Said, E.W. 1997 ‘Islam as News’ in Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, Rev. ed., New York, Vintage, Chapter 1, pp. 3-35.

Reviewed by Keri Algar

Context

Said (1935-2003) is a Palestinian American

Influenced by Chomsky, Gramsci, Conrad and Foucault

Covering Islam first published in 1981, in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.

Origins of (Mis)representation Competition to Christianity – Middle Ages

regarded as demonic Islamic armies threatened Europe’s colonies

and outposts Ongoing fear… Comes to the forefront in the 70’s with

sudden rise in oil price Iranian Revolution 1979

Orientalism – covering the image if Islam Description of Orientalism (1978) Western scholarship permeated with a bias that

even scholars do not recognise Political intellectualism intended to affirm Western

ideology i.e. concept of Islam justifies and maintains West’s superiority

West has constructed the past and asserted itself as the norm, the East as ‘exotic’ along with notions of weakness and irrationality and inferiority

Notion of the ‘other’ embedded in Western psyche

The image and it’s use

Cultural image produced by orientalist scholarship helps propagate Western colonialism and ideology

Substantiates fears of the ‘other’ Repetitive use cements negative imagery Works to set western (oriental) interpretations

of Islam, as knowledge Image used to justify US hegemonic foreign

policy (geopolitical and economic)

Media complicity

Gramsci’s idea of hegemony Media’s dependence on sources of

information from “experts” (i.e. oriental scholarship forms our (misguided) knowledge)

Hegemony only possible when there is an alliance between two or more groups

Media produces and spreads popular images of Islam

Financial, corporate and geopolitical designs influence the media Lack of intelligent, reflective, non-ideological

thinking continues to foster discord Said considers how the Middle East is

unknown to the US except for how the West relates it to oil and terror, which is “covered for its newsworthiness” in the media

Outside of what is “news worthy” there is little to no scholarship worth mention

Europe and US experiential difference Europe considered a military threat and

difficult for Christian thinkers – however, has engaged in cultural dialogue for hundred’s of years

US awareness limited to post WW2 US experience has been limited to a climate

of hegemonic land and economic claims Today, US seeks to win consent by playing

the human card

US lack of experience with Islamic world means that the Iranian Revolution is poorly understood

Islam pitted against West - not Christianity eg, Kifner quote p.11

For Said, the problem with Kifner’s commentary is the leap he makes from Islam as an abstraction to a hugely complex reality without a second though to the impact this has on our understanding (or lack of)

Summary: Uncovering the image of Islam Through “expert” Western eyes, Orientalism

has constructed the way in which we perceive Islam: a misguided framework

Central point: longstanding tradition of fear The media is complicit in disseminating this

‘knowledge’ Where and how do we begin to create

balance and a new, better informed image?