defender of the faith

Tariq Ali reviews Reza Aslan's No God but God: the Origins, Future, and Evolution of Islam. This little aside is one of the highlights:

The Shia sects and some of their more esoteric beliefs have little to do with Islamic theology. An Iranian equivalent of Monty Python's Life of Brian will deconstruct all this one day.

Ali criticizes what he sees as a too-simplistic reliance upon standard Sh'ia historical/religious tropes, but also praises Aslan's "nuanced and moderate" vision of Islam. Most of these explain-Islam-to-the-West books seem to come from a Sunni perspective, so it will be interesting to see what Aslan's perspective has to share.