All the Religions You Can Insult on CNN
By Daniel Greenfield
SUltanKnish.Blogspot.com
Reza Aslan has built a career complaining about
Islamophobia. Throw a dart at a map of colleges and
the odds were good that Aslan would be speaking at
one of them about the rising threat of Islamophobia.
Earlier
this year, Aslan, an Iranian Muslim, announced that
he was going to change people’s minds about Islam
and make them more tolerant, “through pop culture,
through film and television.“
“Stories have the power to break through the walls
that separate us into different ethnicities,” Aslan
rhapsodized, “different cultures, different
nationalities, different races, different
religions.”
CNN gave Aslan a forum. Nearly every episode of “The
Believer” that aired has made some religion that
isn’t Islam look freaky, unpleasant and threatening.
Instead of breaking through the walls, it has
surveyed different non-Islamic religions only to
sneer at them as strange and weird.
Instead of Islamophobia, it offers
Non-Islam-ophobia.
“The Believer” kicked off with an episode featuring
a sect of cannibals whom the show associated with
Hinduism. Its last episode spread fear over the
threat posed by Orthodox Jews. CNN’s “Believer”
clips offer Reza Aslan explaining why he’s a Muslim
sandwiched between a doomsday cult leader who calls
himself “Jezus”, voodoo, scientology and a Mexican
death cult.
Not even Al Jazeera would have been this blatant
about its Islamic agenda.
Reza Aslan, CNN and “Believer” have already offended
a whole range of religious groups. Hindus angrily
denounced the misrepresentation of their religion.
But the left has much less interest in Hinduphobia
than it does in Islamophobia. Hindu protests outside
CNN offices in five cities garnered almost no
coverage from the same media that covers every
single Islamic protest against Islamophobia.
The media doesn’t believe that all forms of
religious bigotry are created equal.
Orthodox Jews condemned Aslan for his fearmongering
aimed at Judaism. But the left is uninterested in
criticizing anti-Semitism from Islamists. Especially
those on its payroll.
“The Believer” has tried to smear Christians, Hindus
and Jews. It has yet to profile Muslims. Despite
Aslan’s interest in teaching Americans not to be
Islamophobes, he seems to prefer pushing
Christophobia, Judeophobia and Hinduphobia. But
bigots can’t be expected to fight bigotry.
“The Believer” treats non-Islamic religions as a
freakshow. The gimmick attracts viewers. See Reza
Aslan eat brains, talk to a doomsday cult leader or
act afraid of Jews in fedoras. Look at all those
freaks!
But don’t expect to see Shiite Muslims cutting their
children in the street for Ashura on “The Believer”.
Beneath the hipster approach to religion is malice.
Hindus are associated with cannibalism. Orthodox
Jews in Israel are swapped in for Islamists. Reza
Aslan pretends that Israeli cities are no-go zones
as he insists, “If we get out of the car in these
neighborhoods, we will be immediately attacked.”
Of course no one attacks him. But Reza Aslan gets to
pretend to be afraid of the Jews.
In a CNN article, Aslan warned that Orthodox Jews
are “taking on greater political power until, one
day, you wake up and find this group has more or
less taken over the state.”
If someone were to say such a thing about Muslims,
Aslan would be leading a lecture tour to denounce
Islamophobia. Last year, Aslan was peddling “Fear
Inc.: The Industrializing of Islamophobia.” Now Reza
Aslan is, coincidentally, spreading fear of a
religion that Muslims view as their leading enemy.
And CNN is serving as Fear Inc. and industrializing
Aslan’s Non-Islam-ophobia.
In his CNN hit piece, Reza Aslan cunningly
transposes concerns about Islamic birth rates,
theocracy, no-go zones and religious police to Jews.
It’s inconceivable that CNN would run a documentary
worrying about Islamic birth rates leading to
theocracy in Europe or America. But all those
worries about Islamophobia don’t apply to Islamists
fearmongering about other religions.
Israel, Reza Aslan warns, is on the verge of turning
into a “Jewish version of Iran”.
That’s certainly a convenient message to peddle if
you’re an Islamist opponent of Israel. In the past,
Reza Aslan has been utterly unsubtle in his hatred
of the Jewish State. Highlights included comparing
Israelis to Nazis and insisting that Iran wants
nukes because it feels threatened by Israel.
But, as critics know, Reza Aslan has two faces. One
is a ranting bigot. The other feigns spirituality.
The real Aslan is a bigot. The fake Aslan mouths
inanities about the universality of religion even as
he attacks every religion that isn’t Islam. You can
find the real Aslan on social media and the fake
Aslan on CNN.
“The Believer” is the perfect platform for Reza
Aslan. Its smirking subtitle “Spiritually curious”
and Aslan’s inanities convey the image of a hipster
looking for religious meaning everywhere. It’s no
doubt how the show was sold to CNN. And CNN execs
saw Aslan’s approach of showcasing religious
freakiness while disguising it with nostrums about
the universality of the search for meaning as a safe
bet.
But Aslan isn’t spiritually curious. He’s
spiritually hostile. He’s learned to disguise that
hostility by sounding like a liberal. On CNN, his
attacks on various religions are interspersed with
disclaimers. But the disclaimers, like the
inanities, are meant to get lost in the overall
impression that Hindus eat brains and Jews are
Islamic terrorists who want to take over everything.
That is what viewers will remember.
Reza Aslan postures as a scholar, but he’s callously
ignorant of other religions and he isn’t actually
interested in learning about them except to
undermine them. His curiosity is only a media pose.
“The Believer” continues the trend that defined
Aslan’s career. He writes a book defending Islam and
then another that attacks Christianity. Then he
responds to the criticism by crying Islamophobia.
The only one who should be allowed to stir up fear
and loathing of other religions is Reza Aslan.
Christians, Hindus and Jews have taken apart Reza
Aslan’s claims about their religions. But despite
Aslan’s posturing, he isn’t a scholar. A scholar
wouldn’t be boasting about eating brains or
pretending to be afraid of Jews in Israel. “The
Believer” isn’t a scholar’s work. It’s a malignant
attack on non-Islamic religions disguised in one
part universalism and four parts sensationalism.
Reza Aslan’s openness is a sham. As is his
enthusiasm. He isn’t a scholar of religion but a
promoter of Islam. He appears to embrace other
religions, boasting, “I feel Jewish” during one
episode and writing a book about Jesus, only to
undermine them. He thrives by pitting members of
enemy religions against each other whether it’s
liberal and conservative Christians or secular and
religious Jews.
Nothing better could or should be expected from Reza
Aslan. “The Believer” is xenophobia masquerading as
tolerance and sectarianism dressed up as
universalism. Aslan’s episode on Jews in Israel is
exactly what you ought to expect from a slick Hamas
apologist. Hindus are likewise in the way of Islamic
expansionism. As are Christians. Depicting
non-Muslims as bizarre normalizes Islamic violence.
Something more ought to be expected from CNN.
The media has long thrived on mocking conservative
Christians. It’s fairly casual about taking swipes
at Orthodox Jews. But “The Believer” expanded its
hit list to Hindus. How many others will there be?
Islam is involved in conflicts with every major
religion on earth. How many religions is CNN ready
to allow Aslan to smear? How long before “The
Believer” heads to Myanmar to settle scores with the
Buddhist monks who are defending themselves against
Muslim violence? Or to Sudan to go after the
Animists facing Muslim persecution? Islamists have
no shortage of enemies. Neither will CNN.
CNN won’t report the truth about Islamic terror. Yet
it is ready to offend every non-Muslim religion on
earth.