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Occidentalism versus Orientalism in the post-September 11 Era
Abstract
“Occiedantalism”, which may be understood as “Western knowledge” or “istigrab”, is the equivalent of the terms “orientalism” and “istishraq” taken from Arabic and used in another languages. For this reason, those involved in this field are also referred to as “mustagrib” as opposed to “mustashriq”. Occidentalism is the branch of knowledge that studies the West in every aspect: belief, worship, customs, history, politics and socio-cultural features. It is the effort of East to treat the West in literary and intelectual-academic writings” and is not a term as widely used as, or prosessing a field of study like, “orientalism”. In fact occidentalism con not be viewed at present even as an independent scientific discipline. As far as we can determine the term “occidentaist (mustagrib)” was First used in Turkey by Cemil Meric. The need to study occidentalism, if not to define it, was raised by German oriëntalist Rudi Paret. Paret pointed out the need for the Islamic World to establish an institution of “occidental studies” for carrying out serious research for the purpuse of knowing and understanding the West. But the subject of occidentalism was taken up as a scientific discipline for the first time by the Egyptian Hasan Hanafi in his book entitled Muqaddimatun fi ilmi’l-istigrab (Introduction to the discipline of Occidentalism). Subsequently “occidentalism (ilm al-istigrab)” began to be used as a concept in the Islamic World. As long as the Orient considers the West a teacher and nota n object of study, Hanafi stated, the “perception of backwardness” will continue, and the time has come for the Orient to take up the subject of the Occident like “a scientific studying”. He demonstrated that by occidentalism he meant the academic and intellectual analysis and research of the West. The purpuse of this paper is to shed light on “occidentalism” as a discipline which began to be used for the study of the West/Occident or orientalistic and neo-orientalistic Middel East studies. During this study, it will be also very special attention to the role of occidental institutions which began to be established, not only in the Islamic countries but also in the West, especialy post-September 11 era.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
None
Sub Area
None