Comparative politics and Orientalism

 In the interview, the main argument that Said presents is that Western people have negative attitudes toward the people of the Middle East and this has contributed to Eurocentric prejudice. He provides evidence that Americans have created an implicit justification by reflecting on images, literature, music, popular media and discussions which do not present realistic representations (Palestine Diary, 2012). I agree that  these attitudes or knowledge  are not  factual  but rather the Western  people  use preconceived archetypes  which make  the conclusion that  ‘Eastern’ societies  are different from ‘Western’ societies. It is true that  the method  that the West and Europe use to  acquire the knowledge  about the  Middle East is not objective  and  for this reason, the  end results makes them arrive to certain  interest. Note that the West and Europe knowledge distorts the reality and the end result contributes to an immense stereotyping. Due to the images and threatening pictures presented by the media, Western   view Islam as a threat and whose business is to kill Americans (Palestine Diary, 2012).  I agree that the problem with Western people is that they make vast generalizations on the nature of Islam   which concluded that   they are foreign devils.  Thus, it is important for Western people to observe rules and use the appropriate system of gaining knowledge.

Counter-argument

 First, it is important to understand that the negative attitude about the people of the Middle East is made from the historical and institutional background (Palestine Diary, 2012).   The construction of these attitudes is rooted from the ‘Imperial conquest’ and the reality is that the geopolitical dynamic and relationship between Islam and other nations show imperialistic attitudes.  People from the West derive knowledge by focusing more on the Islamic world and the Islamic political culture. America reflects on the long-existing patterns of behavior which helps them to understand more about Middle East people. While Said neglects the Islamic Imperialism, it is evident that Americans negative attitude are influenced by the pattern of behaviors and how the popular culture present them in the present day (Palestine Diary, 2012).   Note that since the Western civilization, people from the West are controlled by ‘golden threads’ namely rationalism and universalism. The former means that American’s knowledge and attitudes toward the Arabs is reinforced by sense experience which gives a fundamental truth. Second, universalism means that the Islamic nature since history to  the present day is the same.  Thus, the tradition’s history, collective and individual experience has created diversity and racism.

 

 

 

Reference

Palestine Diary. (2012). Edward Said On Orientalism. Retrieved from: https://goo.gl/X3pFpy