The Role of Orientalism in Western Conceptions of the Islamic Tradition - Essay Example

The Role of Orientalism in Western Conceptions of the Islamic Tradition Islam, being one of the world’s most widely spread religions, has originated Islamic culture in a wide range of countries where it is dominant. These countries, as a consequence of this, have very many common features, which in its turn results into a false conception of the rest of the world that all the Muslims are similar. One more thing that prevents people from correct perception of this original and unique system of traditions is Orientalism, initially referred to as a direction in art, then there was a political concept created with the same name. In Orientalism, Edward Said writes that the West reckons the Islamic states to be static and undeveloped, which fabricates a view that Oriental culture can be studied, depicted and reproduced. This implies the idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior. 1 Such view from the above does not give a complete picture of what the society has to offer. Some of the most famous ancient scientists, for example, Omar Khayyam, one of the supposed founders of algebra, belonged to Oriental world; ancient Persia, unlike the tribes of the territory where modern Iraq is located, was the center of science, arts, and culture of its time. Islam as a very severe and, as it seems from the first look, cruel religion, creates its own image as a dictatorship of its norms and laws over a man and demands strict obeying, which is very difficult for the Western conscious of liberal world perception, and it leads to formulating of conceptions (and misconceptions as well) which are not always true. It is necessary to define and investigate into such ones and to understand the role of Orientalism in their emergence. In Western Democracy and Islamic Tradition: The Application of Shari’a in a Modern World, Melanie Reed rises a matter of human rights in Islam. “While most scholars would agree that minimal human rights standards exist, the correct implementation of such standards is a topic of hot debate. In light of recent international conflicts, the relationship between religion and human rights, and in particular Islam and human rights, is a pressing topic.”2 Indeed, some Islamic countries, especially those with strong traditions of tribal society, Pakistan, Afghanistan, for instance, are an endless source of news about terrorist attacks, blood shooting, hostages taking and other possible violation of human rights. Islam, implying a solid faith in God, may result in society’s looking for embodiment of such God – strong, wise, caring, just and with all the positive traits. This is a perfect basis for dictatorship emergence, as it happened in Iraq. It is more than obvious that dictatorship seldom considers human rights, which was proven by Hussein’s use of chemical weapon against the Kurds tribes which did not support his policy. These typical violations of human rights create imagine of Islamic states as ignoring international regulations in terms of human rights provision and protection, however, this is not the case when investigating into Muslim countries distant from the Earth’s constant bleeding wound, the Near East. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country, though Islam prevails and is considered to be the primary religion of this state. Michael Peletz characterizes Islam in Malaysia as quite pluralistic. The courts here, for example, protect women’s rights, they play an important role in teaching the society the right forms of Islam, guide national building and regulate the country’s life in a sound and reasonable direction.3 It is logical to suppose that this misconception of total violation of human rights in Islam has emerged in the Western world under influence of mass media continuous highlighting combat actions in these states and nothing else, whereas there are quite peaceful and relatively stable in terms of multi-cultural states in the Islamic world. Another conception that has solidly stuck in the Western conscious is that Islam is intolerable to other religions and beliefs. The best way to prove or reject this is to consult reference sources from the Islamic world itself, as it will allow receiving information without any interpretation or distortion. In Justice and Human Rights in Islam, Muhammad Tal’at Al-Ghunaimi argues hostile attitude others’ faith and gives a counter-argument that the Qur’an mandates that all persons in the Islamic state have freedom of thought and religion.4 The Qur’an also holds that “God will judge between those who believe and the Jews, the Sabians, Christians and the Magians and the idolaters, on the Day of Judgment”.5 This formally means that in Islamic states it is up to every person to decide which religion he or she shall choose and what he or she will think. In fact, the life demonstrates that this mandate of the Qur’an is often violated by terrorists, for example, in the last couple of years there was an increase in terrorists’ attacks in Nigeria and other African countries on Christian communities resulting into numerous casualties. This is also partially right, as the society notices only some breaking news about terrorist acts and multiple deaths rather than quietness in Muslim countries in other parts of the world. The example of the above mentioned Malaysia is the best evidence that, given that the governmental and society’s efforts are sufficient and well-organized, superficially different cultures can put up with each other and not be tempted to take acts of violence to their representatives. The