This week on MMW, we deconstructed Sarah from LMOTP, assessed Golshifteh Farahani’s issues with Iran over the headscarf, roll our eyes at NPR’s Orientalism, celebrate the fact that Egypt has jailed its first conviction of sexual harassment, and unfurl a great Friday Links.
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Fatemeh
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Fatemeh
This week on MMW, we discuss the polarizing politics of Muslims who speak against Islamism, provide a kick-ass review of The Jewel of Medina (it’s especially kick-ass because we have an audio clip of Ethar’s interview with Sherry Jones that you won’t find anywhere else), give point and counterpoint on Mohja Kahf’s Washington Post piece, discuss the racism and sexism that keep African American Muslim women out of Muslim representation, satirize the publishing industry’s interest in Muslim women, and keep you up-to-date on news about Muslim women.
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aziz
At City of Brass, I argue that orientalism is a concept that western muslims should reject. What do you think?
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willow
So I’m reading Lawrence Durrell’s orientalist masterwork The Alexandria Quartet, which, if you haven’t read it, is excellent. Durrell is certainly guilty of a few of Said’s more serious pet peeves–under much discussion, as we’ve seen, now that Orientalism is entering its fourth decade–but overall the picture he paints is complex and thoughtful. (He focuses on Coptic rather than Muslim culture, it should be noted, and has a very astute handle on how the British complicated the relationship between the two.)
When I read, I dog-ear pages that I think contain really amazing phrases/insights. This was one I ran across today:
“To have a grasp of the language was nothing, he now realized; for Leila exposed the hollowness of the knowledge when pitted against understanding.”
My take: so, so true. A concise summary of what fells most western expats/travelers in the Middle East: you arrive thinking you know something, discover you know nothing, and retreat into racism because it’s the only thing you have in your intellectual arsenal that makes sense.
Thoughts?
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thabet
Supporters and critics debate Orientalism at 30.
Gary Kamiya says “Robert Irwin proves it was Said who didn’t have the full picture.”
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thabet
In his introduction to a new book on Islamic theology, Timothy Winter (aka Abdul Hakim Murad), argues “that older ideas of Western Islamic studies as a monolithic and structurally anti-Islamic project now need to be modified, if not discarded altogether.” (pdf)
(Via DeenPort.)
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thabet
New Wave Orientalism is rubbish, and it could learn something from Classical Orientalism.
Side note: Not all Orientalists were hostile to Islam.
