Latest Reza Aslan Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• The best way to constrain Iran's potential movement towards nuclear capability is to have peace in the Middle East, peace between the Israeli and the Palestinians. To end the official war that still exists between Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon.

  Reza Aslan

  War, Syria, Palestinian

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• Well I wouldn't want to tell Obama specifically what to do, but obviously he's already promised publicly and privately, both before and after he was elected president, that he was going to open up communications with Iran.

  Reza Aslan

  Communication, President

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• My advice for Obama concerning Iran is just to do what you already promised you would do, open up communications with Iran. Which is what I did after the Shah was deposed, as you know when the revolutionary government came in, I still had diplomatic relations with Iran, otherwise the hostages wouldn't have been there. We had about, as you know, 60 some diplomats in Iran, they had about the same number in Washington.

  Reza Aslan

  Communication, Advice, Revolutionary

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• The first week or day that Obama was in office, he made it clear that peace in the Middle East would be a high priority for him. And his choice of a special envoy, George Mitchell, compared to the previous special envoys chosen, is remarkable.

  Reza Aslan

  Office, Priorities, Choices

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• A majority of Israelis want to give up the West Bank for peace, and obviously the same thing is desired by the Palestinians. The strong voice of the president of the United States will have a major impact on public opinion, not only in this country, but also in Israel and also in Palestine.

  Reza Aslan

  Country, Strong, Giving Up

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• It's politically impossible, as you know, for any member of Congress to make a public statement condemning or criticizing the policies of Israel. It would be political suicidal for them to do so. A lot of the members of Congress agree with me, some very high up in the Congress. But if they came out publically and said it, their seats would be in danger.

  Reza Aslan

  Suicidal, Political, Impossible

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• I've taught the Bible all my life and I believe in the rights of Jews to have a place in the Holy Land, and so I have a natural affinity for that right. I believe that the right of Israel to have a place in the Holy Land can be honored by the two state solution, to abbreviate a long premise, and I think the only way to have peace is by following the basic road I've been following for the last 30 years, to try to bring peace to Israel through negotiation.

  Reza Aslan

  Believe, Thinking, Long

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• The Israelis have not been willing to take the crucial step, and that is to withdraw from the Palestinian territory, the West Bank. And this is a crucial point and Israel has not only kept increasing the settlements in number, but have built highways among all the settlements from which the Palestinians are now excluded.

  Reza Aslan

  Palestinian, Settlement

  Source: www.thedailybeast.com

• Maybe when the President tells you that you should be afraid of Mexicans or Muslims or Jews or black people or gay people or trans people, you'll realize that those are just labels, that underneath it all we're all the same people, we all have the same aspirations, the same hopes, the same desires, that we all share the same values.

  Reza Aslan

  Gay, People, Black

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• If the resistance is going to bring Trump down, it will require Democrats to follow the people, not the other way around. My hope is that the Democrats will realize where their power lies, and will start taking their cues from the people on the ground and not the other way.

  Reza Aslan

  Lying, People, Way

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• Trump is not presidential: this is not normal, it cannot be treated as normal. We have to fight with our last breath to make sure that the vision for the country that this racist white nationalist Bannon has cannot be achieved in this country. We are a country that, whether he likes it or not, is about to become the first nation in the world that is majority minorities.

  Reza Aslan

  Country, Fighting, White

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• We need to do whatever we can, legally and within our power, to remove Donald Trump from office as fast as possible before something serious happens in this country.

  Reza Aslan

  Country, Office, Needs

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• The language of religion holds the most currency for the masses.

  Reza Aslan

  Language, Currency, Mass

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• Trump is a narcissistic sociopath; he's doing exactly what he said he would do.

  Reza Aslan

  Narcissistic, Sociopath, Trump

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• There's this notion that Republicans are the party of Jesus and the Democrats are the Godless party. Let's be clear for a minute. One party wants to give health insurance to the poor and the weak and the dispossessed, and one party wants to take away that health insurance and give tax breaks to rich people. You tell me: which side would Jesus fall on that argument?

  Reza Aslan

  Jesus, Party, Fall

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• I think that in many ways, some of those who did vote for Trump are sorry that they did so. But the hope, at least, is that we have a chance to make up for those kinds of mistakes.

  Reza Aslan

  Sorry, Mistake, Thinking

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• I have not ever met Donald Trump, and I plan to go my entire life without ever actually having to breathe the same air that he breathes.

  Reza Aslan

  Air, Breathe, Trump

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• For those who simply voted because Donald Trump was the Republican and you should vote for the Republican: it's baffling to me, how you can call yourself a Christian and support a man who embodies everything that Christ fought against.

  Reza Aslan

  Christian, Men, Support

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• We have to remember that the United States has certain principles, certain values that bind us all together, that make us all American. And if we allow those values, those rights to be rescinded for one group of individuals, then we are essentially opening the door to having all of our rights, all of our privileges rescinded.

  Reza Aslan

  Rights, Doors, Together

  Source: www.npr.org

• You have almost zero chance of being killed by a refugee in America. You have almost no chance of being killed in a terrorist attack by an immigrant - by any kind of immigrant, let alone an Islamic immigrant.

  Reza Aslan

  Zero, Islamic, America

  Source: www.npr.org

• Authoritarians tend to consolidate support by using fear, but more importantly by driving a wedge among the people that they want to control.

  Reza Aslan

  People, Support, Want

  Source: www.npr.org

• I have to say that it's a weird feeling to have to respond to a Christian leader of an anti-Muslims organisation - it would be like having to respond to a Muslim leader of an anti-Jewish organisation about Judaism so the whole thing is kind of weird. Let me just say it's kind of convenient to simply pick and choose whatever violent bits and pieces one finds in the Koran and ignore the equally important versus that talk about compassion and peace.

  Reza Aslan

  Christian, Compassion, Leader

  "Sharia Deceptions" by Robert Spencer, www.frontpagemag.com. November 3, 2010.

• When I was in the US, I felt that the discourse there surrounding Muslims as the other, problematising Muslims and Islam as the other was very similar to what we find in Australia, which is that the image of Islam is a constructed image in the West. We are starting from a point of view that Islam and Muslims - well Islam is a violent, misogynistic, hateful religion and that is where the debate always starts from - that presumption underlies the discourse.

  Reza Aslan

  Views, Australia, Islam

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

• The religiously observant is lumped in with the nominal Muslim, the nominal Muslim is lumped in with the non-Muslim and the radical. If we want to make sense of this mess and stop pushing Muslims into the arms of the extremist, we need to make meaningful distinctions between the religion of Islam that a billion Muslims follow and see as a guidance as a peaceful righteous moral life and the puritanical Islam of a minority which so captures the media's attention.

  Reza Aslan

  Meaningful, Media, Religion Of Islam

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

• Islam is more than a religion, it's much more than a religion, it's a way of life, it is a one party political system that has a very elaborate legal system that can put you to death if you leave it.

  Reza Aslan

  Party, Political, Islam

  Source: www.sbs.com.au