Orientalism is based upon the traditional belief that Western culture is superior to that of Islamic countries of the Near and Middle East. It arose in the British colonial period in the belief that the East was not civilized enough to understand itself; therefore, it had to be "interpreted" by the West for both Easterners and Westerners, thus giving rise to an "Us versus Them" dichotomy which has proved to be increasingly dangerous. As a concept, Orientalism has generated new fields of study and dynamically affected fields as diverse as anthropology, history, popular culture, and...