Running Head: ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MUSLIMS 1

The Origin of Orientalism as an Academic Field and

Its Impact on Muslims

Halima Qaderi

International Open University

Name: Halima Qaderi

ID: [10077432]

Course: DHD 502

Attempt: 1

Topic: Elaborate further on the concept of Orientalism as an academic discipline

and its impact on Muslims

Abstract

What is the study of Orientalism and why is it so important and relevant for us to study? The

word orient means the east and Orientalism is the study or the so called study of the east that is

by imaginary and presumed picturing of them by the west. The orient or the east started to

become a subject for learning for the west in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The purpose of their study, however, varied but those were under the same umbrella of how to

submit the voice and power that had been an alarming one for the west for a long period of time.

Of course, of their motives were, political, economic, cultural, geographic and religious.

However, I will be discussing in this paper about how the study of the east or Orientalism later

focused on the study of Islam for the most part. When we know the oriental image made by the

west, and the image they associate with Islam, we will know about the contemporary problems

of Islamophobia and secularism that the Muslim world faces today, as a result of it.

Keywords: Orientalism, Islam, Imperialism, Islamophobia, Secularism.

The Origin of Orientalism as an Academic Field and

Its Impact on Muslims

Orientalism or the study of the east is a critical subject to be analyzed in light of proofs

and valid arguments for us to reach at the goal of it. The east is not a single small geographic

entity rather there are different countries with diverse lifestyles and religions within the east. One

must get curious about the study of the vast east by the west and what caused the west to start it.

The study of the east was first started by the Europe and France, in the late eighteenth and early

nineteenth centuries, as a formal academic study. This study of the orient was not conducted

aimlessly. However, how the focus of the Orientalism later pointed towards Islam alone and its

impacts on the Muslims is interestingly significant and we shall discuss it in this research paper.

“In the name of knowledge of the orient and within the hegemony of the west over the

east, in the end of eighteenth century, there arose the need for the west to study the orient.”(Said

1977, 8) In fact, the oriental study was based on the consciousness of the sovereign west whose

motives were the very cause of the emergence of the oriental studies. Since the invasion of Egypt

by the French military general, Napoleon, in the late eighteenth century, the creating of a semi

mythical image of the Orient by the west has been created again and again to assert that this is

orient’s nature so they must be dealt with according to that nature.

“In the late eighteenth century Orientalism started in a roughly defined manner where it

can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the orient – dealing

with the orient by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching

it, settling it, ruling over it; in short, Edward Said defines Orientalism as a Western style for

dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” (Said 1977, 3) The imaginative
ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MUSLIMS 5

phenomenon of the orient that the west wanted to insert in the minds of the people was to make a

reason for the west’s brutality and hegemony.

The fact is that imperialism has always been the overall motive behind the Orientalizing

of the orient. “Napoleon's interest in the Orient was based on his sense of the British role in

India: French interest in the Near East, Islam, and the Arabs was triggered by all these Far

Eastern interests of the Britain. Hence the Eastern Mediterranean was ruled and dominated by

the Britain and France from about the end of the seventeenth century on.”(Said 1977, 18)

Although, the first major writings in the field of Orientalism came from Britain and France, the

American involvement in this field appeared after the World War II. “The American step in the

Orientalism was a quite conscious one that was directed towards those regions that were

excavated by the two earlier European powers.”(Said 1977, 18)

The aim of the Western and the later American Policies to have a controlling hand over

the east created a demand for the west to show that the east is in fact in need of their interference.

The words of Edward Said pointed to this fact as he said, “I study Orientalism as a dynamic

exchange between individual authors and the large political concerns shaped by the three great

empires—British, French, American—in whose intellectual and imaginative territory the writing

was produced.”(Said 1977, 16) hence, literature was used for orientalism.

Since, literature serves as the mean of transmitting information – whether true or not, the

misinterpreting and misrepresenting of the east were done by use of extensive writings on this

subject. “Oriental writers at the time of renaissance played a role in triggering and justifying

European colonialism. Prof. Deepa, in her book Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire (2012),
ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MUSLIMS 6

opines that “whether consciously or not, Orientalists produced a body of work that aided the

project of imperialism.” (Abubakar &Muhammad 2019, 93)

In the midst of all the strategically empirical steps in settling the east and wrecking their

image, how Islam became the center of focus for the west? “The modern European burst of

interest in Islam was component of what was called "the Oriental renaissance," an era in the late

eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when French and British scholars once again learned

"the East" - India, China, Japan, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Holy Land. Islam was seen, for

better or for worse, as part of the East, sharing in its mystery, exoticism, corruption, and latent

power.”(Said 1981, 13) While orientalizing the orient, the west saw the religion of Islam,

especially, as a source of the hidden power still alive in the orient.

Besides, as for the interaction of the Muslims and the Christians, it can be traced back to

the time of the emergence of Islam in the seventh century. The Christians saw Islam, from the

time of after the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, and onwards, as a challenge to them – both

militarily and religiously. “Thereby, by the middle of the fifteenth century, as shown by R. W.

