Reza Aslan effectively provides us with a perfect Marxist (or at least materialist) analysis of Islam (if not of other religions). Or at least Aslan does so when hes rationalising or explaining the systematic and large-scale violence done by Muslims almost every single day in at least two dozen countries.
Aslan essentially argues (without using these precise words) that Islam is a mere epiphenomenon of material conditions (as Marxists once put it).
Basically the argument is this: all the violence actions carried out by Muslims in the Muslim world and in Europe have absolutely nothing to do with Islam. Its all really to do with economics colonialism ethnic conflict the malign influence of the West... anything as long as it isnt Islam.
So why would a Muslimbe saying that Islam is a mere epiphenomenon of material conditions? The answer to that is simple. A Muslim would need to say such a thing in order to excuse Islam of all the negative and violent actions done in its name.
Does Reza Aslan also apply his Marxist analyses of Islam to all the positive deeds and actions which are carried out by Muslims? For example when Muslims criticise the Islamic State (as mentioned by Aslan and others recently) or give to charity (though only to fellow Muslims which is something we arent often told) are they merely responding to material conditions or to Islam? Or is it that only the negative or violent deeds and actions of Muslims yield to such a Marxist/materialist analysis?
So it can be said that when Reza Aslan claimed that Bill Maher for example is not very sophisticated in the way that he thinks" about Islam he basically meant that Maher doesnt offer us a Marxist (materialist) analysis of the religion similar to his own. Reza Aslan has also said pretty much the same thing about Sam Harris. Indeed Aslan says something similar about all the critics of Islam.
Clearly Aslan is partly playing on his academic credentials here (some of which have been classed as bogus by various commentators). And as everyone knows every academic on the planet offers nothing but profoundly sophisticated and unbiased accounts of every subject they tackle. Its also highly elitist and even dangerous to say (as Reza Aslan does) that if youre not an academic specialist on Islam you should keep your mouth shut. Except of course that he never questions peoples academic qualifications when they say positive things about Islam.
The Islam-Culture Binary Opposition
Muslims and their Leftist defenders often tell us that we must distinguish Islam from the independent cultures in which Islam is the main religion.
Reza Aslan himself is at his most Marxist (or materialist) when he reiterates that very common binary opposition (Jacques Derridas term) between Islam (or religion) and culture. Aslan for example states:
It is really the single most basic idea about religion that it marries itself to whatever culture it comes into contact with."
As it stands the statement above contains some truth. Nonetheless it also has to be said that it is Islam(or the Koran hadith sharia law etc.) which marries itself to whatever culture it comes into contact with". After all its not atheism or astral travelling which does so.
So no matter what differences these Muslims cultures may well display nearly all of them still practice (to various degrees) jihad female genital mutilation stoning to death honour killings death for apostasy etc. Its all fare enough for Reza Aslan to point out differences when similarities such as these are far more noticeable. Reza Aslan for example cites the case that Saudi women arent allowed to drive cars; though they are I assume in Turkey. However perhaps no law is needed in say Pakistan because - outside of rich political families etc. - Muslim women will simply accept that theyre not allowed to drive cars. As for Turkey liberality when it comes to women driving cars has occurredin spite of Islam not because of it. In other words it has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with the secularisation of Turkey which began some 90 year ago (in 1923).
And what of this Islam-culture binary opposition itself?
This is strange because for decades Marxists were at pains to tell us that religion is a cultural and therefore material phenomenon. Then all that changed with the rise of Muslim demographics in the West and the concomitant rise in Islamic terrorism and and Muslim radicalism. As a response to all this Leftists - in order to tap into the revolutionary potential of Muslims" - had to invent a divide between Islam and culture in order to excuse Islam itself of all its responsibility for misogyny violence etc.
Aslan puts his own twist on this Islam-culture duality by saying that all critics of Islam have an genetic inability to understand the difference between a cultural practice and religious belief". That shameful inability to offer a Marxist or materialist analysis of Islam is shocking among self-described intellectuals".
There are other problems with this neat and convenient Islam-culture distinction. In terms of honour killings for example the main problem is that Islam - or more correctly the Koran the sunnahand the hadith - are full of references to honour and the concomitant need to abide by the principles of honour. In sharia law theres also the notion of ird. This applies to the honour of the individual Muslim. Abdul Wahid Hamid (in his Islam the Natural Way) for example writes that
preserving honour... is the goal of... sharia laws that punish sexual relations outside marriage. In addition the severe punishments of Sharia Law are there to protect honour and chastity (125)".
In Islam its also said that a Muslim becomes a mukallaf at the age of puberty onwards. After that each Muslim has many duties to fulfil and obey. One of those duties is maintaining honour through chastity and in various other ways.
So yes Islam or sharia law may wellrespect local laws and customs". Though theres still a big but here. Islam according to Wahid Hamid respects various customs only as long as these are not in conflict with the Quran". Thus if anything in a given Muslim culture is in conflict with the Koran or sharia law it must be stamped out. It must surely follow then that FGM honour killings jihad and whatnot must be in accordance at least to some extent - with Islam otherwise such practices would have been stamped out.
One other point is is that many Muslim populations such as Saudis or Arabs generally Pakistanis Egyptians etc. have been Islamic for up to 1400 years (or at least their cultures and traditions have). Therefore after such a long period of Islamic history how valid can the distinction be between culture and Islam?
Generalisations About Islam & Muslims?
Reza Aslan also relies on thegeneralising-about-Islam/Muslims trope. And guess what he too is a super-generaliser when he talks about all the critics and criticisms of Islam. This is the case for example when he assumes - or pretends - that all such critics and criticisms are not very sophisticated". (This is also a Loonwatch ideaalong with the ad hominems that all critics of Islam are loons" fascists" racists"pseudo-intellectuals" self-described intellectuals"bigots" haters" whateverists etc.)
You can also say that it is a perfect case of generalisation to argue that virtually all the negative and violent acts carried out by Muslims have nothing to do with Islam itself.
Reza Aslan for example has recently said (in response to Maher and Sam Harris) that the
problem is that youre talking about a religion of one and a half billion people and certainly it becomes very easy to just simply paint them all with a single brush".
Now I dont think Ive ever heard any single commentator or writer generalise about the one and a half billion"Muslims on this planet. Sure some people on Facebook may well do so. However I doubt that Sam Harris Bill Maher Robert Spencer Gert Wilders etc. have ever done anything like that because they dont need to do that. Criticisms of Islam to state the obvious simply dont need to be about every Muslim on the planet. Indeed just as one doesnt need to account for every Nazi Communist or Liberal Democrat in order to criticise Nazism communism or the Liberal Democrats so one simply doesnt need to account for every Muslim on the planet in order to offer a criticism of Islam.