The Concept of Orientalism

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how there have been many uses and abuses in regard to the cultural and social concept called orientalism, a way of coming to terms with the Orient (including the Arab world) that is based on the Orient's place in European Western experience. It shows how the true objectives of the western cultures is to be in a position of imperialistic power so the wealth and resources of the target nation can be exploited. It looks at how today, the same system of cultural imperialism is being utilized by nations like the United States against the oil rich Arab nations and how the misinformation of western cultures like the United States have historically presented Islamic laws as a flawed belief structure because the laws were affiliated with what was then considered a false religion.

From the Paper:

"A good marketing campaign based on false advertisement would be similar to the Orientalism campaigns that have historically labeled whole nations as underachieving or simply heathens. Orientalism can be seen as an indicator that the western nations held something of an advantage over the third world nations. Today, the Arab world has also been associated with Orientalism. Western cultures have historically seen Islamic laws as a flawed belief structure because these laws were affiliated with what was then considered a false religion. Today's reasoning has been modernized in the sense that the Islamic laws are now considered flawed because there is an assumption by the western cultures that the Islamic laws reject human rights. There is one consistency in the west's beliefs from past and present -- Western reasoning is superior to eastern reasoning."

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