There were dozens of people who walked through the Holy Land claiming to be the Messiah, curing the sick, exorcising demons, challenging Rome, gathering followers. In a way, there's nothing unique about what Jesus did. In fact, many of these so-called false Messiahs we know by name.

Reza Aslan

I think if you place Jesus firmly in the historical context... you can make very educated hypotheses and guesses about how he lived.

Reza Aslan

Many of the prophets of Jesus's time were thought to just be mad men, just sort of crazy people who were claiming to channel the divine. Perhaps that means we should be a little less judgmental of some of our own crazies talking about God on the corner. They might actually have found a pretty comfortable place in Jesus's time.

Reza Aslan

Literature offers not just a window into the culture of diverse regions, but also the society, the politics; it's the only place where we can keep track of ideas.

Reza Aslan

Religion doesn't make people bigots. People are bigots and they use religion to justify their ideology.

Reza Aslan

What the printing press is to Christianity in the 16th century, that's what the Internet is doing to Islam now. It has opened up the monopoly over the interpretation of Islam that used to solely belong to the religious class.

Reza Aslan

I'm a person of faith, and the language that I use to define my faith, the symbols and metaphors that I rely upon to express my faith, are those provided by Islam because they make the most sense to me.

Reza Aslan

Many poets in Iran have learned to speak almost a secret language, where political issues are talked about in allegorical ways.

Reza Aslan

Every single interview I have ever done on TV or in print says I'm a Muslim.

Reza Aslan

There were dozens of people who walked through the Holy Land claiming to be the Messiah, curing the sick, exorcising demons, challenging Rome, gathering followers. In a way, there's nothing unique about what Jesus did. In fact, many of these so-called false Messiahs we know by name.

Reza Aslan

Islamophobia has become so mainstream in this country that Americans have been trained to expect violence against Muslims - not excuse it, but expect it. And that's happened because you have an Islamophobia industry in this country devoted to making Americans think there's an enemy within.

Reza Aslan

Anyone who says that Iran will commit suicide with its nuclear power is a moron and has no business in discussion.

Reza Aslan

Religion is never going to go away, and anyone who thinks it will doesn't understand what religion is. It is a language to describe the experience of human nature, so for as long as people struggle to describe what it means to be alive, it will be a ready-made language to express those feelings.

Reza Aslan

The truth of the matter is that when you write about religion like I do, you're writing about something that people take very seriously.

Reza Aslan

Whether you're talking about MSNBC or Fox or CNN, it's all about getting enough interest out there, sensationalizing the story in such a way that people are compelled to tune in.

Reza Aslan

The more I started studying the historical Jesus, the man who lived 2,000 years ago... the more I started to realize that there was this chasm between the historical Jesus and the Jesus that I had been taught about in church.

Reza Aslan

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 happens to be Muslim.

Reza Aslan

There's nothing more distasteful than an academic having to, like, trot out his credentials. You really come off as a jerk when you do that.

Reza Aslan

It is the job of the historian to say what is likely, and of faith to say what is possible.

Reza Aslan

The idea that education will lead to a lessening of bigotry is just factually incorrect.

Reza Aslan

A cosmic war is like a ritual drama in which participants act out on Earth a battle they believe is actually taking place in the heavens.

Reza Aslan