Political Science

What is Orientalism
Orientalism can be best defined as a term which is used to describe the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern Cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists.  Orientalism is a mindset that generalizes cultures, races, and prejudices, as a difference of the Western world from the East. It can be said to be the divide between the West and the East, where the West considers itself superior to the East, because the West (especially the Americans) considers that which is alien to it, to be inferior to it as well. In more contemporary terms, it is also used as a term that describes the stereotyping of Islam, by both advocates, as well as academics of the refugee rights advocacy. In fact, neo-Orientalism is a term for the particular aspect of this very stereotyping which is used in context to any forced migration (especially if it affects women) and the proclaimed damage that it causes to refugee rights, whether these refugees are found inside the Arab and the Muslim world, or outside it.

The Arab and the non-Arab thinker on Orientalism
Orientalism developed as the idea that the Arab is depicted by the Non-Arab, usually the Americans and other Western people, to be irrational, untrustworthy, anti-Western, non-tolerant of the West and anyone who is non-Arab. And though the Arab and Non-Arab thinker have been found to have different opinions on Orientalism, the fact remains that these stereotypical descriptions of the Arab which has been penned down in literature and art by the West often, has laid down the foundations for both ideologies as well as policies of the modern era. As Said, a Palestinian-American literary theorist said

The hold that these instruments have on the mind is increased by the institutions built around themOne would find this kind of procedure less objectionable as political propaganda  which is what it is, of course  were not accompanied by sermons on the objectivity (and) fairness (of it all)the implication always being that Muslims and Arabs cannot be objective but that Orientalistswriting about Muslims are, by definition, by the mere fact of their Westernness. This is the culmination as a dogma that not only degrades its subject matter but also blinds its practitioners.

Some of the societal and political problems that this prejudicial position towards Muslims and Arabs create include that the mosque is seen to fail to represent religious freedom and diversity. Thus, Muslim groups have sometimes found that the communities they live in oppose the building of Muslim religious centers in the vicinity, if at all.

Another social problem that this mindset creates and furthers is the disposition of the West toward the East, of a feeling of superiority which is usually based in a foundation of fear of the other. The West fears the East, and therefore detests is, and thus does not go through the trouble of learning more about it with a more open mind and attitude. This fuels the vicious cycle of a prejudicial treatment of the East by the West, to such an extent that it affects and guides political motives of the West. This can be very clearly observed in the illustrations that are provided by the case of Iraq, and now Afghanistan Other social and political problems arising from the debate on Orientalism relate to the fact that the creation of Israel, along with American and European support for the same, has turned Arabs against the West, while at the same time, the Arabs have also attracted the dislike of the West due to the creation of Zionist colonization, as well as the Arab-Israel conflict.

If the non-Arab, specially the non-Arab of the West, was to realize that hisher pro-American attitude is merely a result of hisher patriotic passion, which has been fueled to such an extent as is depicted by the events of the 21st century, heshe will be able to see more clearly that in the name of patriotism, heshe is actually being conditioned to become and act as an anti-Muslim andor anti-Arab being.