Product Description

This is the first systematic critique of Edward Said's influential work, "Orientalism", a book that for almost three decades has received wide acclaim, voluminous commentary, and translation into more than fifteen languages. Said's main thesis was that the Western image of the East was heavily biased by colonialist attitudes, racism, and more than two centuries of political exploitation. Although Said's critique was controversial, the impact of his ideas has been a pervasive rethinking of Western perceptions of Eastern cultures, plus a tendency to view all scholarship in Oriental Studies as tainted by considerations of power and prejudice. In this thorough reconsideration of Said's famous work, Ibn Warraq argues that Said's case against the West is seriously flawed. Warraq accuses Said of not only wilfully misinterpreting the work of many scholars, but also of systematically misrepresenting Western civilization as a whole. With example after example, he shows that ever since the Greeks Western civilization has always had a strand in its very makeup that has accepted non-Westerners with open arms and has ever been open to foreign ideas. The author also criticizes Said for inadequate methodology, incoherent arguments, and a faulty historical understanding. He points out, not only Said's tendentious interpretations, but historical howlers that would make a sophomore blush. Warraq further looks at the destructive influence of Said's study on the history of Western painting, especially of the 19th century, and shows how, once again, the epigones of Said have succeeded in relegating thousands of first-class paintings to the lofts and storage rooms of major museums. An extended appendix reconsiders the value of 18th- and 19th-century Orientalist scholars and artists, whose work fell into disrepute as a result of Said's work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #176132 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 500 pages

Review
"...the immensely erudite and clear-minded Ibn Warraq...refutes every point that Said made in his most famous book, Orientalism...Defending the West is...a book of great learning...No one, except cultural historians, need ever read, let alone refute, Said again." -- National Review, April 7, 2008 vol. LX, No. 6 "[This] is, on the whole, a book of great learning, full of information that to most readers will be recondite, but that is nonetheless entirely relevant to its overall theme...If I were a teacher of the humanities, however I would give my students Said's Orientatalism to read, then Warraq's Defending the West, to demonstrate the difference between militant malice and erudition." --Book Review Digest, Aug. 1, 2008 "Ibn Warraq's critique of Said's thought and work is thorough and convincing, indeed devastating to anyone depending on Saidism. It should force the Saidists to acknowledge the sophistry of their false prophet." --Middle Eastern Quarterly, Winter 2009 "free minds owe Ibn Warraq their genuine gratitude." -- Free Inquiry, Vol. 29, No. 3, April/May 2009

Customer Reviews

Excellent. Essential. Edward Said's Nightmare
Ibn Warraq's latest book is an eloquent and impassioned defence of the West against the liberal self-loathing and grievance-mongering of liberals and cultural relativists such as Edward Said. With fact after devastating fact, Warraq debunks Said's thesis that every European is by definition a racist, whose sole interest in the Orient is merely to dominate and colonise it.

Part 1 of the book is largely a reprint of an old essay Warraq wrote refuting Said. It serves as a general overview of the whole book.

Part 2 is where it gets really good. Warraq argues that there are "Three Tutelary Guiding Lights" that define humanity, and he demonstrates with countless examples how the West has embodied these principles more than any other civilisation in history. The three guiding lights are rationalism (learning for its own sake), universalism (acceptance, tolerance and admiration of other cultures and willingness to learn from them), and self-criticism, which leads to positive change within cultures (Warraq points out that it was the West which abolished slavery, for example). All the while, however, the author does not denigrate the Orient and Islamic civilisation, and gives them credit where it's due.

I also enjoyed the section later in the book where Warraq outlines the racist attitudes that are prevalent in the Orient, which Edward Said never mentions and the mainstream media never covers, including the surprising revelation that Mahatma Gandhi was a racist and warmonger in his earlier years. And following that, there's an excellent discussion of the pernicious influence liberalism, political correctness and multi-culturalism have had on Western coverage of Islam and the East, leaving many Westerners unwilling to defend themselves against "the greatest threat the West has faced since the Nazis." All of this is done with brilliant erudition, extensive documentation and fairness of mind.

Part 3 of the book is an examination of how Said's smears against Western artists and their portrayals of the Orient has resulted in the "shelving" of some truly great works of art and literature. In this part, the exposing of Said's intellectual bankruptcy is complete.

All in all, this book is a must-read for anyone who is proud of their cultural heritage and wishes to defend it against both armed and ideological attacks. The originality and scope of this work is unsurpassed. Buy it, and Defend the West before it's too late.

Said said it wrongly
The author is an apostate Muslim from Pakistan living in Europe. He writes with scholarship and erudition to demolish the postmodernism of the liberal Palestinian Christian Said. In his Orientalism Said dismissed the scholarship of all Western orientalists as corrupted by imperialist motives. The author shows this is not the case. The scholars were out to discover the truth about the Orient, to understand not to exploit. He accuses Said of encouraging the modern Muslim victim culture. He demolished the myths of a tolerant Islam. In Spain Jews were persecuted, killed and hounded out. Islam does not promote understanding of other cultures nor scholarship on matters not Islamic. He sees Islamic anti-semitism as rooted in Mohammed, not in Zionism. He is appreciative of missionaries like Lull and Carey though strangely silent on the anti-slavery of the Clapham Sect. He tells us that the Triangular Trade enslaved 11 million Africans but Arab traders enslaved 17 million Africans and also Europeans. Highest prices were for eunuchs as only about 10% survived the operation. This book is an indictment of Said and of Islam. He sees the root cause of Islamic fundamentalism is Islam.

The West deserves better defense
This is a badly written book. The narrative is interrupted by long and at times not appropriate quotations from various sources. The book is also based on the work of others and thus does not follow any specific research method or plan. The topics are discussed superficially. The author did not address the principal issue of Edward Said's discourse which deals with our relationship with the "Other". The book is a naive defence of what he calls the "West". However, the author contradicts its arguments since the Western civilization is a synthesis of a variety of other cultural achievements realized by other civilizations (which he confirms via various quotations in the text). The author is at times racist e.g. he describes the European man as "rational", "self-critical" and "curious" by nature. Such descriptions are exclusive. What is about the Indian man, Chinese man?. This book does not help us in repairing the "artificial" conflict created due to the presumed "clash of civilizations". Unfortunately, the book defines the West as anti-thesis of the backward, ignorant "Other" of the East and South. The author did not learn from Edward Said's writings that both the West and East should exercise self-critique and should accept each other narrative to be able to work for a common successful future for the whole humanity.