On Orientalism: An Insight Into The Real Middle East - Essay Example

On Orientalism: An Insight Into The Real Middle East Summary The repertory of orientalism  The main theme of this part of the video ‘On Orientalism,’ is the repertory of the distorted images and misrepresentation of people from Middle East. According to Edward Said, through different mediums like art, literature, music, popular media etc., people from Middle East have been shown as mysterious, threatening, weak, ancient and incapable of development. Said found that this repertory of images were repeatedly used in artistic expressions not only by people who had never been to the East, but also by ‘experts’ who had been to the East and had seen the real picture of the East. According to Said, the misrepresentation of the East as a land of magic, mystery, monsters and secrets, in the repertory of images through different artistic expressions, led him to voice his thoughts on orientalism. Orientalism and empire  Said states that the birth of orientalism is not a result of recent past but is a result of need felt by the European empires (who attacked the Middle East) to describe the people they had conquered and who were of different color and culture from theirs. According to Said, orientalism is in practice since the conquest of the Middle Eastern countries by empires like British and French, especially Napoleon’s Egypt expedition in 1798. Napoleon took with him to Egypt not only the army of soldiers but also the army of experts from different fields like biology, physics, chemistry etc., to conquer the ideologies of the land. This was not just to record the potentialities and the immense knowledge of Egypt, but to utilize it for the benefit of Europeans and to misguide the world into thinking that it was Europeans who were discovering the potential of Egypt as Egyptians did not have the capability to use their own knowledge. American orientalism  The theme of this video is the political interest of America in creating fear and hatred for Arabs in the minds of Western people. According to Said, the American orientalism is indirect and is based on abstractions, as it never had its colonies, or conquered the countries in Middle East as the French and the British had. Moreover, American orientalism is politicized due to its interest in Israel and the effect of Israel’s sentiment on its viewpoint. American orientalism is flooded with images and characters in popular culture portraying the anti-Islamic sentiment, which is in reality the sentiment of Israel. Israel is a Jewish state and thinks of Arab people as its enemy. However, the fact is that even Israelis are responsible for misery and bloodshed in the East but the Americans choose to ignore it. American orientalism has portrayed Arabs as violent and irrational people, which is distortion of their real image. Orientalism today: the demonization of Islam in the news and popular culture  The theme of this part of the video is the ongoing demonization and negative representation of Muslim people in the popular media. Said has discussed how the political interest in misrepresentation of Muslim people and distorting the facts about their lifestyle has led journalism to report stories that are untrue and colored with self interests. The human and the normal side of the Arabic world are hidden from the Americans. Oklahoma city bombing  Even before waiting to know the truth about Oklahoma bombing, the print and TV journalists declared the hand of Middle East in it. It showed the irresponsible and racist way in which the Middle Eastern people are portrayed in the media. Orientalism and Palestinian question  According to Said, the challenge that human race face today is to co-exist together without suppressing the difference and try to understand the historical inventory in order to understand the other people as people understand themselves. Said deems Palestine as an important epitome of this idea of peaceful co-existence, as people from different religion like Arab Jews, Arab Christians and Arab Muslims are living there, which creates a challenge of complex nature in that area. Analysis Orientalism today: the demonization of Islam in the news and popular culture  Said has meticulously analyzed the misrepresentation of the Arabs in the popular culture and news, and the impact of that misrepresentation on the Middle Eastern people. He has studied the distortion of Islamic people and their activities through the television news and movies and how it creates an image of Arab people as nothing but violent and fanatic people whose only aim is to kill Americans. Said is right when he says that instead of improving the quality of broadcast and image of Middle East in the media, the situation has got worse. Said has also discussed the contribution of Hollywood movies in creating a villainous picture of the Arabs. Hollywood stars have immense influence on the minds of Americans and Westerners. Hollywood has repeatedly misrepresented Islam as demon who needs to be destroyed and killed if peace is to be restored in the world. So when big Hollywood megastars are seen calling Arab or Muslim people as terrorists, and are seen displaying their heroism in the act of killing the Muslims, the images and the idea remain in the mind of the viewers and affect heir views about the Muslim people and Arab countries. Moreover, Americans fail to realize that the horrible images and the events from Arab world shown on the news are not the only things that happen there. The fact that there are normal people living a normal life in normal situations is never presented in the media. The impact of repeated distortion of images of Muslim people in the movies and the video clips in the news is so negative that all the things related to Muslim people like the turban, the black-white checkered scarves, the green flags and the black veils, have become a symbol of fear and hatred and create a feeling of threat in the minds of Americans. Said has done an excellent job in analyzing the misrepresentation of Arabs as villains and extremely fanatic people in the entertainment and news media and its negative impact on Americans. He laments the fact that Americans are deceived by their own people and are kept under dark about the truth of the Middle East for their selfish purpose. The media and the Oklahoma city bombing  Said has given the example of media coverage of the Oklahoma city bombing to show how the orientalism is still persistent in the American media despite of people living in the age of modern and educated world, where they are expected to be aware of the truth about people and places. In the video, the news clips are shown where responsible and senior news journalists are shown blaming the Middle East terrorists for the bombing even before knowing who really was behind the bombing. This shows how the minds of the Americans are poisoned against the Muslims and how the reality id colored with the selfish motives. Moreover, the news networks that have carried this irresponsible coverage are well-known international networks like CBS and ‘abc’. This also shows that these networks work under the influence of government agencies that make them to say things that they want them to say, and spread the wrong ideas and images of the Muslim people. Oklahoma bombing was an excellent example of how the American journalism has become irresponsible and mediocre and hence, unreliable. Moreover, the bias against Arabic people makes even the senior journalists to jump to conclusion without really waiting for the truth to be discovered. Sadly, their point of view has become so narrow that they fail to see the fact that even Americans have created the terrorist groups like Ku Klux Klan which was responsible for misery and bloodshed of thousands of people. Conclusion In the video ‘On Orientalism,’ Edward Said has discussed his book ‘orientalism’ and the motivation and essence of the term ‘orientalism’. Said has given excellent references of imperialism, colonialism, News coverage and Hollywood movies to explain how orientalism is used in different mediums to distort the truth about Muslims and the Middle Eastern people. The strength of the video is the depth with which Said has discussed the penetration of orientalism in every medium. At the same time, he has also discussed the selfish political motives of the American government in creating fear and threat about the Arabs in the minds of Americans. The in depth analysis of orientalism and the insight of the American motive in creation of American orientalism is the strength of the video. However, it would have strengthened the impact of the analysis if Said had discussed the violence and terrorist acts by the western organization like Ku Klux Klan, civil war between White and Black people, hooliganism etc. This would have shown that terrorism exists not only in Arab countries but also in the US and Europe. However, overall, Edward Said has completely succeeded in developing a feeling of sympathy and understanding towards the people from Middle East and hence, this video can be highly recommended to anyone who desires to know the real Middle East and not just its exotic and majestic part. Works Cited Said, Edward. ‘Orientalism as a Tool of Colonialism 1/4’ . 1 Oct. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Said, Edward. ‘Orientalism as a Tool of Colonialism 2/4’ . 24 Oct. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Said, Edward. ‘Orientalism as a Tool of Colonialism 3/4’ . 24 Oct. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Said, Edward. ‘Orientalism as a Tool of Colonialism 4/4’ . 21 Oct. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Read More