| |
| Join Our Newsletter |
 Please Select sub-criteria |  |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Critiquing Orientalist Perceptions |
02 |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
The Orient re-visited
The Middle East has been an important centre of colonial struggle and conflicting interests due to its economic riches and strategic geographical position. Media focus and coverage of the Middle East has been intensein the last few years, which is not surprising given that the region has become the centre for the American led War on Terror and the drive for democratisation which has been articulated as a foreign policy objective by Bush administration. As a result of the aggressive neo-conservative foreign policy, debate about the root causes of 'Islamic terrorism', the socio-economic failings of the region and the political future of the Middle East has come to the fore. This debate amongst western thinkers and policy makers is remarkable and a major turn around, given that prior to the 1990s, the Middle East was seen as beyond hope of change and reform, unlike other regions around the world, coinciding with Samuel Huntington's 'Third Wave' of democratisation (1991). The term 'Middle Eastern Exceptionalism' was coined to infer the apparently inherent inability of the region to engage in any substantial political engineering in order to re-orient its stagnant political infrastructures. The seminal work on political reform and change by Diamond et al during the 1980s excluded the Middle East, further reinforcing the repuation of the region as a political anomaly.
During the 1980s, academics such as Elie Kedourie, Bernard Lewis and Fuad Ajami related this peculiarity of the region to intrinsic cultural issues, emphasising traditional Orientalist arguments about the backwardness of the Orient. They pointed out a number of factors that they believed contributed to the backwardness and stagnation of Middle Eastern societies; issues such as the absence of civil society, the Arab psyche, praetorianism and the domination of patriarchy within Arab political systems. A number of issues emerged which the Orientalists perceived as root causes of backwardness in the Middle East, but significantly they connected the above-mentioned factors to the institutional role Islam has played in Middle Eastern societies. Islam developed, according to them, a political culture and mindset of entrenched gender polarisation and passivity, which resulted in social imbalance and consequently led to a downward spiral of backwardness (Kedourie, 1992). This particular reading of the Middle East was dominant during the 1980s, but with the end of Communism, alternative perspectives and theses emerged concerning the Middle East, which did not propound such a negative picture concerning prospects of reform. The field of Middle Eastern Studies gained further diversity in addition to the Saidian school of thought (named thus because it followed from the approach of Edward Said) and put Orientalist negativism on the back foot. Despite this intellectual diversity in relation to the study of the Middle East, the old commentaries have returned to the fore post-9/11, providing a regurgitation of old ill-conceived perceptions of the Middle East. The skewed commentaries provided by the Orientalists have been instrumental in shaping public mindsets and thinking towards the Middle East.
Contemporary societies in the Middle East have been under sustained attack for their lack of democracy, discrimination against religious minorities and the inferior legal status of women. The Orientalist dogma of negativism, subjectivity and perceiving the 'other' has resurfaced, providing justification for America to project its power and to utilise violence to liberate the backward Middle East from dictatorial and autocratic political systems. Bernard Lewis, described as 'the doyen of Middle East Studies', has penetrated Bush's Pentagon and National Security Council and has been instrumental in helping the likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld develop their understanding of the causes of the problems in the Middle East and the potential correctives (Alam, 2002). Secular democracy is presented by Lewis as a cure for the ills of the region, requiring hard power in order to institutionalise secular models of governance. A decisive show of American strength in the Arab world is needed to take the offensive in the region and rid it of despotism. He was among the earliest voices in the aftermath of 9/11 to press for confrontation with Iraq, expressing his thoughts in a series of pieces in the Wall Street Journal with titles like 'A War of Resolve' and 'Time for Toppling' (Hirsh, 2004). Lewis is not alone; a fleet of able lieutenants, such as Raphael Patai, Thomas Friedman, Daniel Pipes and Martin Kramer have all made ample contributions. Martin Kramer's book, 'Ivory Towers on Sand: The failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America'(2002), launches a scathing attack upon the present status of scholarship in the field in America, considering it too apologetic and failing in its duty to inform policy makers of the real issues concerning Islam and the Middle East.
Twenty seven years after the publication of Edward Said's 'Orientalism', in which he highlighted the intentions, assumptions, modalities and negativity of the Orientalist approach, there is a dire need for an objective and thoughtful discourse about the Middle East that excluding bias and prejudices. We can agree with Orientalism's criticisms of the authoritarianism, moribund political systems, economic retardation and the oppression that women face in the region. I hope to discuss in the following sections of the article what factors, or factions, are to blame for such problems, in order to widen the parameters of blame and criticism.
| |
| |
| |
| |
< 1 2 3 4 > Last »
Page 2 of 5 pages
| |
|
|
