Reza Aslan: How to Win a Cosmic War

Join writer and scholar Reza Aslan as he discusses his new book "How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, & the End of the War on Terror." It is both an in-depth study of the ideology fueling al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, and like-minded militants throughout the Muslim world, and an exploration of religious violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. At a time when religion and politics are increasingly sharing the same vocabulary and functioning in the same sphere, Aslan writes that we must strip the conflicts of our world-in particular, the War on Terror-of their religious connotations and address the earthly grievances that always lie behind the cosmic impulse.

Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is a columnist at the Daily Beast (thedailybeast.com). Aslan has degrees in Religions from Santa Clara University, Harvard, and UC Santa Barbara. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. Aslan's first book is the New York Times Bestseller, "No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam," which has been translated into thirteen languages, short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award in the UK, and nominated for a PEN USA award for research Non-Fiction. His most recent book, "How To Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War On Terror" was published by Random House in April of 2009.