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Neo-Orientalism? a Critical Appraisal of Changing Western Perspectives : Bernard Lewis, John Esposito and Gilles Kepel

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Neo-Orientalism? a Critical Appraisal of Changing Western Perspectives : Bernard Lewis, John Esposito and Gilles Kepel WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Neo-orientalism? A critical appraisal of changing Western perspectives : Bernard Lewis, John Esposito and Gilles Kepel . Mohammad Samiei School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © The Author, 2009. This is an exact reproduction of the paper copy held by the University of Westminster library. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Users are permitted to download and/or print one copy for non-commercial private study or research. Further distribution and any use of material from within this archive for profit-making enterprises or for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: (http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] NEO‐ORIENTALISM? A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF CHANGING WESTERN PERSPECTIVES: BERNARD LEWIS, JOHN ESPOSITO AND GILLES KEPEL MOHAMMAD SAMIEI A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement of the University of Westminster for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2009 Synopsis In order to justify and naturalise domination and exploitation of ‘others,’ some ideologies that theorise ‘they are less human’ have been invented and employed throughout history. Among these ideologies is the ‘West‐and‐Islam’ dualism, which has been comprehensively and critically studied by Edward Said in Orientalism. Since Orientalism was published in 1978, however, the world seems to have become much more interdependent and political interrelations between the West and Islam have changed dramatically. Consequently this dualism, though more or less in place, has been influenced by escalating waves of globalisation and redistributed and reshaped in a different form. To critically appraise this dualism in this new era, three prominent contemporary Western Islamologists, Bernard Lewis, John Esposito and Gilles Kepel, have been selected and different aspects of their perspectives, their methodologies, their views on Islam and modernity, their political propositions and Islamic belief and law in their vision, are closely compared and critically examined. These three scholars are used to describe parts of the fabric of what I call neo‐Orientalism; they are exemplars suggesting the existence of a larger whole. This dissertation aims to present the genealogy of some lingering traces of the West‐and‐Islam dualism in order to know how they were originated and how they can be replaced by an egalitarian perspective. This is particularly important in this new interdependent world, where we are very close to each other and any crisis anywhere can affect human beings everywhere. This thesis also aims to criticise the often unquestioned assumptions of Western works on Islam and to show through a comparative examination that there can be very different routes with healthier outcomes to look at other cultures. In addition to methods used by Said and to avoid his shortcomings, this research is informed by a Popperian methodology, relying on his theory of the growth of knowledge, his situational analysis and his views on framework and ideology. In conclusion, this thesis suggests that if the West‐and‐Islam dualism is considered as a spectrum of views on Islam, Lewis is the most dualist, perfectly following all principles of dualism, Esposito is the least, and Kepel is (so to say) in between. Moreover, some promising changes in neo‐Orientalism as well as some additional dualistic tendencies that can define neo‐Orientalism are found in this new era. To portray a better future for our interdependent world some new approaches to identity, global ethics and global civil society are suggested. Eradicating the roots of Orientalism and Occidentalism alike and accepting, protecting and even promoting diversity are first steps towards countering devastating threats that endanger humankind as a whole. 