海角大神

After a Fox News interview with author Reza Aslan went viral, book sales for his new work 鈥淶ealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth鈥� increased to the point that the publisher has now ordered more copies printed.

Aslan appeared on the Fox program 鈥淪pirited Debate.鈥� The host of the program, Lauren Green, got the interview off to an uncomfortable start by asking Aslan,聽 鈥淵ou're a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of 海角大神ity?鈥�

Aslan's answer: 鈥淚 am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of 海角大神ity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim.鈥�

鈥淚t still begs the question, why would you be interested in the founder of 海角大神ity?鈥� Green inquired.

鈥淚t鈥檚 my job as an academic,鈥� the writer said.

At one point, when Aslan compared himself to a Democrat who might have studied President Reagan for 20 years (as Aslan has done with Jesus) and then written a book about him, Green asked, 鈥淲hy would a Democrat want to promote democracy by writing about a Republican?鈥�

Later, Green asked Aslan why he didn't disclose that he鈥檚 a Muslim. The author stated he mentions it on the second page of his book.

The New York Times called the interview 鈥渙dd,鈥� while Buzzfeed posted a story on the exchange with the headline 鈥淚s This The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox Has Ever Done?鈥�

Aslan told the NYT that he was 鈥渢hrilled鈥� at how the interview has been received.聽 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 buy this kind of publicity,鈥� he said.

Aslan鈥檚 publisher Random House has ordered 50,000 more copies and sales are reported to have increased by 35 percent within two days. The book is currently at number 1 in sales rankings on Amazon and number 3 on Barnes & Noble.