Reza Aslan, an expert on Islam, lectured in the Robert S. Kerr Auditorium in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History Wednesday night. The packed audience heard Aslan's lecture entitled, "How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the War on Terror." Chelsea Garza/The Daily

No one can win a cosmic war, New York Times best-selling author Reza Aslan told more than 200 members of the OU community Wednesday in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

“When [Americans] say the ‘War on Terror,’ we mean the ideological conflict, the so-called clash of civilizations that underlies this global battle that is us versus them,” Aslan said. “Because of that, the ‘War on Terror’ becomes very problematic.”

Through political rhetoric both American and Islamic societies have been lead to believe they are fighting a cosmic war beyond themselves, he said.

A cosmic war, unlike a holy war, is a war where the participants believe God is using them in a battle between good versus evil, Aslan said.

“The difference between a holy war and a cosmic war is that a holy war is a physical war between rival religions; a cosmic war is an imaginary war, where the one or both sides believe that they are God’s instruments on a plane where everything is predetermined,” he said. “You can not lose when what is at stake is your eternal soul; while this kind of war is unloseable, it is also unwinnable.”

Aslan said Americans do not know the difference between Islamists, who have a clear goal of creating a national Islamic state, and terrorists who call themselves jihadists.

“When we use the term ‘jihadists’ it is because that’s how they describe themselves,” Aslan said. “You see jihad to the jihadists is not as it is defined in the Koran, as a defensive struggle against aggression and a communal obligation … where only a qualified cleric can lead them. [Jihadists] have stripped this term from all its localized and nationalized connotations and turned it into a metaphysical context.”

Aslan said jihadists want to make jihad a form of worship and make it the central element in Islam.

“Jihad is not, for the jihadists, a struggle for the liberation … it is a antinationalist ideology. … Jihadists want to destroy all states, all nation states, erase all borders, all national boundaries and recreate the globe in a transformative way under one leadership,” Aslan said. “Nationalism is a sin to jihadists.”

He said the American concept of the War on Terror began to form when former President George W. Bush “accidently” called the conflict a crusade in 2001.

“We have fallen into the trap that has been set for us. [American politics] have made the War on Terror a war on Islam,” Aslan said. “That’s the reason the mass majority of Muslims think the War on Terror is a war on Islam, because it is.”

The War on Terror from that time on became a cosmic battle, where Americans were led to believe identity was at stake, he said.

“[The terrorists] knew that [the 9/11 attacks] would bring more troops into the Middle East,” Aslan said. “If there was any goal for the hijackers, it was to engage us into the precise cosmic war they have been fighting … [the attacks] were an invitation to a war already in progress, a cosmic war, and as it happens we were more than willing to accept that invitation.”

While Aslan said the U.S. government has promoted a cosmic war against evil, he does not think it is too late to re-conceptualize it through dialogue.

“One can not ‘rid the world of evil,’ that war will go on forever,” Aslan said. “I’ll give you the secret to my book, the only way to win a cosmic war is to refuse to fight in one.”

Throughout his lecture, his audience burst into laughter as Aslan entertained with the same wit he showed in a recent appearance on the Daily Show with John Stewart.

“Aslan is the total package; he bridges the gap between America and Islam; he’s young and dynamic and can entertain as well as instruct,” said Joshua Landis, Center for Middle East Studies co-director. “We are lucky to have him.”