Watch This Muslim Academic Patiently Answer Insanely Dumb Questions From News Anchors
There is a lot of very smart and very dumb going on in this video.
Iranian-American author and religious historian Dr. Reza Aslan, besides being one of the smartest talking heads you can name, deserves an additional PhD in Enduring Dumb Reporter Questions. Aslan is a regular guest on American news programs, largely because he’s a Muslim, whenever the topic turns to something happening in the Middle East or something vaguely relating to Islam, and in recent days he’s been hugely prolific in calling out the broadcast media’s portrayal of Muslims as violent misogynists.
In an interview with CNN a few days ago, Aslan was initially asked to respond to comments from American comedian Bill Maher that female genital mutilation is a “Muslim country problem”, but the back-and-forth between Aslan and CNN anchors Alisyn Camerota and Don Lemon quickly became a contest of how quickly the anchors could bring up basic misconceptions of what Islam is and does, and how quickly Aslan could shoot them down.
This isn’t the first time Aslan’s had to deal with butt-ignorant newscasters; last year he spent ten minutes patiently fielding questions from FOX News anchor Lauren Green, who couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that a Muslim had written a book about Jesus. The clip of the exchange, which went viral, is even more cringeworthy than the last one.
Watching people who presume to report the news get schooled in basic stuff like “Indonesia is different from Saudi Arabia” is kind of amusing until you remember they get away with putting the word “journalist” on their business cards.