One World One God

According to Aslan, the world, whether it recognizes it yet or
not, is currently witnessing the long-due response to this
disconnect between Sharia — the Islamic law formulated by
generations of clerics after Muhammad’s death — and the teaching of
Muhammad himself: the first Islamic Reformation. On one side of
this clash are the traditionalists — embodied by much of the
Islamic clerical establishment; on the other side are the
modernists — embodied, Reza believes, by most of the world’s
Muslims. At the center of their conflict is the question of whether
the Koran is the literal word of God, and therefore inerrant and
immutable, as the traditional clerics believe. The modernists
believe not only that the Koran is a fluid, evolving document open
to adaptive interpretation, but that the very notion of Islam as a
static religion is an offense against God. Aslan believes — and
argues convincingly — that the clerics are fighting a losing
battle.

No god but God was chosen best book of the year in its category
by the Financial Times, a “favorite book of the year” in the Los
Angeles Times, and shortlisted for the Guardian (U.K.) First Book
Prize. The acclaim is well deserved. Not only is No god but God an
elegantly written primer on Islam, but it is a persuasive
corrective to a number of biased assumptions about Islam that have
become political orthodoxy in the United States. Aslan, who has
studied at Santa Clara University and Harvard, and holds a Master
of Fine Arts from the writers’ workshop at the University of Iowa,
is currently a doctoral candidate at UCSB. Recently I spoke with
Aslan; the following is an edited version of our conversation.