'Reorientalism' is a much-needed, multidimensional reframing of western misperceptions of the East
Middle East Eye | November 9, 2015

Mischa Geracoulis writes: ... Jordan Elgrably, founder of the Los Angeles, California-based Markaz Arts Centre, told MEE: “We live in a consumer culture; ideas are consumed as readily as products. And so we have to ask, who are the idea producers? After the fall of the Soviet Union, the West needed another bad guy. We’ve had the war on drugs, and the war on terrorism, which breeds fear in the form of Islamophobia, for instance.”

In a 2014 Pew Research Centre survey Americans were asked to rate various religions on a “feeling thermometer,” the warmer the feelings, the higher the number, 100 being the highest.HuffPo/YouGov poll conducted a similar survey in 2015. Results of both were on par with revealing that approximately half of the American population holds the least favourable view of Islam. Moreover, those expressing a negative outlook seemed not to be basing their opinions on actual knowledge of, or friendship with, Muslims. Implied is that lack of understanding and fear are the source of an “us against them” mentality.

“So, we need museums and cultural venues to counter the consumer culture, to encourage social engagement. What we [The Markaz] offer is the opposite of talking heads telling you what to think," Elgrably said. "Here we have non-Muslims meeting Muslims, starting conversations and relationships. The Markaz makes a space for cultural curiosity, which encourages empathy and compassion, and ultimately gives us tools to interact with others. Reorienting ourselves requires us to open up.” Read more.

Notes on 9/11

fourteen years on

During the summer of 2001, with other Americans of Middle Eastern heritage, I created a cultural arts center for the Middle East, but then in the aftermath of September 11th, the U.S. went to war against Afghanistan and later Iraq, ostensibly to pursue the terrorists who hit us, but in reality, to expand the American empire and exert more geopolitical control over the Middle East.

Despite the fact that in March 2003, millions of people around the world were out in the streets, vigorously protesting for peace to stave off Bush’s impending invasion of Iraq, the U.S. went in anyway, with catastrophic results. Ultimately we helped to destroy a modern country and leave a security vacuum that allowed for the rise of Daesh, or the Islamic State, and for the expansion of other barbarisms. Should anyone have been surprised?

As James Baldwin said in a conversation I had with him for The Paris Review, “Insofar as the American public creates a monster, they are not about to recognize it. You create a monster and destroy it. It is part of the American way of life, if you like.”

Yes, we created a monster whom we then destroyed, for we backed strongman Saddam Hussein in the 1970s and goaded him into war against Iran in the 1980s, only to beat him back in the 1990s, and eliminate him in 2003.

PEACE WITH IRAN WINS!

This history is relevant today, of all anniversaries of 9/11, because we have just yesterday narrowly avoided another potential calamity—the war with Iran that the hawks and Israel seem to want the way salivating dogs want a meal of steak and gristle. We can celebrate today the fact that with the Iran nuclear deal—approved not only by the U.S. but by Britain, France, Russia, Germany and China—we have succeeded where in March 2003, we failed. With Iraq destabilized, Syria coming apart, and Egypt having returned to a state of virtual dictatorship under Sissi, not to mention repressive or failing regimes elsewhere in the region, these are not happy times. Yet we know that the youthful population of the MENA is still clamoring for change and advancement. There is enormous creativity and potential that we must connect with, and support.

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Notes on 9/11

fourteen years on