Fox News asks Muslim author Reza Aslan why write a book on Jesus Christ, Christianity

“You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Fox News’ Lauren Green demanded of religious scholar Reza Aslan, author of “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth,” on Friday.

Aslan responded, “Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.”

Green pushed forward so Aslan added, “Because it’s my job as an academic. I am a professor of religion, including the New Testament. That’s what I do for a living, actually.”

Earlier this month, Aslan told HuffPost Live host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, “I’ve been obsessed with Jesus for a very, very long time” and his fascination inspired his latest book.

Zealot begins its introduction: It is a miracle that we know anything at all about the man called Jesus of Nazareth. The itinerant preacher wandering from village to village clamoring about the end of the world, a band of ragged followers trailing behind, was a common a sight in Jesus’ time—so common, in fact, that it had become a kind of caricature among the Roman elite. In a farcical passage about just such a figure, the Greek philosopher Celsus imagines a Jewish holy man roaming the Galilean countryside, shouting to no one in particular: “I am God, or the servant of God, or a divine spirit. But I am coming, for the world is already in the throes of destruction. And you will soon see me coming with the power of heaven.”