Well, what do we have here?
That’s right, Sergeant Major Professor Regressive Reza Aslan, spewing vacuous crap with the
Bill O’Reilly of the Left, on what can only be accurately described as the Mecca of Regression…
This is Reza Aslan – Debunked.
Before we begin, no, the lighting isn’t off, there’s been a heat wave in the south
of England today, and I went out in it for 4 to 5… minutes, and I got burnt!
Anyhow, for those of you who’re either unaware or in need of an unfortunate recap, Reza Aslan
is an author, public intellectual, religious scholar, producer, television host, and an
apologist for Islam, who must always be referred to with the inclusion of these credentials…
always!
And while we’re on the topic of his credentials, let’s just jump straight into it and emphasize
a fallacy that pretty much entirely defines Aslan… sorry, I mean Chieftain Aslan.
It is of course, the Argument from Authority Fallacy.
Simply stated, an Argument from Authority occurs when someone attempts to either substantiate
their claim, or discredit the claim of someone else, by citing an authority rather than evidence.
For example, a commercial claims that a specific brand of cereal is the best way to start the
day because a famous athlete eats this cereal every day for breakfast.
But when exactly has Lieutenant Aslan committed this fallacy?
Well, to show you, here’s a compilation from one of David Pakman’s videos – which
I have linked to in the description, highly recommend, and have found very resourceful
when researching for this video.
“There’s nothing more distasteful than an academic having to like trot out his credentials
– I mean, you really come of as a jerk when you do that”.
“I write books about what’s going on in the Muslim world because I have an expertise
in what’s going on in the Muslim world.”
“My credentials as a scholar of religion.”
“All of the universities that have educated me, and all of the universities that have
employed me.”
“Hold on, I have to respond to that as the Islamic scholar, as the person with a PHD
in Islam in this conversation.”
“Nevertheless, an expert on the bible, and on Judaism and on Christianity – and Islam.”
“Well, to be clear I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one on the New
Testament, and fluency in Biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity
for two decades.”
And so you see, whenever Aslan finds himself on the defense, rather than addressing the
argument, he simply appeals to his own authority, which is actually a very specific type of
fallacy that’s called “Ipse Dixit” (which is Latin for “he himself said it”).
And so perhaps we should simply refer to him as Ipse Dixit Aslan, from here on out!
What’s more, and to raise a second fundamental flaw, Aslan does not have many of the credentials
that he says he has… on this topic, and many more; he is a proven pathological liar!
For example, he has claimed on numerous occasions to have “a PHD in Islam” and a “PHD
in the History of Religion” , but this is simply a lie...
He has one PHD and it’s in Sociology – just Sociology.
Of course, this is still impressive, but it’s not a PHD in “Historical Sociology”, “Islamic
Sociology”, “Religious Sociology”, or “Theological Sociology”, and this distinction
matters.
Furthermore, and to raise another lie that Aslan has become notorious for, he has asserted
that female genital mutilation is not an Islamic problem, but rather, it’s a central-African
Problem.
“It’s a central-African problem.”
To substantiate this claim he has often referred to a UNICEF study that featured this map,
which, as you can see, does not support his assertion, but rather, it clearly demonstrates
that FGM is a problem that spans most of Africa and parts of the Middle East.
What’s more, and as other sources have confirmed, this study does not account for FGM rates
in many non-African countries that are Muslim majority, because they either would not allow
the study to be conducted, or they gave unreliable data.
To quote David Pakman, who, again, absolutely destroyed Aslan.
“Of the twenty nine countries studied, most with an FGM problem are majority
Muslim.
The countries with the top four largest percentages of FGM are all majority Muslim, and in those
countries girls are almost universally subjected to mutilation.”
What’s more, and what I would ague is one of the most important facts within the UNICEF
study, a vast number of Muslim women stated that FGM was their “religious obligation”,
often justifying this with explicit reference to Islamic teaching.
To put this into perspective, this is the equivalent of saying that door-to-door proselytizing
isn’t a Jehovah’s Witness and Mormon problem; it’s a first world problem….
To say this is to ignore the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons explicitly state that
it’s because of their religious beliefs that they’ve disturbed you…
eating babies, or whatever atheists do!
A third despicable flaw that Aslan frequently commits is the redefining of language.
For example, as one of my top three favorite YouTubers, Counter Arguments, entertainingly
demonstrates within his video titled “Religion is a Language”, Aslan has on numerous occasions
defined religion to be exclusively a “language – and just a method of communication.”
“That’s what religion is.
It’s a language – that’s all it is.” “If you believe that there is something beyond the material world – that there is
something that is truly transcendent, then you need some kind of language to talk about
it, to make sense of it – that’s all that religion is”.
Now this claim is obviously nonsense… religion isn’t just a language.
To quote Counter Arguments, “Metaphorically speaking, religion can be many things… religion
is a university, in that educators can cite it when teaching philosophy as well as supposed
history and science; [and] religion is a government, in that it legislates what you can do, what
you must do, and what you should not do…”
On the topic of Aslan redefining language, Sarah Haider puts it absolutely b-e-a-utifully,
“It's this kind of disingenuous hedging around issues and redefining things and using
information selectively that's just so slimy.”
And finally, this brings us comfortably to a fallacy that Aslan absolutely adores, and
one that he very frequently employs alongside his untouchable Arguments from Authority…
it is, of course, the Ad Hominem Fallacy.
An Ad Hominem Fallacy occurs when someone attempts to discredit and/or reject a claim,
by attacking the character or motive of their opponent, rather than addressing the substance
of their claim.
For example, when Sam Harris, by referring to a PEW study, asserted that an alarming
amount of moderate Muslims support and endorse extreme beliefs, Reza replied not by addressing
the argument or the study, but by attacking Harris’ character: “There’s a reason
that I don’t write books about neuroscience, because, I don’t have an expertise in neuroscience.
I write books about what’s going on in the Muslim world because I have an expertise in
what’s going on in the Muslim world.”
Hence, in the attempt, and often with success, to suck up to the regressive left, Aslan frequently
dismisses legitimate and valid criticisms from his opponents, by labeling them “Ill-informed”,
“bigoted”, “xenophobic”, and when he really wants to bring out the big guns
– “racist”…
Anyhow, to recap, Sergeant Major Progressive Regressive Ipse Dixit Reza Aslan is flawed
because; He is a walking talking Argument from Authority; He is a compulsive liar who
frequently misrepresents facts; He frequently obfuscated and redefines language to fit his
narrative, and; He frequently employs Ad Hominem attacks; Anyhow, before I leave you lovely
lot, I want to give a shout out to four extremely excellent videos that I’ve found very useful
throughout my research, which you should definitely check out!
The first is David Pakman’s total annihilation of Aslan, titled, “Reza Aslan Cannot Be
Trusted”; The second is a Counter Arguments obliteration of Aslan, called, “Religion
is a Language”; The third is Squishtronic’s amazing, “Regressive Presents Reza Aslan”;
And the fourth is The Rubin Report’s postmortem of Pakman’s annihilation, titled, “Reza
Aslan's Lies and Media Bias”.
As always, thanks you kindly for the view, and this time, I’m going to leave you with
some of my fine editing: “The words coming out of my mouth are absolutely…” “bullshit