Religious controversy powers bestseller

From GalleyCat on mediabistro.com

Fox News, it seems, set out to discredit a book about Jesus of Nazareth, and succeeded in creating an instant bestseller.

Reza Aslan, who wrote the book, and called it Zealot, is a Muslim.  Which triggered a certain interest in ultra-conservative ranks -- with unexpected results.

After Fox News religion correspondent Lauren Green interviewed  Aslan  the book promptly hit the No. 1 spot on Amazon.

The New Republic has a great article about the Internet’s response to the interview. Here’s an excerpt:

"Fox News, which like U.S. Steel is vertically integrated, ginned up “controversy” over the book by publishing an article claiming that the “liberal media” routinely fails to disclose that Aslan is a “devout Muslim,” and then reported on the (again, auto-fabricated) “controversy” by having host Lauren Green confront him with this. Having established Aslan’s Muslim-ness, Green conspiratorially asks, “It still begs the question: Why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity?” She then accuses him of obfuscating his faith, and he responds by noting that a statement of his religion appears on “the second page of my book” (page xviii, to be more precise).

Even more surreal is the audience response on Amazon.com. Zealot currently has 141 five-star reviews and 100 one-star reviews!

Hit the GalleyCat link at the top to see/hear/read the entire interview.