[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Orientalism

[Mostafa Almahdy]

Orientalism is an academic term used by scholars in art, history,
literary, Theology, geography and cultural studies for the depiction
of Eastern that is( Oriental cultures), including Middle Eastern,
North African, South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures done by
writers, designers, and artists from the West. In some western
universities, these are called (Middle Eastern studies) or just
(Eastern Studies) for short. This definition of Orientalism is
actually taken from Wikipedia. There is another definition.
Orientalism is a way of seeing that imagines, emphasizes, exaggerates
and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures as compared to
that of Europe and the United States. It often involves seeing Arab
culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and at times dangerous. Well
at this point, we must hold the cane from the middle. In other words,
we must be fair. I have always told my fellows who reside in the west,
that you shouldn’t put all western people in one basket. Each and
every culture has different sapidities. There are mild, moderate and
severe ones. One of my very close friends is a mechanical engineer. He
studies and works in France. He worked in Germany before he moved to
France recently. France is a bit closer to the States in its racial
discrimination. Concerning Germany, he mentioned to me  quite positive
and encouraging situations that he encountered with people there. What
he mentioned to me defies unworthy Arab stereotypes about the west. So
for instance, it refutes the stereotype of westerns being
unaccommodating and insensate. Well, quite the opposite, he told me
that people surrounded him treated him with recognized cordial and
hospitable disposal. It also defies the stereotype of western women
being so easy, voluptuous and daring. There are many of them who have
ethical motive, virtue, they have erubescent and girlie shyness. He
also mentioned to me situations that are sufficient to defy the
stereotype of us being constantly despised in the west. It is a proper
occasion to clarify my inimical stridence. Whom is it toward? It
essentially is intended to campaign against the (Alt Right Movement).
The best way to put it is to basically portray it in Trump’s camp.
It’s a right-wing southern white supremacy. They aggress against
anyone who is different from them. They are intolerant toward people
with ethnic diversity. They often are misanthrope and dysphemistic.
Many people in the west are not in favour of this hostile camp. I
always make a significant difference between Europe and the United
States. We can generically refer to Europeans as mostly reasonable,
edified and open-minded. However, many Americans due to media
dominance are largely disinformed, insulated and quite prejudiced
about other parts of the world. This is why, American culture is quite
marginalised, it began to be diminished in our region. Europe is the
ideal substitute in my humble opinion. European nations are
geographically closer to us. They have long history in affiliation
with our region, either during Crusades or modern invasion. They
learned a lot about us during neither era. This is why I don’t think
they will return to engage against us once again. Of course, we won’t
deny the existence of anti-Islam movements in many parts of Europe. It
is natural to see such variation. The difference though, that the
hostile camp in the States is quite active and possibly influential
through their mass media whilst in Europe, they may not necessarily
have this impact. In Europe, you may hear about charges of committing
hate crimes either by unbearable acts or through abhorrent rhetoric.
Well in the States, it’s unlikely to hear charges of hate crimes
against detestable southerners, for instance. There are many key
factors to critically differentiate between American and European
cultures. Whilst both are classified as westernly orientated, there
are major differences. First of which, is the social structure of each
side. Europe is more open to welcoming various cultures and throughout
its educational system, these cultures are smoothly desegregated. In
the American camp, there are many communities inhabiting the same
region, yet they are constantly skeptic and suspicious of each other.
Most people in the States are obsessed with watching movies whilst
relaxing. They are sort of television addicts. In contrast, Europeans
like to read and they may not be as addicted to television as their
rivals. For these reasons and more, I recommend shifting our focus to
invest our interest and intellectually in particular with the European
side. So Orientalism like any academic discipline, has its pros and
cons. Thomas Carlyle is a prominent Scottish author and historian. He
wrote about the French revolution and he had very positive
perspectives concerning Muslims and prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him). There are many orientalists who serve in this
camp. Our role here is to collaborate with them and produce a mutual
work that is based on deferentially scholastic approach. We also must
allow a suitable room for worthwhile scrutiny. The west isn’t held
accountable for our deplorable state of nescience. We ought to
practically refine our education. I have read couple of textbooks on
Orientalism in Arabic. Well, they both deal with the subject from the
disputing standpoint. It essentially relies on the conspiratorial
theory. It studies and examines Orientalism as a tool of Colonialism.
