideas? Insanity. And a surefire way to make sure we fail.

[YoungDemCA]

11. What about the "all religion is inherently bad" folks?

Yes, they exist, and no, they are not necessarily more "progressive" or "humanist" than anyone else.

[trotsky]

13. Go ahead and rail against them if you want.

No one's stopping you. There are some good things in religion - I'll note that even the famous religion-haters like Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens even acknowledged that.

Do you think religion is all good, or all bad?

[rug]

10. They're not saying what you think they're saying.

We believe that Islam badly needs to be reformed, and it is only Muslims who can truly make it into a modern religion.

[PoutrageFatigue]

9. Aslan is a joke...

At least Bill Maher intentionally makes people laugh...

[kwassa]

16. rather than attacking Aslan, do you have a critique of his thesis?