word “militarism” is more and more frequently used when talking about countries that strengthen their armies and increase military power, especially when this results into further use of this military power and conqueror’s ambitions of these countries’ warlords. The world’s history abounds in facts of invasions of certain countries into others beginning from the human’s appearing on the planet and up to nowadays. The empires emerged and collapsed, the state borders expanded and shortened, but the desire to dominate and govern was also present in Muslim states. As of today, there is more and more concern about the “Iran question”: whether it possesses nuclear weapon already and which threats to the regional security it creates. Four decades ago, Israel, surrounded by Islamic countries, became a victim of continuous attacks of growing military powers of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and survives missile strikes up to the present day, however, defending more than successfully and even sometimes acquiring new territories. Iran is also famous with its anti-Israel international position and constant claims “to convert it to dust” on each military parade designed to demonstrate its military muscles, though limiting so far by only words. Additionally, the 1980-1988 war between two Islamic states, Iran and Iraq, started by the latter and having dubious consequences and results, has shown that even two different religious directions of Islam presupposed this conflict to some extent. Though Iran had to defend, the ambitions of its leaders “to export Islamic revolution” to the neighboring country along with the logical desire to conquer oil-rich territories made this conflict last for long eight years. This conflict is considered to be the cruelest one in the XX century after the Second World War.6 Another proof of this conception, applicable to not all countries however, is another war inspired by Hussein. The previous conflict, similarly, had to make him calm down and give up his insatiable ambitions, but it didn’t, and Kuwait was the next falling victim of Iraq military machine, though this success was short-living and resulted very unsuccessfully for the aggressor. This case with Iraq dictatorship has more to do with the dictator himself and his personality, but, in historic discourse, the Islamic nations were inclined to war on the others. Islam outlines and structures ways in which Muslim women should live their lives on a day-to-day basis.7 Women are more restricted in Islam than men, and these limitations are more severe than those applied to men. Islam explains this by the fact that a woman is a sacred creation and, consequently, shall meet more requirements of religion and moral. It is very unusual for a western man that a woman is not allowed to drive a car or to appear in public without a husband, apparently, it leads to a conclusion that women’s rights are limited and they are treated not like human beings. As these gender roles are prescribed by religion, this raises no objections in the Islamic societies and is taken for granted. The above mentioned conceptions of Islam in the Western conscious prove that Islam is a truly original system of traditions which is complicated for understanding, as everything unusual is doubtful and suspicious. Orientalism, giving the Western society the right to be perfect and supreme, creates a picture of Islam as a second-tier civilization and those one that cannot manage countries’ governments on their own, it implies the Western partonizing of such states and some even insist on adoption of the western model of human rights in the entire world. The right approach, however, to let the nations decide on themselves which way they should move and how close historical and religious traditions are to social and governmental activities. In this term, Orientalism distorted the conceptions of the Western society about Islam claiming that any culture can be reproduced and believing the Western civilization as the exclusive one, which resulted into comprehension of features of other cultures and societies not present in liberal countries as something bad and evil, which creates obstacles for perception of all the best things from this really unique culture. This paper investigated into such conceptions and misconceptions of Islam from the point of view of the Western society as: violation of human rights, religious intolerance, militarism, and women’s position in Islamic society, the reasons for such understanding were given – Orientalistic views at this religion and countries having it as a dominant one, poor information of the western societies about real situations in other Muslim countries than constantly fighting Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and described the role of Orientalism in formulating these conceptions as distorting. Bibliography Al-Ghunaimi, Muhammad Tal’at. Justice and Human Rights in Islam (Gerald E. Lampe ed., 1997), 5-6. Carlisle, Rodney P. Persian Gulf War (Ed. By John S. Bowman, New York: Facts on File, 2003). Mamdani, Mahmood. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terrorism (New York: Pantheon, 2004), 32. Nieuwkerk, Karin van. Women Embracing Islam: Gender and Conversion in the West (Texas: University of Texas Press), retrieved 14 Mar. 2015. Peletz, Michael G. Islamic Modern: Religious Courts and Cultural Politics in Malaysia 3 (Princeston: Princeston University Press, 2002), 6. Reed, Melanie D. Western Democracy and Islamic Tradition: The Application of Shari’a in a Modern World (American International Law Review 19, no. 3, 2003), 485. Read More