{"id":605,"date":"2013-04-05T13:52:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T13:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/04\/the-first-muslim-a-new-biography.html"},"modified":"2014-07-29T12:24:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T17:24:28","slug":"the-first-muslim-a-new-biography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/worldreligions\/2013\/04\/the-first-muslim-a-new-biography.html","title":{"rendered":"The First Muslim–A New Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Who is qualified to write the most unbiased biography of a religious figure like Jesus, Siddhartha Gautama, or Muhammad? Is a biography of Jesus by a Christian more reliable than one by a non-Christian?<\/p>\n

A\u00a0psychologist\u00a0and reporter interested in politics and religion, Leslie Hazleton, just released a biography of Muhammad, called \u201cThe First Muslim.<\/a>\u201d \u00a0Even before the book was released, \u00a0many Muslims were suspicious and the book, according to the New York Times<\/a>, \u201cis \u2026something to be defended against, in case it should turn out to be yet another insult, another cruel parody of a story such an author has no business telling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are these criticisms fair? \u00a0As a history teacher, I teach my students that every document has a point of view or purpose. Understanding that point of view helps us to understand the reliability of the document. So, a Christian writing about Jesus might be reticent to write about his flaws and a non-Christian may not fully understand Christian theology in the way that a Christian might. Do either of these points of view disqualify the biography?<\/p>\n

The review and even some of Hazelton\u2019s articles about the book provide good material for those of us teaching religion.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Here is an article \u00a0by Leslie Hazleton for the Huffingon Post summarizing seven things that may\u00a0surprise\u00a0you about\u00a0Islam.<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Here is a\u00a0history\u00a0of Sharia Law<\/a>\u00a0and a slide show of that history<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. And here is the New York Times Review <\/a>of the book, along with a review from NPR<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Who is qualified to write the most unbiased biography of a religious figure like Jesus, Siddhartha Gautama, or Muhammad? Is a biography of Jesus by a Christian more reliable than one by a non-Christian? A\u00a0psychologist\u00a0and reporter interested in politics and religion, Leslie Hazleton, just released a biography of Muhammad, called \u201cThe First Muslim.\u201d \u00a0Even before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":4869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe First Muslim--A New Biography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who is qualified to write the most unbiased biography of a religious figure like Jesus, Siddhartha Gautama, or Muhammad? 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