About this item
When Reza Aslan's bestseller Zealot came out in 2013, there was criticism that he hadn't addressed his Muslim faith while writing the origin story of Christianity. In fact, Ross Douthat of The New York Times wrote that "if Aslan had actually written in defense of the Islamic view of Jesus, that would have been something provocative and new."Mustafa Akyol's The Islamic Jesus is that book --and even much more. For The Islamic Jesus not only tells thestory of Jesus, and his mother Mary, as narrated in the Qur'an. It also exploreshow this Islamic picture of the Nazarene resonates with pre-existing Christiansources, especially Apocrypha. In particular, it unveils the fascinating similaritybetween Islam and "Jewish Christianity," a strain in the early church that gotbranded as a heresy.
About the Author
Mustafa Akyol is a columnist for Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily News, the website Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East, and a monthly opinion writer for The International New York Times.
His articles have also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and many other publications. He studied political science and history at the Bo?aziçi University in Istanbul, where he still lives.
His book, Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty, an argument for "Muslim liberalism," was published by W.W. Norton in July 2011. The book was long-listed for the 2012 Lioner Gelber Prize literary prize, along with other titles by Henry Kissinger, Francis Fukuyama and Niall Ferguson.
