A reporter has been slammed for eating cooked human brain tissue, with fans dubbing it ‘religion’ porn when it aired on CNN.
Cannibalism is a true crime fan-favourite topic, with the story of Michael Rockefeller’s disappearance resurfacing recently and Netflix’s Dahmer series receiving sky-high ratings.
However, back in 2017, a televised CNN segment featuring a reporter cooking real-life human brains didn’t quite get the same reaction.
Believer was a documentary series fronted by reporter Reza Aslan, 50. At the time, the scholar and presenter travelled to the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.
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Outside of the city, he encountered a group of cannibalistic Aghori nomads. During the Believer segment, Aslan could be seen smearing his face with cremated human ashes, drinking alcohol from a skull, and being fed a piece of human brain.
Elsewhere in the episode, Aslan also wears a necklace made of human body parts. This is before his life and the lives of the CNN film crew are put in danger.
One of the Aghori nomads first threatens to cut Aslan’s head off ‘if he keeps talking so much’ before another begins to throw his excrement. This forces the crew to abandon filming and scarper.
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According to the Washington Post, the Aghori are known for ‘rejecting the Hindu caste system and the notion of untouchables... in the Aghori view, nothing can taint the human body.’
Aslan himself claimed this is 'kind of a profound thought; also a little bit gross'.
Indians and American Hindu groups at the time called the Aghori focus of the programme 'Hinduphobic' and was described by one viewer as 'religion porn'.
Vamsee Juluri of the University of San Francisco wrote at the time: “It is unbelievably callous and reckless of CNN to be pushing sensational and grotesque images of bearded brown men and their morbid and deathly religion at a time when the United States is living through a period of unprecedented concern and feat.”
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Elsewhere, the US-India Political Action Committee said in a statement: “With multiple reports of hate-fuelled attacks against people of Indian origin from across the US, the show characterises Hinduism as cannibalistic, which is a bizarre way of looking at the third largest religion in the world.”
Tulsi Gabbard, who was the first Hindu to be elected to the US Congress, tweeted: “CNN is using its power and influence to increase people’s misunderstanding and fear of Hinduism.”
Believer was cancelled by CNN after work had already begun on season two - not for broadcasting the consumption of human brains as you might expect, but reportedly because Aslan called then-President Donald Trump a 'piece of s***' on Twitter.
Topics: News