"Hyperculturization" after September 11: The Arab-Muslim World and the West

Abstract

����� ��� With respect to the relationship between the Arab-Muslim world and the West, little has changed in the discourse of Western and American politicians and pundits since September 11, 2001. Their vision of the “Orient” is a continuation and intensification of the representation of the Arab-Muslim in terms of an alterity that is more absolute than ever. This is a result both of the history of confrontation between the two entities and of a narcissism that can be traced to the European Enlightenment. This narcissism derives from the post-Enlightenment generalization of the Western social and political model, which amalgamates the advent of industrialization, economic development, and military domination with the West’s discourse of rationality and civilization. Indeed, positing its model as the universal norm and identifying itself with the notion of civilization per se, the West implicitly relegates other societies and alternative cultural models to a hierarchically inferior position. The association and identification of the terrorists of September 11 with Islam contribute to the already prevalent demonization of the ArabMuslim that Europe first and then the US have promoted since the emergence of Islam. This process of demonization started with the economic, political, and cultural conflicts between the Muslims and the Christian kingdoms beginning in the seventh century, and has been reinforced continually ever since. 1 In the current situation, the