An Hour Very Well Spent

Here is a Bloggingheads.tv diavlog between Reihan Salam and Reza Aslan that I urge you to watch.

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If I had to say in one sentence what it's about, I'd say it is a scholarly view of the differences between Islamism and jihadism combined with practical recommendations for how the US and western Europe should use these understandings to deal with the problems caused by Muslim disaffections at home and abroad.

Here are the segment titles, swiped from the show page:

• Reza’s new book, “How to Win a Cosmic War”
• America as a model for Muslim integration in Europe
• Reza: Ditch the “war on terror” rhetoric
• Jihadism can’t be defeated without solving Israel-Palestine
• Can Islamic nationalism be an antidote for jihadism?
• Reza to Obama: Don’t abandon the one thing Bush got right

If you would rather not sit in front of your computer to watch an hour of streaming video, you can visit the show page and download a video or audio file.

I did not agree with every last thing that Reza said, but I found what he had to say hugely instructive. Reihan conducted a superb interview. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

For more:

• On the Web: Read more from Reihan Salam at The American Scene, and read more from Reza Aslan at The Daily Beast.
  
  
• Book links: Reihan is the co-author (with Ross Douthat) of Grand New Party. Reza's previous book was No god but God; his new one is How to Win a Cosmic War.