Reza Aslan

Religion speaker Reza Aslan is famous for his calm, intelligent responses in two separate TV interviews—one on Fox, the other on CNN—that both went viral. In one, Aslan had to defend his ability to write a fair and balanced book on Jesus as a Muslim scholar. In the other, he was forced to refute Bill Maher’s claim that Islam makes people prone to violence and misogyny. In a world where Muslim people are so often colored by one sweeping prejudicial brush—unduly targeted by authorities or the recipients of genuine hatred—Aslan’s principled and logical defense is a direly needed corrective. This keynote, rich in historical and factual detail, is a wake-up call for North Americans to confront and abolish hatred and discrimination against Muslim people—otherwise known as Islamophobia. Like many phobias, this particular kind is largely the product of misinformation, propaganda, delusions, and outright lies. In fact, fear and hatred of Muslim people—all 1.6 billion of them!—has enabled politicians to justify disastrous military engagements, disrupt entire geographical regions, create racist immigration policies, and strangle civil liberties and freedoms at home. As the American Muslim population is predicted to more than double over the next two decades (from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2030), eradicating Islamophobia for good should be first and foremost in the minds of everyone who dreams of a more peaceful, equitable world.

In this keynote, based on his new #1 New York Times bestselling book, Reza Aslan sifts through centuries of mythmaking to shed new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic characters. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction. He explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself: the mystery at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity. Aslan’s fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched talk offers a singularly brilliant portrait of a man, a time, and the birth of a religion; and challenges long-held assumptions about the Christ of faith and the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth.