Islam through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism مقاله

In the introduction, the author notes that the answer to understanding much of this western Islamophobic movement has been in the making since the fifteenth century anti-Islam discourse as it relates to the Crusades. These chapters focus on understanding the causes and misrepresentation of Muslims as anti scientific, violent, and oppressors of women – the predominant narratives that have formed the foundation of the anti-Islam discourse ever since the Crusades and which are all familiar to those living in North America. Not only does the book fail to really include any discussion of Orientalism’s role in creating the anti Islam discourse, but Said also heavily used Foucault’s poststructural approach to understanding the construction of knowledge and how interests were in volved in creating the false image of the “East” and of Muslims.