Your Own MFA Jesus
Has an author ever gotten a greater sales bump out of a single Fox News interview than Reza Aslan did? The UC Riverside professor of creative writing was hawking his new book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth on a Fox webcast. Host Lauren Green tossed him what was probably intended as a puffball question. Why would a Muslim want to write a book about Jesus? Rather than explain that Islam considers Jesus a prophet, Aslan got his back up. "Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim," he said. Green wasn't ready for that, so she repeated the question. Aslan kept playing the offended academic. Slate reported that the exchange "may just be the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview on Fox News." News of the confrontation proved to be a sales bonanza for Aslan. His book on Jesus outsold Bill O'Reilly's effort.
