Reza Aslan is a famous Muslim American writer and journalist for CNN. In a recent documentary where he was spending time with the “aghoris,” which are a Hindu death-worshipping cult that feasts on human remains and surrounds themselves with death, he was given a piece of human brain to eat. Aslan picked up the cooked brains, ate it, and then said on CNN camera ‘It tastes like charcoal’:
In an episode of Believer, a six-part CNN series on spirituality, US religious scholar Reza Aslan meets with the Aghori, a nomadic Hindu sect in India.
The interview went south and one of the mystics turned nasty
The group believes that nothing can taint the human body and rejects the Hindu caste system, which deems certain groups of people untouchable.
After Aslan has bathed in the sacred Ganges river, an Aghori scholar smears the ashes of a cremated body on his face and he is given alcohol served in a human skull.
Then he is given a piece of burned human brain and eats it, reports the Washington Post.
He said: “Want to know what a dead guy’s brain tastes like? Charcoal.”
He added: “It was burnt to a crisp!” (source)
There is speculation by some that the aghori, who became mad at Aslan and later threatened to cut his head off as they were throwing their own feces at him. That is ultimately besides the point, because it does not matter what “culture” anybody is in- there is something naturally and viscerally wrong with cannibalism. There is something seriously wrong with Anybody who would anybody that by freedom of choice would engage in cannibalism.
This man- who would say that drinking alcohol and eating pork is something dirty, sinful, and bad and be banned- just ate a piece of another human being and then bragged about it on a major television show.
But is this really a surprise at all?
Something that people do not want to talk about is the fact that Islam permits cannibalism, but in spite of this shoebat.com has been at the forefront of documenting through articles and photographic or video proof how Muslims have ritually slaughtered and then eaten their victims (just do a search for cannibal). Theologically speaking, this is the natural conclusion of Islam’s denial of the human person, for as humanity in Islam comes from one’s belief in and practice of Islam, to eat a non-Muslim would be considered no different than eating an animal, the difference being that unlike pork, there is no specific prohibition against it. But has anybody ever asked why?
God warned the Hebrews not to do this. Unfortunately, it still continues today in different forms, such as abortion.
The great Christians saints throughout history (such as St. John of Damascus and Bl. Peter the Venerable of Montbossier) all said that while Islam is evil, it is fundamentally the culmination of all Christian heresy. Since many Christian heresies are influenced by paganism, one can naturally find the worst of the ancient pagan teachings in Islam but with the veneer of theological license and presented as the ‘answer’ to Christianity. While not per se practiced by a majority throughout history, many ancient pagan religious teachings gave license to human sacrifice and even cannibalism in some form. Even the Bible talks about how the ancient Hebrews were continually warned against participating in the sacrifices of their young children to the pagan gods of their semitic neighbors.
Human sacrifice and cannibalism is found in Islam as well as many pagan cultures, such as with the Aztec. While it is evil, human sacrifice is a subconscious human attempt to enter into the divine mysteries of Christ and the Eucharist that would be revealed by God Himself through Christ.
The answer to why human sacrifice and cannibalism are found in paganism is twofold. For if the law of God is built into man’s creation, than he understands by instinct without even knowing that somehow, men give their lives for another and that this is connected to worship of the divine. Thus human sacrifice in the pagan world is a corrupt understanding of the sacrifice that while evil, is a part of the search for truth that comes with Christianity where God Himself comes and offers himself as the great sacrifice for the sins of men.
This is the real human sacrifice- made by God Himself for the salvation of fallen man.
This same approach applies to cannibalism. St. John reports in his gospel, chapter 6:
I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:48-58)
This is something that many Protestant Christians do not want to talk about, but the fact is clear that for 1500 years prior to the Protestant movement and even Martin Luther, the Protestant Revolutionary himself, all taught that the Eucharist- the bread and the wine at mass- become the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. If the beliefs was not enough, then there have been countless Eucharistic miracles throughout history where the host will publicly bleed or the wine clearly become blood and have been proven by science yet unable to be explained by any natural means from the same scientists.
One of many Eucharistic miracles which has happened, and which you can read about more here. Despite numerous scientific attempts at debunking verified Eucharistic miracles, nobody has ever been able to explain not only how this happens, but how the blood type in each of these cases is exactly the same no matter what time or place in history the miracle takes place in.
Again, if man was made for worship, than the reason why cannibalism and religious practice follow each other so closely is because cannibalism is a failed attempt by man, without him even understanding what he is doing on a natural level, to do what God gave to man. It is still evil and a perversion, but a fallen and sinful reflection of a supernatural reality.
Now the aghoris and their kind are clearly demon possessed, as with many other peoples throughout history who were serious about the practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism. You can see it in their eyes and behavior, and it is the reason why when Christianity came, it had to engage in militant war against such peoples as part of conquering and Christianizing those areas. However, to the credit of those same pagan peoples, many of them became Christians because Christianity perfected, elevated, and transformed what they understood and cleared up beliefs that were clearly wrong or misunderstood.
Our Lady of Guadalupe. This miracle was instrumental in converting the heart-ripping, man-eating, demon-worshipping Aztecs to the true Faith. Only in modern times have the evil tendencies of Mexico’s pagan past began to re-emerge through the massive propagation of heresy leading to apostasy and a return to the wicked paganism of old.
Islam came after Christianity, and while many Muslims are Muslims by birth, the fact is that Islam is a religion which came to say that Christianity is wrong and in order to find “truth,” one must undo what Christianity did, and what Christianity did (and still does when practiced) is to stamp out the wicked paganism of old and set men on the straight and true path which leads to God.
So don’t be surprised when Muslims do things like what Reza did for this show. After all, it is only in accordance with the nature and teachings of the religion he so ardently believes in and promotes.