It critically studies how Orientalists constantly portray Middle
Eastern cultures as strange, awkward and often threatening to western
liberty. Thus, it justifies western expeditions to Muslim lands. The
United States uses Orientally prejudiced notions to justify its
position from the Muslim world. If you listen to how American
prominent figures speak, you will recognize their plain indulgence
with slanted Orientalism. Islam is tactically expended to terrify and
jeopardise lay Americans. The business of insistently demonizing and
prejudiciously depicting Muslims as radical terrorists, murderers,
plotters and fundamentally fanatics is the norm in America. The
portrayal of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as
philanderer and paedophile makes us fathom the vicious American
version of Orientalism. It is essentially based on obscene and
terrifically salacious portrayals. The latter however, is a common
characteristic of American society. The United States is filled with
many social disintegrations, often pertained to misbehavior and sexual
scandals. There are numerous incidents of incest reported in their
country which left the subject of intercourse quite sick and bizarre.
Therefore, they liken prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him) to the most horrible practice they ever noticed. This taste of
Oriental literature is not the only one of this discipline. There is
another version which is classified as the relatively impartial side.
It somewhat portrays the moderate approach. It studies Islamic culture
for the purpose of recognizing interdependencies. It often avoids
engaging in provocative subjects. It may not be as active as we would
like it but, it fairly exists. Nevertheless, the prepossessing
approach is more likely to be affective due to predominantly vast
American dominance. As hellion Donald Trump once uttered in one of his
despicable speeches, Americanism is not Globalism. Therefore, we ought
to really be careful, there are substantial attempts to Americanise
even western cultures. This is why I said to my friends living in
Europe, that we need to tenaciously unite to confront this
manipulating power, which attempts to deviously dominate us. It
essentially relies on racially disparaging remarks, bigotry and
detrimental sentiments. The United States is quite popular for issuing
visas to fraudsters. They issue visas to people whom they like to hear
their plainly counterfeit chronicles about being supposedly, ex
Muslims, ha-ha. I on multiple occasions asked U.S pastors to openly
confront me on that regard. Until this moment, they never wrote me
back and they probably won’t. I would like to ask people who  work for
U.S embassies a straight question that demands a direct and denotative
answer. If someone caught indictable of being mendacious or unclear
about his past, as if he said he was Muslim and he wasn’t or, he lied
about some of his credit contingents, would you issue this person a
visa?                                Please, yes or no. I specifically
address Americans who like to incorrectly assume us popping off to
immigrate to their country, your presumption isn’t correct. I am not
particularly desperate about obtaining your visas nor residing in your
country legally or illegally. It may be challenging economically here
at home but, I’d better find somewhere else to settle dignifiedly. The
United States is impeached of substantially secernating ethnicities
based on racial disparities. That has been proven repeatedly through
the last couple of months. American Orientalism is held accountable
for this   chaotic disarray. American Orientalism is the chief shamed
of religious uncertainty. There are many people who tend to ramble
between various isms purposelessly. Religion is disapproved in the
United States despite insignificant proclamations of being allegedly a
Christian nation. What are we to commend or repudiate about this state
of iniquity. This is a nation which carries an evangelical banner, yet
it has officially accredited same sex marriage as licit last year. I
have discussed this subject with many Christian devotees therein. Many
of them thought it couldn’t be delt with, whilst others gave credit to
separating faith and civil affairs. This is a decisive evident of how
paradoxical the United States is. American Orientalism is often
expatiated to odiously parallel between Jihad and terrorism. This is
why we ought to embrace a scrupulously countering scheme. My role here
is to establish solid ground for scrutiny, preferably with European
academe. It confidently has been proved to be theologically impartial,
far from either explicit hostility or disingenuous flattery. As I
mentioned earlier in this piece of composition, they are casually
expected to fairly disagree with some of what we assert but, they are
highly competent to do so in prestigiously academic manner.
The rising tide of Islamophobia visible in mainstream political
circles and reflected in the media leaves the Muslim community
intemperately susceptible to confront major threats. Racist and
Islamophobic rhetoric has already translated into violent and deadly
incidents across the States, with further armed threats directed at
Muslim institutions and individuals now almost a daily occurrence.
