Orientalism: By Fatima Bhangu

The Western world looks at people of the East through a lens which distorts the actual reality of individuals living in those regions. Edward Said calls this lens orientalism. The lens portrays how these individuals act, what they believe and often gives a negative stereotypical portrayal of the lives they lead. Edward Said describes Orientalism as a creation of an ideal “other” which is often a doubtful depiction. This illustration of this “other” is defined as something alien and barbaric. Often, the average American gets the impression through mass media that the “other” is to be feared and perhaps even fought against.
The media tends to give a negative, evil representation of Middle East which is often threatening. This representation is so deeply rooted that it is found in Hollywood movies such as True Lies (1994). Within this movie Palestinians are portrayed as villains and there is usage of the phrases such as “shoot dead Palestinians like clay pigeons (Wikipedia Orientalism, 2011).” Why this negative depiction of Palestinians? Edward Said has the answer. In the You Tube course video, he dictates that the American orientalism is “very politicized by the presence of Israel.” America was the first nation to recognize the state of Israel and what you really have is a creation of a western state “in the middle of the Islamic oriental world.” He further claims that “Israel regards the Arab world as his enemy” and the Israeli enmity towards Palestine is “imported into American orientalism.” The Western media often shows a one sided story in regards to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, in which the Palestinians are obviously the bad guys.
I further visualized the widespread negativity of the Eastern “other” after searching “Pakistan” on You Tube. To no surprise, the first four out of the five videos were negative. Headings of these videos include as such: “Mosque blast kills nine”, “War in Pakistan” and “Illegal Gun Market.” How come almost nothing positive about the region or culture dominates the search? Further veils worn by Middle Eastern women are often symbolized negatively. Is it not strange how a veiled Muslim woman is often recognized as “oppressed” whereas a nun who covers herself up equally is depicted as “pious” by the media? Moreover, 9/11 popularized the notion of Islamophobia and there is huge opposition by the Western world in regards to the mosque being built close to Ground Zero. Just because some Arabs may have been responsible for 9/11, does it mean the rest of the 1.6 billion Muslims are the same? Why should I have to go through special security checks at the airport because of my Muslim name? Does my religion and ethnicity put me in this category of the preconceived “other”?

From my personal experience the term ‘’other’’ cannot be confined to someone who belongs from a different race or religion, since majority of my best friends are Non-Muslims and definitely not Pakistani. What really binds us together is the notion of humanity, the ability to laugh together, to tolerate our differences, to value truth and forgiveness above all, and to relate to each others emotions. We possess the ability to express anger, be greedy and to fear something mightier than ourselves. We are all the same. We are fundamentally human, and most importantly we need to be good human beings. Why can’t we all live in peaceful coexistence despite our differences? To me an “other” is one who is judgmental and hates me for the beliefs I carry; an individual who lacks tolerance, does not promote justice and is not able to look past the distorted lens of orientalism.