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My name is Reza Aslan

Dr. Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is a columnist at the Daily Beast. Reza Aslan has degrees in Religions from Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the board of directors for both the Ploughshares Fund, which gives grants for peace and security issues, Abraham’s Vision, an interfaith peace organization, and PEN USA. Aslan’s first book is the New York Times Bestseller, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, which has been translated into thirteen languages, short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award in the UK, and nominated for a PEN USA award for research Non-Fiction. His most recent book is How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror, followed by an edited anthology, Words Without Borders: Writings from the Middle East, which we will be published by Norton in 2010. Aslan is Cofounder and Chief Creative Officer of BoomGen Studios, a hub for creative content from and about the Middle East, as well as Editorial Executive of Mecca.com. Born in Iran, he now lives in Los Angeles where he is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.

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My Ideas

Re: Is there a clash of civilizations?
Re: Is there a clash of civilizations?
Aslan challenges the West and Muslims to define this clash so that we can see that we are not all that different.
Islam and the West
Islam and the West
The West should leave the Muslims alone and allow them to create their own societies, of which they are perfectly capable.

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Ideas by Reza

Palace Intrigue in Iran

The uprising's power struggle has shifted from the streets to the backrooms of the government. But the Daily Beast's Reza Aslan writes that, despite rumors, demonstrators are hardly giving up. Rumors of the demise of Iran's uprising may be premature....

A Deal To Save Iran?

The Daily Beast's Reza Aslan reports that Iran's clerics are trying to force a compromise from the Supreme Leader-one that would entail a run-off election between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. Reliable sources in Iran are suggesting that a possible...

Iran's Supreme Revolutionary

By inexplicably inserting himself into the election controversy, Ayatollah Khamenei is destroying his reputation and tainting himself with an aura of corruption, Reza Aslan writes. Worse, he's unwittingly turning a protest into a revolution. The...

Buzz Board Pick - Blog

The #iranelections hashtag on Twitter. The revolution may not be televised, but it is alive and well online. Although the Iranian authorities have shut down access to sites like Facebook and Twitter, industrious Iranians are still posting real-time...

Iran's Military Coup

The Iranian election was bald-faced election fraud, writes the Daily Beast's Reza Aslan, perpetrated by a powerful intelligence unit known as the Pasdaran. Plus, read more insight on Iran's election from other Daily Beast writers. So let's get this...

Iran's Riveting Political Drama

No matter who wins on Friday, this election season has been unlike any other in Iran, with Twittering political rallies, rancorous televised debates-and a challenger that has Ahmadinejad lifting pages from Obama's playbook. The Daily Beast hits the...

Memo to Obama: Leave Egypt

As Obama prepares for his historic speech to the Muslim world, he's already made an embarrassing blunder. The Daily Beast's Reza Aslan on how he blew it by picking Cairo. On Thursday, President Obama will make his much-anticipated address to the...

Buzz Board Pick - Film

The Song of Sparrows is the latest film from one of Iran's greatest filmmakers, Majid Majidi, director of Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee Children of Heaven and The Color of Paradise (which made me cry from beginning to end). The movie is a...

Winning the War With No Name

The White House just dropped "war on terror" from its lexicon. The terrorists call it a jihad. By whatever moniker, in an exclusive book excerpt, Reza Aslan paves a path to victory. Muslim cosmic warriors legitimize their attacks against both military...

How He Won Iraq

The real shock of Obama's unannounced Iraq visit was the relatively warm response he got from many Iraqis. Reza Aslan on why there were no flying shoes. President Barack Obama's unannounced visit to Iraq, at the end of his first official trip abroad,...

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