2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 5 DUALISM, AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 6 ORIENTALISM 14 A CRITIQUE 18 NEO‐ORIENTALISM 21 “ISLAM'S BORDERS ARE BLOODY” 25 A CRITIQUE 32 “ISLAM IS THE CIVILISATION” 37 A DEEPER INSIGHT INTO DUALISM 39 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE WEST AND ISLAM DUALISM 43 THESIS 45 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 47 CHAPTER ONE: BERNARD LEWIS 56 METHODOLOGY 61 ISLAM AND MODERNITY 71 ISLAM AND POLITICS 80 ISLAMIC POLITICAL THEORY 80 ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY 88 ISLAMIC COUNTRIES 90 ISRAEL 93 THE WEST AND THE MIDDLE EAST 97 ISLAMIC BELIEF AND LAW 100 CHAPTER TWO: JOHN ESPOSITO 113 METHODOLOGY 122 ISLAM AND MODERNITY 135 ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS 140 ISLAM AND POLITICS 150 ISLAMIC POLITICAL THEORY 150 ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY 151 ISLAMIC COUNTRIES 154 ISRAEL 157 CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS 158 THE WEST AND THE MIDDLE EAST 160 ISLAMIC BELIEF AND LAW 162 3 CHAPTER THREE: GILLES KEPEL 172 METHODOLOGY 180 ISLAM AND MODERNITY 194 ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS 199 ISLAM AND POLITICS 204 ISLAMIC POLITICAL THEORY 204 ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY 211 ISLAMIC COUNTRIES 214 ISRAEL 220 CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS 222 THE WEST AND THE MIDDLE EAST 224 ISLAMIC BELIEF AND LAW 229 CONCLUSION 239 COMMONALITIES AND CHANGES 243 EMBRACING GLOBAL PLURALITY 252 HOW THE WEST DEALS WITH THE REST? 258 BIBLIOGRAPHY 261 4 Introduction On 20th September 2001, addressing a joint session of Congress and the American people, President George W Bush noted: “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.)” 1 At first, it seemed that this was merely rhetorical because it was announced in the aftermath of the horrific attacks of September 11. The foreign policy of the United States in the subsequent years, however, showed that President Bush quite intentionally used this bipolar categorisation. By labelling some instances of political struggle as ‘terrorist’ and others as legitimate, American foreign policy contributed greatly to promulgating Bush’s worldview which distinguished, in a simple‐minded way, between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘democracy’ and ‘authoritarianism’, and legitimate and unlawful political activities. In practice, such rigid political thinking enabled the US to be the sole judge for determining who is or is not a terrorist, or which regime is authoritarian, and also to be the sole executor of its own verdict. Rather than distancing themselves from such a political philosophy, which was derived from America’s imperial aspirations, some major European powers seemed to have adopted the same ‘crusader’ posture. However, the election of President Barack Obama with the motto of ‘change’ more than anything else highlighted the failure of US foreign policy under Bush. This way of thinking about today’s world, dividing it up into two opposing poles, ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘us’ and ‘them’ or ‘the West’ and ‘Islam’, could be observed in the wider layers of the Western public sphere. As Zachary Karabell suggests: “Ask American college students, in the elite universities or elsewhere, what they think of when the word ‘Muslim’ is mentioned. The response is inevitably the same: gun‐toting, bearded, fanatic terrorists hellbent on destroying the great enemy, the United States” (Karabell, 1995). This sense of the ‘otherness’ and ‘inferiority’ of Islam versus the ‘normality’ and ‘superiority’ of the West is rooted in some cultural values, norms and sensibilities. 1 See the White House Website at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920‐ 8.html [accessed on 16/11/2008] 5 It has been pointed out by scholars that the cultural apparatus that has been representing Islam in the West for the most part is produced by the media, including television and radio networks, daily newspapers, magazines as well as Hollywood movies. Together the powerful focus of mass media on Islam constitutes a communal core of reinterpretations providing a certain portrait, reflecting powerful political interests served by the media (Said, 1997: 47). It is explained that the process of producing headlines is usually performed within a political context made active and effective by an unconscious ideology, which reporters and editors disseminate without major reservation or opposition. In practice, despite the extraordinary variety of Western media, there is a quantitative and qualitative tendency to favour certain views and certain representations over others (Said, 1997: 49). It is further explained, from a perspective with quasi‐Marxist overtones, that the role played by the dominant culture is to justify and impose its own standards as “natural”, “objective” and “real” (Said, 1983: 9). Despite a great diversity of forms, in the end the media serve and promote a corporate identity – ‘America’ and even ‘the West’. Within the paradigm of a dominant ideology inherited from that corporate identity, they all share the same central consensus about how to define themselves and others (Said, 1997: 52). Dualism, an historical overview In this dissertation I speak of ‘dualism’ in the sense of an ideology that promotes an essentialist distinction between ‘the self’ and ‘the other’ and emphasises unconditional superiority of the former and essential inferiority of the latter. Merriam‐Webster’s Online Dictionary
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