The Future of Religious Nationalism - Reza Aslan June 1, 2009

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/05/15/Reza_Aslan_How_to_Win_a_Cosmic_War

Reza Aslan, religious scholar and author of How to Win a Cosmic War, and Phil Bronstein, editor-at-large for the San Francisco Chronicle, discuss the problematic nature of religious nationalism. "It's a force that cannot be control by the state, no matter how hard the state tries," says Aslan. Instead of suppressing religious nationalist groups, he advocates allowing them the opportunity to fail.

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FORA.tv Studios and Whole Earth Films present Reza Aslan, scholar and acclaimed author of No God But God, speaking to Phil Bronstein, editor-at-large for the San Francisco Chronicle, about his new book How to Win a Cosmic War.

How to Win a Cosmic War provides both an in-depth study of the ideology behind al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, and like-minded militants throughout the Muslim world, and an exploration of the tradition of religious violence found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Surveying the global scene from Israel to Iraq and from New York to the Netherlands, Aslan argues that religion is a stronger force today than it has been in a century. At a time when religion and politics are increasingly sharing the same vocabulary and functioning in the same sphere, Aslan writes that we must strip this ideological conflict of its religious connotations and address the actual grievances that fuel the Jihadist movement.

How do you win a cosmic war? By refusing to fight in one.

Reza Aslan is a writer and scholar of religions. Born in Iran, Aslan is currently a research associate at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy. He was a visiting assistant professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Iowa and the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. A frequent commentator on television, radio, and in print, Aslan is a graduate of Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of Iowa. He is the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam and How to Win a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror.

Phil Bronstein is the Executive Vice President and Editor at Large of the San Francisco Chronicle.