Orientalism and Western Fear and Suspicion of Islam

In his book Orientalism, Edward Said claims that the Western definition and representation of the Orient is inherently flawed. Because of a lack of contact and interaction with the Orient and a predominantly ethnocentric view, Western scholars of the past shaped and molded information about the Orient that was not entirely accurate nor congruent with reality.

Mainly in the 18th and 19th century, the idea of a sensual and mysterious Orient took hold of many writers and poets. The Orient was seen as an enigmatic place, but compared to Western standards it was defined as weak and “uncivilized.” Marx claimed that the Orient could not stand on its own feet and needed to be represented by the West.

Over time, the exotic representations in literature fired the imagination of the Western people, and they grew interested in the region. However, they were not looking to learn about the Orient but rather seek in it a confirmation of their own hypotheses supplied by scholars and embedded in an aura of the sensuous tales of Thousand and One Nights.

The same occurred to Napoleon whose passion for the Orient led him to conquer Egypt. Napoleon had respect for the Orient, but he was mainly misled by faulty ideas implanted from his bookish studies. In fact, he did not see Egypt as it really was, but rather as it used to be in its heydays of learning. 

Since the two views were not compatible, he attempted to “help” Egypt return to its height of learning of the glorious past. He thought himself the new Alexander bringing higher standards of life and freedom to the “primitive” people who had presumably lost touch with their own history.

Nonetheless, he tried his best to conquer Egypt in a peaceful manner by projecting Western intellectual and economic superiority claiming that the natives could reach the same level if only they embraced Western culture. 

To that purpose, he also implemented institutes and research centers to both gather information about the Egyptians as well as to influence the minds of the native people there, while many scholars collaborated on a book about Egypt that had a strong influence on Western thinking and opinions about the Orient.

As The Doors sing, “The West is the Best,” so Western structure and strategies were seen as the superior model for liberty and progress. Not unlike today's political climate and ideology, it was meant for the “good” of the native people, while their own opinions seemed to be irrelevant in the matter.

One of the problems of Orientalism, according to Said, is that these ideas about the Orient propagated themselves and have become an integrated part of how the Western world views the East. Despite technology and travel, these ideas are persistent and even immune to change. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the case of Islam.

In the history of religion, there have been various crusades against the Muslims. The Muslims conquered vast areas of Europe, and the Church feared such conquests as their own influence in the region was evaporating. However, there seemed to be little conflict with other religious groups, such as the Hindus or the Buddhists.

Part of an explanation might be that those Eastern religions were not as aggressive as Islam. Islam may have had a more aggressive agenda only to be paralleled by Christianity; both tried to expand through either missionary methods or full-out belligerent conquests. But there might have been another reason at play.

What strikes me as most interesting is that at heart both traditions are very close and have, by and large, the same origins and sources. This might have been a reason for the conflicts. By being very close in ideology, the Western world began to fear Islam. The ideology of Hindus of many gods, or Buddhists of no god at all, posed no problem because they were too removed from the belief system of the Western people.

Islam, on the other hand, had many characteristics in common. It would take less steps and adjustments for a Christian to embrace the Islamic faith, and vice versa. Because of this reason, the Western world preferred to ignore the similarities and accentuate the differences. In the past, both scholars and religious officials in the West claimed that Muslims disregarded the teachings of Jesus and had their own equivalent Savior in Mohammed.

This was simply not true. Islam, in fact, regards Jesus as a prophet. They do not see eye to eye with Christianity that Jesus is the son of God, which is to Muslim sensibilities an act of blasphemy since God cannot have or rather beget children in their view. Yet that Jesus is holy and his teachings exemplary is fully accepted by the Muslim faith.

Mohammed was considered the last prophet. He was holy in the sense that he was chosen by God and that he brought the holy book called Koran to the Muslim people. But he was in no way considered God or a deity to be worshiped. He was a prophet, nothing more, nothing less. He may have been higher on the scale of prophets because of what he brought to the Muslim people, but that did not change the fact that he was an instrument or mouthpiece of God.

Hence, the Western misinterpretation of Islam had its desired effects and consequences. People grew suspicious of Islam and feared it. They saw it as an exotic and alien belief system that endangered the Christian faith. Christians needed to be alert so that they were not engulfed by this “perfidious” and “treacherous” religion. In such an atmosphere no real dialogue could take place between the two religions.