Reza Aslan
A Voice of Reason in a Time of Struggle
At a time when the health of the world may rely on bridging the divide between the U.S. and the Middle East, Reza Aslan, a professor of creative writing, is someone who is qualified to mediate the dialogue.
Born in Iran, he now lives in Santa Monica. His first book, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam has been translated into half a dozen languages, was short-listed for the Guardian (UK) First Book Award, and nominated for a PEN USA award for research non-fiction. His next book, How to Win a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror will be published by Random House in the fall of 2008.
He has practical advice for policy makers: let the economic power of the U.S. be persuasive, rather than tanks and soldiers. "We don't need to remove leaders in order to bring democracy. We don't need to get Mubarak out of office to bring democracy to Egypt," he said. "What we need to do is say, 'Here's your $2 billion. By the way, half of this now has to go to building the civilian and grassroots infrastructures necessary for there to be a functioning democratic government.'"
His ability to bridge the gap between east and west has earned time on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and he comments regularly for the Anderson Cooper 360 Weblog on CNN.com. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Slate, Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Chicago Tribune, the Nation, and others, and has appeared on Meet The Press, Hardball, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, Anderson Cooper, and Nightline.
