Reza Aslan Quotes

Radical Islam and US exceptionalism are in bed with each other. They're like lovers, methinks.

The present crisis in the Islamic world may stem from too many loud and conflicting voices, all claiming religious authority.

First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community, it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat.

Islam has been badly used by a certain ideology.

What is really happening here is the radicalization of the Moslems throughout the world.

It’s the confrontation with modernity that produces terrorism.

I’m very worried about the religious right. I don’t believe in mixing religion and politics. They do a disservice to religion and to politics.

The end of the Cold War unfroze religion and ethnicity as violent forces…

The Middle East is a region where extremists go all the way and moderates just go away.

In the past, most wars were motivated by the idea of nationhood. Today, however, wars are incited above all using religion as an excuse.

Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a ceasefire.

It's very difficult to talk about religion in Iran because religion has gotten so mixed up with politics.

I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder.

The intersection of religion and world politics has often been a bloody crossroads.

If there are Muslims who believe that they've got to kill Christians to make a way for the Islamic faith in the West, not only would they be disappointed, but it will lead to conflict, there's no doubt about that.

When you forcefully suppress religious nationalism, you radicalize it.

Well, today, we are in the struggle brought on to us by the terrorists of Islam. It is a war that we did not choose. It was a war that was declared against us as Americans, against our people, against our Constitution.

To speak specifically of our problem with the Muslim world, we are meandering into a genuine clash of civilizations, and we're deluding ourselves with euphemisms. We're talking about Islam being a religion of peace that's been hijacked by extremists. If ever there were a religion that's not a religion of peace, it is Islam.

Zionism was originally a rebellion against religious Judaism and the PLO Charter was essentially secularist. But because the conflict was allowed to fester without a resolution, religion got sucked into the escalating cycle of violence and became part of the problem.

The terrorists whatever slogans they use have nothing in common with Islam.

How can you tell when a political ideology has become the equivalent of a religion?

What I see in the Arab world, in Egypt, everywhere is increasing radicalization.

We've finally given liberals a war against fundamentalism, and they don't want to fight it. They would except that it would put them on the same side as the United States.

Each side had its uninformed fanatics. And each side had political leaders who fanned the flames with their rhetoric.

Jewish extremism and Islamic fanaticism fed each other.