How old is reza aslan

Like other Haredim, the Na Nachs hold orthodox theological views on gender roles, and they are exempt from military service. Wives work so that their husbands can devote their days to prayer, study, and proselytizing. Just pure, unadulterated happiness. When one of them asks Aslan if he is Jewish, Aslan surprises him by saying no, then looks at the camera and shrugs. By Jane Kramer. At a time when Mormonism is booming, the Church is struggling with a troubled legacy.

By Lawrence Wright. Elias Muhanna , a professor of comparative literature at Brown University, has contributed to The New Yorker since The New Yorker Recommends What our staff is reading, watching, and listening to each week. Of course! But as the Buddha said, if you want to strike water, you don't dig six 1-foot wells; you dig one 6-foot well. In other words, if you want to have a deep and meaningful faith experience, it helps -- though it is by no means necessary -- to have a language with which to do so.

So then, pick a well. Different words, same thing. My well is Islam, and in particular, the Sufi tradition. Let me be clear, I am Muslim not because I think Islam is "truer" than other religions it isn't , but because Islam provides me with the "language" I feel most comfortable with in expressing my faith. It provides me with certain symbols and metaphors for thinking about God that I find useful in making sense of the universe and my place in it.

But I know, just as the Buddha did, that while my personal well may be different and unique, the water I draw from it is the same water drawn from everyone else's wells. Indeed, having drunk from many wells in my spiritual journey, I consider it my mission in life to inform the world that, no matter the well, the water tastes just as sweet. A Persian, a Turk, an Arab and a Greek are traveling to a distant land when they begin arguing over how to spend the single coin they share in common.

The Persian wants to spend the coin on angur; the Turk, on uzum; the Arab, on inab; and the Greek, on stafil. A linguist passing by overhears the argument. Taking the coin, the linguist goes to a nearby shop and buys the travelers four small bunches of grapes. This in my language is stafil," says the Greek. The travelers suddenly realize that they were all asking for the same thing, but in different languages.

My goal -- as a scholar, as a person of faith, and now as the host of "Believer" -- is to be the linguist, to demonstrate that, while we may speak in different religions, we are, more often than not, often expressing the same faith. Reza Aslan: Obama in Cairo: Obama did what presidents before him have failed to do: tell the truth. But will it translate into the 'new beginning' craved by Muslims?

Published: 4 Jun Cif belief How we can win against al-Qaida. Published: 30 May A giant awakes.