…First, there’s nothing better than a little good old-fashioned Orientalism, trying to treat Muslims and Arabs as though they’re a different sort of human being who operate under different assumptions and are motivated in different ways. The Times still relies on this to some extent. Again, I think this is unconscious, but I’m just going to give you [some examples of] good old-fashioned Orientalism, centuries old.
OK, this example is from a news analysis that appeared a couple of years ago. First I’ll quote a paragraph here from Steven Erlanger, who’s a veteran reporter. And then I’ll tell you what I think is going on here. Here’s the paragraph: “Unlike Fatah, Hamas claims the whole of the British Mandate of Palestine as land granted by Allah, which cannot be ceded. In other words, Israel is illegitimate and its occupants should ‘go home.’ The most any senior Hamas official ever offered was a hudna, a cease-fire, which the Prophet Muhammad offered enemies to restore his strength.”
Now this is a classic Orientalist gem. Let’s start with not translating “Allah” to “God.” I mean, this is very commonly done, and not just by The Times. Just imagine if every time you read a story from France where God was mentioned, if it said Dieu, or every time a Spanish person in your newspaper would talk about God, it would put in Dios. I mean, this is why some Americans actually believe that Muslims believe in a different God than non-Muslims. This is part of the reason for it. But it gets better. more at WRMEA