Analysis of Video about Orientalism - Movie Review Example

Orientalism The video “On Orientalism” takes the shape of an interview. It is based on Edward Said’s 1978 book, Orientalism. This has led to a more modernized study of the Middle East and involved in the creation and shaping of new fields such as Post Colonial theory. Edward Said defines Orientalism as a structure of making generalizations about the Orient who are the countries and the people of the East. Said argues that “Orientalism was ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference between the familiar (Europe and West who he calls “us) and the strange (the Orient, the East whom he calls “them”)”. (Boer 15) The Orientalists are believed to have drawn the imaginary line of the world of “ours” and “theirs”. He aims to show that the structure of Orientalism is a structure of immense stereotyping falsehoods and mythical. The video aims at showing the real and true image of the Middle East thus giving the understanding of what kind of people live there, how they act and what they believe in. The Orient according to Said is a system of representations that have been framed by political forces. The orient is portrayed as the ‘’other”, alien and inferior to the West. There representation is according to the West’s interpretation of who they are (Boer 14). The Europeans portray themselves as superior to the Orients who are also termed as uncivilized. The generalizations of attributes of the Orients such as the Arabs seen as uncivilized, oil exporters or potential terrorists and Islam seen as a religion of terrorist is the main basis of Said’s argument in the video. Said states that this is “a subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arab-Islamic people and their culture”. (Boer 79) The 1978 Arab - Israeli war that saw the media portray the Arabs as cowardly and uncivilized, not knowing how to fight and the historical life experiences as an Arab led to Said’s interest in Orientalism. In the 1850’s, Said argues that it was difficult to talk about or read about the Middle East. There were repertory images that were used such as the East being portrayed as a sensual woman there to be sort and used by the man. The view of the Middle East by music, arts, paintings and literature as being a place filled with monsters and secrets wasn’t a realistic picture of who the Orients were (Boer 150). Said dismisses the claims made by the French poet, Gerard de Nerval that the Orientals are timeless and that they do not develop like the West. Orientalism develops an image of the Orientals that is non-factual historically. It is intended to create the “Other” for the West. Said argues that the idea of Israel terming the Arabs as enemies is imported in the American Orientalism. This is inspired by the anti Islamic notions by the Americans who are allies to Israel. The Americans have the view that the Arab’s fight for independence and self –determination is interfering with the stabilities of the things as they are. This contributes to making it impossible for Americans appreciating the Middle East by reading books and watching films from the Middle East. According to Said, Orientalism today demonizes Islam branding them as terrorists and out to kill or threaten Americans. Said states that today the media portrays Muslims as fanatics and villains. The “Oriental” is viewed as the lesser breed and an enemy to the Christians. Said claims that today the Arabs contribute to their representations by the West as the Orientals because many of the Arabic states are dictatorial without democracy and they need the United States support which results into them being subordinate and inferior to the West (Boer 179). Said argues that the reactions after the Oklahoma City bombings showed how immense and persistent Orientalism is. One of the commentators in the media claimed that the bombing was likely to have been a Middle East style and that there were three men after the explosion that were believed to be of Middle Eastern origin seen near the site of the explosion. On one of the CBS News Interview Steve Emerson stated that “Oklahoma City is probably considered one of the largest centers of Islamic radical activity outside the Middle East. Said claims in the video that the major media houses were struggling to talk to him about the bombings not because he had anything to do with it but due to the fact that he was from the Middle East. He calls this a racist act. The complexities of Palestine make it become significant in Orientalism. It is inhabited by Arab Muslims, Arab Christians and Israeli Jews. It is considered a holy land to three major religions thus having been fought over severally. Said argues that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a test for the world to choose to co-exist together in peace and reconciliation accepting the other persons weaknesses. The demonization of Islam has been on the increase globally. Especially in the United States the levels of racism towards the Muslim people is alarming. There is a demonizing image of branding Muslims as terrorists (Boer 59). The stereotyping is very rampant in the media by journalist and films from Hollywood. In as much as we cannot deny the existence of terrorism in the Middle East we should appreciate that it is largely as a result of the existing violent political situations. There are a lot more positive perspectives about the Middle East and the people that the West does not see. There are a lot of people from the Middle East who are humane and live decent lives that are not violent, fanatical or extreme. There have been programs in the media such as the PBS television program “Jihad in America” and the Crimson Jihad in the movies. This stereotyping is demining and dangerous as they lead to consequential cases of discrimination while seeking employment or housing (Boer 58). The negative representation of the Muslims has led to harassment and neglect as violence towards the Muslims or vandalism on their mosques is given little or no media attention. This is clear in the Israeli –Arab war which has significantly affected the Muslim’s socio-political events. In the movies, the Arabs are seen as the terrorist and fanatics being sought for by the Westerners. The films show large number of bodies of Muslims who have been killed. As a result of Orientalism and stereotyping there have been attempts to refer to Islam as “Mohammedanism”. (Boer 179) The messages the movies are sending is that Islam being a threat to the world’s security needs to be wiped out. The demonization inhumanely portrays Muslims as people who do not embrace peace and democracy. This means that the only best way of passing a message across is violence. The Palestinian question is very important in understanding Orientalism with reference to failure of the Oslo process and the United States mediation, the fight for independence by the Palestinian people, the destruction of Gaza , East Jerusalem and West bank and the mass killings of innocent Palestinians (Boer 133). For us to understand the question of Palestine we have to look at the historical establishment of Palestine as an entity on its own and refrain from generalizing by looking at the as Muslims or Arabs. I believe that for peace to be found in the Middle East and Palestine to be precise, the racist perspective of the Orientalists must be done away with because it is the major force behind promoting separation of people. Palestine was inhibited by before the creation of the Zionist movement. The country had a proper system of government that saw the Palestinian people regarded as the elite of the Middle East. In my view the refusal of Israel to coexist with the Palestinian people is a racist and Orientalists act. Israel and its ally the United States have failed in understanding the simple fact that that there was a Palestinian people in Palestine before the formation of the state of Israel and they should re think the aggressive humiliations ,and destruction of Palestinian goods in an effort to fulfill their orientalist, repressive racist and colonial goals. Despite Said’s video having strong and points about the weaknesses of Europeans and American perspectives it has major weaknesses. The video generalizes the East as “the Orient” but completely leaves out other countries in the East such as Japan and China while is says little about India (Boer 164). This is seen as a form of discrimination that it discourages the West from doing. Another Weakness is portrayed in the attempt to discriminatively forgive the French writers who promote Orientalism such as Nerval. The claim that the West is the only perpetrator of Orientalism towards the East is wrong as this is done by all societies s in the world. The video to large extend does not deal with gender issues. Apart from stressing on the West treating the East as a woman to use the East tends to do the same towards the West. The claim by Said that the Americans and Europeans do not know the people from the East well and any effort to do so is looked at as discriminative or oppressive is false. He silenced other people by not giving them an opportunity to take part in the debate. The video focuses only on the political perspective and has little on the literary dimensions (Boer 200). In conclusion, despite the weaknesses the video is still a significant work. The video has a larger impact to the world than the local setting it was produced. The videos strengths will notably be more important to the people in the East and other Arab countries. He has dwelt more on fostering the political argument that results in the neglect of literary and rhetorical technique. Though, the video succeeds in presenting itself as a polemic it fails to function as a corrective medium to a faulty scholarship. Orientalism is largely based on very little knowledge about the European and the Non European imperialism; more is expected from criticism and scholarship. Works cited Boer, Inge E. After Orientalism: critical entanglements, productive looks. New York: Rodopi, 2003. Read More