Orientalism

Orientalism is the changing of one (the oriental) unknown and mirroring him/her in terms of what looks similar to us, “a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient." It is the image of the 'Orient' expressed as an entire system of thought and scholarship,” this according to Danielle Sereed, when discussing Edward Said’s Orientalism. Therefore, we get the Americanized version of foreign continents and therefore are lead to misread people. A perfect example of this can be seen in the Muslims. After 9/11, Islam was seen as a place of “fanaticism, fatalism and polygamy” according to Roger Du Pasquier, in his article, Orientalism, Misinformation and Islam,” in this article it states that since 9/11 people have looked to villainies the Muslim people by making them out to be these monsters with no values. All the while overlooking the true values they’ve always held true. “One symptom of this ignorance is the fact that in the imagination of most Europeans, Allah refers to the divinity of the Muslims, not the God of the Christians and Jews; they are all surprised to hear, when one takes the trouble to explain things to them, that 'Allah' means 'God', and that even Arab Christians know him by no other name,” This passage referring to the way Americans view the Christian ways of the Muslims. Seeing their prayer as sort of a lost religion because they don’t have a god, this is simply not true. That is just the view of a few who allow themselves to get caught in the mystification and “simplifying” of something unknown. Using orientalism (if you will) to try and solve a math problem that can’t be solved so easily. Orientalism is used not only in a demeaning sense, but a lazy sense, as instead of getting better acquainted with something different, the different is simply transformed to resemble the more familiar, “constructed by and in relation to the West.”

Works Cited

“Pasquier, Roger Du.” Orientalism, Misinformation and Islam. Web. 17 May 2010.

“Sered, Danielle.” Orientalism. 1996. Web. 17 May 2010.