These incidents are deliberately unnoticed. We need a greater, more
sustained response that both examines the roots of Islamophobia and
provides the empirical data to quantify the problem. Only then, we can
develop the tools required to educate policymakers and civil society
on how best to counter this longstanding crisis. Christian and secular
orientalists of the United States are injurious of repulsively
aspersing Islam with enormous ignominy and detrimental disparagement.
The deficiency of renowned let alone ordinary edification is the chief
cause for the rise of such insolence. There might be some Americans
who treat the subject objectively. Most of them, however, are unevenly
indoctrinated. I’ll repeat this statement, if Americans weren’t easy
to fool, someone like Donald Trump would have not been nominated for
Republican candidature. Despite his unambiguously inflammatory
remarks, he is supported and widely embraced across their country.
Despite his appallingly intolerable sentiments which were highly
offensive to each and everyone, he is continuously endorsed. Despite
his constantly contradicting and simultaneously assaultive statements,
he hasn’t been expelled from the presidential race. Donald Trump is
eminently embraced in spite of his incredible disqualifications
because he says what most Americans like to hear. Donald Trump is
tremendously disqualified, yet he is the beseeming president for who
lay Americans are. If you want to look at actual Americans, just look
at Trump’s spirit. You don’t have to exhaust yourselves with engaging
in pretension of counterfeit diplomacy, we recognize what American
manner is. I don’t think I’ll ever commit the mistake of believing my
enemy. American Orientalism is the one to describe as imbecile,
disinforming and extraordinarily ignominious in the slightest.
Clifford Wilson, you previously mentioned to me that you studied world
religions but you never heard of the  term Orientalism. Well I hope
you now have a glimpse of what it is. Mister Wilson, I suppose you are
sufficiently aware of the broad repudiation to your explicitly
disheartening supremacy. Your regionally Mexican neighbors are the
first to be troubled with this. Donald Trump on Mexico is
unprecedentedly paradoxical. When he spoke about Mexico to his
rallies, he spoke with intolerable belligerence. But when he spoke to
Mexican officials, his tone of voice has changed. This is quite
typical for American manner. They speak at our face with a softened
tone, but when they speak to their allies, they often change their
tune. This is their typical paradox. I won’t ever speak to people with
ambidextrous. I am plain to people whether I am friend or enemy to
them. My temperament is essentially based on clarity and honesty. This
is how I strongly built my various relationships with people
domestically and overseas. So please Clifford, you may discern that I
consider you from the camp that I’ll stand firm against. The reason
for that is your demonstratively southern manner. You mentioned in an
e-mail to a mass list for the American Council of the blind that you
are seventy-two years old, that means you are considered a senior
citizen in the States. I urge you sir to thoroughly be edified about
other parts of the world. Your quarantined and heavily persuaded
southern region is a decisive barrier for reputed edification. Mister
Wilson, I fairly consider myself more educated than you. I fluently
speak and properly compose in a highly notable form of your  language,
yet you barely type in colloquially American English. I of course am
not sure about your speaking competency. Now we can see where the
cultural gap come from. I again, urge you to fairly revise the facts I
just outlined and then ask yourself, is it necessarily that an
individual coming from a sophisticated nation to be more educated than
someone who comes from a developing one? People here are constantly
bewildered, they want to adhere their identity whilst looking up to
western civilization with considerable attraction. I treat the matter
with a moderate proposition. I admittedly recognize western
significant advancement on technology and contemporary education. At
the same time, I steadfastly adhere my heritage and tradition. With
both in mind, I am able to fairly stand between recognizing western
advancement and Muslim traditionality. They both are fairly
consolidative. Unlike predominantly secularized Muslims, I am not
influenced with western manipulation. I recognize that my religion
enjoins me to relentlessly seek knowledge. I am aware of what Muslim
scholars have substantially contributed to various scientific fields
as the prominently outstanding Muslim physician and philosopher, (Abu
Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina). Western orientalists have
altered his name to (Avicenna) in order to somehow conceal his Muslim
identity. I also recognize that in their numerous encyclopedias, they
altered the name of prominent Muslim philosopher and initial
interpreter of Aristotle works into Arabic. They altered his name from
(Ibn-Roshd) to a mispronounced name, they called him  (Averroes) in
order to again, withdraw his Muslim identity. This is a common
practice of Christians. They did so to their own scriptures in order
to make them basically suit what they like, they did so to make them
suit their interest. There are many instances of what I call biblical
revisal for theological motivation. They purposely pick up the
translation that suits their interest of the text and preach it
outloud to their disinformed congregations. Well gratefully, we aren’t
consented to do so to the Noble Koran. Its sacred text is infinitely
intact and Providentially preserved. Even when we translate the Koran
into different languages, we recognize that it is a humanly
contribution. Thus, it is consequently susceptible to error. This is
why, it’s vitally necessary to revise and countercheck Koran
translations and instantly correct them where that is relevant.
