Why This Year-Old Reza Aslan Clip is Going Viral
By:
In the wake of Friday's heinous attacks in Paris, a fall 2014 CNN clip featuring Iranian-American writer Reza Aslan is going viral. In it, he explains why it's wrong to assume that Islam promotes violence.
RELATED: Muslims Stand Up To ISIS With Viral Hashtag #NotInMyName
"Islam doesn't promote violence or peace. Islam is just a religion and like every religion in the world it depends on what you bring to it. If you're a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your Hinduism is gonna be violent. There are marauding Buddhist monks in Myanmar slaughtering women and children. Does Buddhism promote violence? Of course not. People are violent or peaceful and that depends on their politics, their social world, the ways that they see their communities."
RELATED: WHY #MUSLIMS IS TRENDING ON TWITTER
The Aslan clip returns at a time when many say that it's wrong to liken the Islamic State (also known as ISIL and ISIS), which claimed responsibility for the attacks over the weekend, to regular Muslims. As ATTN: previously noted, ISIS doesn't represent most people who practice Islam, and many Muslims are sharing the popular hashtag #NotInMyName to remind others of this and criticize ISIS.
The London-based organization, Active Change Foundation created the #NotInMyName Twitter campaign last year to enable Muslims to publicly distance themselves from ISIS, and the hashtag is once again going viral in response to Friday's attacks.
