Reza Aslan converted to Christianity when he was a teenager, but became more interested in Jesus than as a Messiah. His book, Zealot, considers Jesus in the context of the time and place he lived in.
His new book is No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam. The book is a call to reform, and a proposal to end the religious battle between East and West. Aslan was born in Iran and lives in the United States. He was a visiting assistant professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Iowa, where he got an MFA in fiction at the Writer's Workshop. Aslan has written for The Nation, Slate and The New York Times.