Christian evangelists and orientalists aren’t so outspoken about the
text at their hands nor they fairly look into the credibility of the
translator. The King James version is a widely recognized and trusted
edition of the Holy Bible in Christian English speaking communities.
However, it has been later declared fallible and thus, a revised
standard edition had to be written. Those are the ones who purposely
evoke doubts about Islam in lay Muslim minds. Those are the ones who
attempt to distort Islam in either a diplomatic or a hostilely manner.
Don’t ever assume that the intention of those who often speak gently
is so innocent. It is quite inconsistent for a Muslim to go study
Islam in their colleges, it’s utterly nonsensical. When I said we
demand to collaborate with them on that regard, I basically meant that
Muslim certified theologians, clerics and renowned scholars are to be
opted to lecture abroad, to teach those orientalists about the proper
discernment of Islamic Theology. A mutually academic practice has to
be broadened. The purpose of this has to primarily be based on
illustrating Muslim culture to the western world. There are many
publications on Islam in many libraries. However, they mostly lack the
least of critical examination which is accredited citation.
Orientalism is not particularly accurate about multiple Islamic
subjects. They express their perspective about them. This is why I
find it so strange for a Muslim to study Islam in western
universities. I actually was interested to do so. But, after studying
Orientalism and its essence, I completely changed my mind. I
decisively recognize that Orientalism factors aren’t intended for
devotion nor even for scholarly objectives. They rather are intended
for cultural disarray and religious imbalance. As all we know,
religion is not particularly prised in western traditions. This is
why, western orientalists may not be able to fathom its crucial role
in our daily life. In the United States, there are pliable masses of
people ripe for propaganda. This is why it’s quite difficult to
educate people there. September has just began, and this is the month
during Muslims are threatened of being subjected to demeaning search
and seizure in U.S airports for damnable security reasons. I know
someone who during 2011, arrived at Miami’s airport on 9-11
anniversary. He faced inappropriate attitude, racial discrimination,
he had been sequestered in a dark room, he had been asked intolerable
questions whether he was affiliated with terrorist organisations, why
did he go to Saudi and other ridiculous stuff. His luggage then were
opened disrespectfully and all items were indiscriminately thrown on
the floor. He arrived at almost 11:00 in the morning, yet he left the
airport after midnight when there was no transportation to pick him.
Incidentally, he looked quite secular. If someone chose to visit this
country in such time, he should not blame but himself. Orientalism is
a wide subject. I attempted to get through some of its principles.
(Edward Said) is the best author on Orientalism. Now, if this is the
month of recalling 9-11, I have one question for American recipients.
How could a civil jet fly into the Pentagon’s airspace, crash into it
without being instantaneously detected? I intended to test your
intelligence versus what you are told. Trust me Americans, you have
got much to learn about lots of things. I won’t ever visit your
country in such time of the year, time of ignorance and irrational
fear. I won’t ever visit unless I am treated civilly and properly. I
won’t ever tolerate improper screening or damnable search and seizure.
I am convinced that media controls what people believe allover the
world, yet it has the biggest influence on Americans. They have no
control out of it. Media, television, journalism, online publication
and video taping are the tools by which people are dominated in the
States. That is the vital proof for dominating capitalism. People who
have got money could do anything even, run for president despite their
plain incompetency. Unlike many people in my part of the world, I am
not deceived about what the United States is. It may look attractive
outwardly but inwardly, it’s fragile. I am disliked there because
unlike Donald Trump, I don’t write what most Americans like to hear. I
am used to typical American ignorance and discourtesy, even if they
attempt to pretend otherwise. My writing style has to continue because
I believe I have independent freedom to express my opinion in whatever
manner. I feel dignified not falling in the manipulating camp. Well, I
suppose I am done with this piece. It’s close to noon time here in
Cairo. I commend you for patiently reading through, Mostafa


-- 
(Seeking knowledge is compulsory from cratle to grave because it is a
shoreless ocean.)