Orientalism and the Globalised Muslim world

Abstract

This paper explores the origins of Orientalism and how it came into existence in the discourse of post-colonial studies. This paper elaborates on the three meanings of Orientalism based on Palestinian American scholar Edward Said to illustrate that Orientalism is not solely a field of study about the Eastern world, rather critiques on the biasness of views towards the globalised Muslim world. This paper will then explore some of the major events where Orientalism has shaped the realm of Muslim affairs as well as on the international history and politics such as the Algerian War of Independence, the polemics of Iran’s Nuclear Crisis, the global War on ‘Islamist’ terrorism and the British government’s response to the 7/7 London bombings in that order. These case studies are chronologically ordered to demonstrate the pervasiveness of Orientalism across time. Ultimately, this paper argues that Said’ critiques on Orientalism produces an important foundation for post-war era studies namely; 1) to identify the stereotypes used in media, writing and literature; 2) to unravel the fictional narratives among Eurocentric scholars and; 3) to debunk myths when researching ‘globalised Muslim world’ as Orientalism it is still very much apparent in the foreign policy realm, especially policies towards Muslims. Hence, this paper concludes that decolonisation of history is important in critical studies to achieve democratic knowledge production.