Media Education Foundation
One of the world's foremost public intellectuals on his classic study of Western views of the Middle East and Islam.
Western Attitudes Towards the Middle East
Featuring Edward Said
In this adaptation of his paradigm-shifting book, Edward Said examines the origins and evolution of Western attitudes towards the Middle East. Said shows how perceptions of the Middle East as an exotic land full of villains and terrorists are deeply rooted in the Western imagination, and argues that this caricatured cultural heritage continues to blind too many Europeans and Americans to the complexity and diversity of the region.
"That's the power of the discourse of Orientalism. If you're thinking about people and Islam, and about that part of the wold, those are the words you constantly have to use. To think past it, to go beyond it, not to use it, is virtually impossible, because there is no knowledge that isn't codified in this way about that part of the world." - Edward Said
Sections: Introduction | The Repertory of Orientalism | Orientalism & Empire | American Orientalism | Orientalism Today - The Demonization of Islam in the News and Popular Culture | Orientalism in Action - The Media & the Oklahoma City Bomb | Orientalism & the Palestinian Question