Southern, it became apparent to serious European thinkers "that something would have to be

done about Islam,” which had turned the situation around somewhat by itself arriving militarily

in Eastern Europe.”(Said 1977, 62) The west that, for a long time, witnessed the great power of

the Muslim world and their rapid and constant advancements, could not avoid the reality that

Islam had something special that could resist their imperialism.

Now we shall consider the effects of Orientalism on the Muslims and the Muslim world.

“In the book Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire (2012), Deepa Kumar examines the image

of the “Muslim world” in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the way it has been mirrored
ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MUSLIMS 7

through the language of Orientalism… she observed that for the fact that Orientalism identifies

Muslims as a distinct race whose whole lives are governed by the Quran. Therefore, any

misogyny, barbarism, savagery, lack of entrepreneurial spirit or scientific advancement, rejection

of the Western modernization are all blamed on the Quran or associated with Islamic

traditions.”(Cited in Abubakar &Muhammad 2019, 94)

The fear and hatred of the common men who knew not the orient but through the image

created by the west of the Muslims and their ideologies – that were supposed to come from

Islam, led to the beginning of Islamophobia. Islamophobia, a term which literary means the fear

or hatred of Islam or Muslims, is a tool for the west to provide an acceptable explanation for

their imperializing the Muslim world. “In a YouTube documentary, Professor Deepa Kumar

argues on the subject of Islamophobia in America as she says: “Islamophobia is an ideology that

is tied to a set of practices that sustain and reproduce empire.”(Cited in Abubakar &Muhammad

2019, 92) Islamophobia especially, if not only, focused on distorting the socio-religious image of

the Muslims to make them appear as if they were very far-fetched and anti-occident.

Therefore, the west that used constant and huge amount of writings for creating a violent

image of Islam for showing to the world saw the social media as a more easy way for achieving

their goal. “The media plays a very important role in analyzing and reporting these events given

that they shape public opinion, which, subsequently, translates into reactions in the various

sections of society.”(Alatas 2005, 1) True that there were certain events that caused tension

between the east and the west and the global village like the war in Afghanistan and the incident

of 9/11, it must not be forgotten that who have had control over the social media to use it in their

favor.
ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MUSLIMS 8

In fact, an example of the media’s shaping the news and reporting could be seen in the

reality of the reaction of some Muslims, not necessarily of Islam, against the west’s attempts to

have control over them that were portrayed by the social media to be terrorism. “Bakali (2016)

argues using Charlie Hebdo as an example, that instead of relating news neutrally to the masses,

the media represents Muslims as hostile, misogynistic and prone towards terrorism.”(Cited in

Shukri 2019, 65) As a result, in the west and even in the Muslim lands imperialized indirectly by

the America at the present time, the fear of terrorism and a sense of Islamophobia led to anti-

Islamic ideologies and hence to secularism.

Secularism was systematically and gradually brought to play the role when it was

believed that religion was no more the solution rather it was seen to be the problem for the

modern day west and elsewhere. “However, the worst cases of genocide in recent history took

place in the name of secular ideologies, namely, fascism, liberal democracy, and

socialism.”(Alatas 2005, 49) Although, there have been numerous incidents that demonstrate the

hatred of the common westerners towards the Muslim, like attacking the Muslims, physically

and emotionally by demeaning them, all because of their religion, we can see the very

consequence of Orientalism being the rise of secularism in the Muslim world. The introduction

and rise of secularism in the Muslim world today through the indirect rule of the west over the

east is certainly a step in putting an end to the very idea of religion.

In summary, Orientalism as a phenomenon existed from the time after the advent and

spread of Islam into the Christian lands but its origin as an academic discipline could be traced

back to the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. The west’s knowledge, that Islam could

again become the backbone of a new strong nation that would not submit to the imposed rule of

the western politics and culture on them, led them to maintain the wrong image of Islam they
ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MUSLIMS 9

have created. The fear of Islam’s potential strength and latent spirit in the Muslims of taking the

power again has always been in the hearts of the westerners no matter how weak and paralyzed

the Muslim world may appear to others. The Orientalism is still functioning with getting full

support from various ruling authorities. In fact, the west – the America in specific in the present

day – has set policies directly related to having political and economic control over the orient.

Thus the study of Orientalism continues in the west in different names and forms.
ACADEMIC ORIENTALISM AND ITS IMPACT ON MUSLIMS 10

References

Abubakar, S. & Muhammad, D. S. “Islamophobia: An Overview of Orientalism of Muslims for

American Empire”, Journal of English Language and Literature Vol. 6, No. 3 (2019).

VEDA Publications. Doi: https://doi.org/10.33329/joell.63.87

Alatas, S. F. (2005). Covering Islam: Challenges & Opportunities for Media in the Global

Village. The Centre for Research on Islamic and Malay Affairs (RIMA) and the Konrad

Adenauer Foundation (KAF).

Said, E. W. (1981). Covering Islam; how the media and the experts determine how we see the

rest of the world. Revised Edn. Vintage Books, A division of Random House, INC. New

York.

Said, E. W. (1977). Orientalism. London: Penguin.

Shukri, S. F. “The Perception of Indonesian Youths towards Islamophobia: An Explanatory

Study”, Islamophobia Studies Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019), pp. 61-75. Pluto Journals.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/islastudj.5.1.0061