Edward Said's Influence

Since Edward Said’s death on September 25^th 2003, the situation in the Middle East has changed rapidly. After the 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks carried out by Al Qaeda, the current American president George Bush went to war with Iraq in a bid to find ‘weapons of mass destruction’ (Guardian 2003). Despite the undeniable truth that the attacks of September 11^th were an act of terrorism, it causes debate of the reputation of the Orient. As Said believes is this still merely a misrepresentation with Asia targeted as “the main theatre of the war on terror?” (Spivak 2008, p.1)

This debate is at the forefront of the media sphere. In 2002 for example, “President Bush included North Korea in the “axis of evil” (Spivak 2008, p.1). This apparent brash grouping of nations under the larger umbrella of ‘The East’ has caused an underlying stereotyping of Eastern nations by Western citizens, with regard to terrorism especially in the wake of 9/11. These monolithic categorizations were discussed by Huntington (1992) in his thesis ‘The Clash of Civilisations’, and still hold much influence in both the media and society today. British national headlines read ‘We went to war with Saddam. So what? The world’s a better place’ (The Sun McNab 2009) and ‘Iraq war ‘provided arena for Jihad’ (Daily Express 2011). These leading attitudes commit a large national readership who could be influenced by what they read and believe it is for the greater good (Mamdani 2004) (Said 2001, p. 10). Netherlands journalist, Luyendijk admits “despite the political correctness I’d grown up with, I saw Arabs as irrational men who set fire to flags or effigies…” (Luyendijk 2009, p. 30).

Could Edward Said be simplifying and condemning what is a cultural norm? Despite journalists (Luyendijk 2009, p.30) accepting that the East are indeed misrepresented, is it therefore just that the West are to be blamed by the media for what is inbuilt into societal foundations? This is arguably a fundamental debate regarding the misrepresentation of racial stereotypes. The group concluded that in order to become liberal, balanced citizens, we can only draw on Said’s research. However, not take direct judgement from the press that may have biased intentions.