---
product_id: 111281204
title: "Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism"
price: "$76"
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reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.nz/products/111281204-defending-the-west-a-critique-of-edward-saids-orientalism
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---

# Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism

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desertcart.com: Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism eBook : Warraq, Ibn: Kindle Store

Review: Edward Said: Prophet of victimization - Edward Said's blaming the West and its "Orientalism" for all the problems of the Arab World has provided much fuel over the years for demagogues and refusniks throughout the middle east and has thus contributed to the continued backwardness of that region. His "victimization" mantra has been especially devastating to the Palestinians and their aspirations for statehood and international recognition. Since, by playing the "victimization" card and the scapegoat card, which is what Edward Said's "Orientalism" is all about, the peoples of that region have failed to see what is really wrong with their societies and have therefore failed to take any meaningful actions to remedy the situation. Anger towards the West (and the resultant terrorism) then becomes the only option. Sadly too many in the West, especially in academia, have also bowed down at the altar of Edward Said and elevated him to the status of prophet--or even deity--for telling them what they wanted to hear, which in turn has only provided all the more fuel for the victimizationers and scapegoaters in the middle east. However, Ibn Warraq brilliantly puts everything into perspective and totally demolishes Said's thesis. If one does nothing else they should read chapter 8 "The Pathological Niceness of Liberals, Antimonies, Paradoxes, and Western Values." While the entire book is most noteworty, chapter 8 should be required reading by every person in the West who has any desire at all to see our civilization survive the 21st century. To sum up, the research that went into this book is mind boggling, and every point he makes is thoroughly documented. Scholarly, yet accessible to the non-scholar.
Review: Very informative, but overlong and not well organized - It's obvious by the length and scope of this book that Ibn Warraq wants to shut up the Said-ians for good. He painstakingly looks at every orientalist that Said critiques and shows his caricatures to be seriously misleading. This is one thorough rebuttal, but I can hardly keep the separate biographies apart in my head! Herein lies the weakness: the book is a deluge of information. I would have been content with one or two high profile examples, but Ibn Warraq does far more than that. And all for naught, since I suspect that Warraq's careful approach will resonate less in academia than the shrill cries of pseudo-victim hood. One thing that does stand out to me from this book is the comparison between Western imperialism and near-Eastern (that is to say Islamic) imperialism. The Islamic countries took more African slaves than the Europeans did (the poor Africans, they never get a break!) Jihads have also murdered tens of millions of Hindus. Westerners did (and do) terrible things, things that we should not try to explain away or downplay, but their imperialism often came with a silver lining, at least. British involvement in India is one example. Here, scholars (those cursed Orientalists!) helped recover Buddhist and Hindu history, which was on the verge of being lost after centuries of Muslim rule. This book contains a lot of good information, but I have trouble putting my finger on the single thread that runs throughout this book. It seems more like a series of discreet chunks than a single narrative. For that I cannot give it the highest rating.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | B003D7LXR6 |
| Accessibility  | Learn more |
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,570,326 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) #93 in Middle Eastern Literary Criticism (Books) #138 in Asian Literary Criticism #408 in Literary Criticism By Century |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (37) |
| Enhanced typesetting  | Enabled |
| File size  | 2.0 MB |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1615920204 |
| Language  | English |
| Page Flip  | Enabled |
| Print length  | 518 pages |
| Publication date  | June 3, 2010 |
| Publisher  | Prometheus |
| Screen Reader  | Supported |
| Word Wise  | Enabled |
| X-Ray  | Not Enabled |

## Images

![Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/811+YX-9llL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Edward Said: Prophet of victimization
*by B***B on October 21, 2008*

Edward Said's blaming the West and its "Orientalism" for all the problems of the Arab World has provided much fuel over the years for demagogues and refusniks throughout the middle east and has thus contributed to the continued backwardness of that region. His "victimization" mantra has been especially devastating to the Palestinians and their aspirations for statehood and international recognition. Since, by playing the "victimization" card and the scapegoat card, which is what Edward Said's "Orientalism" is all about, the peoples of that region have failed to see what is really wrong with their societies and have therefore failed to take any meaningful actions to remedy the situation. Anger towards the West (and the resultant terrorism) then becomes the only option. Sadly too many in the West, especially in academia, have also bowed down at the altar of Edward Said and elevated him to the status of prophet--or even deity--for telling them what they wanted to hear, which in turn has only provided all the more fuel for the victimizationers and scapegoaters in the middle east. However, Ibn Warraq brilliantly puts everything into perspective and totally demolishes Said's thesis. If one does nothing else they should read chapter 8 "The Pathological Niceness of Liberals, Antimonies, Paradoxes, and Western Values." While the entire book is most noteworty, chapter 8 should be required reading by every person in the West who has any desire at all to see our civilization survive the 21st century. To sum up, the research that went into this book is mind boggling, and every point he makes is thoroughly documented. Scholarly, yet accessible to the non-scholar.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very informative, but overlong and not well organized
*by S***E on December 6, 2012*

It's obvious by the length and scope of this book that Ibn Warraq wants to shut up the Said-ians for good. He painstakingly looks at every orientalist that Said critiques and shows his caricatures to be seriously misleading. This is one thorough rebuttal, but I can hardly keep the separate biographies apart in my head! Herein lies the weakness: the book is a deluge of information. I would have been content with one or two high profile examples, but Ibn Warraq does far more than that. And all for naught, since I suspect that Warraq's careful approach will resonate less in academia than the shrill cries of pseudo-victim hood. One thing that does stand out to me from this book is the comparison between Western imperialism and near-Eastern (that is to say Islamic) imperialism. The Islamic countries took more African slaves than the Europeans did (the poor Africans, they never get a break!) Jihads have also murdered tens of millions of Hindus. Westerners did (and do) terrible things, things that we should not try to explain away or downplay, but their imperialism often came with a silver lining, at least. British involvement in India is one example. Here, scholars (those cursed Orientalists!) helped recover Buddhist and Hindu history, which was on the verge of being lost after centuries of Muslim rule. This book contains a lot of good information, but I have trouble putting my finger on the single thread that runs throughout this book. It seems more like a series of discreet chunks than a single narrative. For that I cannot give it the highest rating.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Overdue
*by G***R on July 12, 2013*

Edward Said, the Christian Palestinian, who represents the Dhimmi-type intellectual, achieved a great influence on the guilt ridden Western academia. The rightful antiimperialistic turn in the Sixties E. Said managed to divert into a self loathing of many progressives in the West. Thus, the universalist approach of the rebels in the Sixties changed to a relativism with disregard of basic human rights for everybody, be they located in the West or in the Orient. Ibn Warraq is able to show how prejudiced Said's views are, and that a Western critique of events in the Orient can be right and valuable. Said's description of Orientalism is just a defense of the indefensible in which the burqa of the Afghan woman could be praised as a protection against lustful male eyes and desires, not seeing or expressing the male chauvinistic and oppressive nature of such a garment. Ibn Warraq did a great job in criticizing Said step by step in every detail. Hopefully, he succeeded in opening the eyes of some of Said's admirers.

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*Last updated: 2026-02-27*