Essentialist views framed Muslim-majority societies as static and the West as dynamic

Evidence

The Orientalists—from Renan to Goldziher to Macdonald to von Grunebaum, Gibb, and Bernard Lewis—saw Islam, for example, as a “cultural synthesis” (the phrase is P. M. Holt’s) that could be studied apart from the economics, sociology, and politics of the Islamic peoples. For Orientalism, Islam had a meaning which, if one were to look for its most succinct formulation, could be found in Renan’s first treatise: in order best to be understood Islam had to be reduced to “tent and tribe.” The impact of colonialism, of worldly circumstances, of historical development: all these were to Orientalists as flies to wanton boys, killed—or disregarded—for their sport, never taken seriously enough to complicate the essential Islam. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 294 (#expands, via linked claim)

“Contrary to what some assert, Islam is fully compatible with modernization,” is how former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers put it in a Foreign Affairs article challenging Samuel Huntington. His piece was entitled “The Fusion of Civilizations: The Case for Global Optimism.” Summers bolstered his thesis by highlighting globalization accomplishments in Muslimmajority nations like Malaysia, where women now outnumber men 65 percent to 35 percent in national colleges and universities. He also noted that Gulf States like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) now feature satellite campuses of major Western universities. Finally, he noted that the fifty-million-plus-member Nahdlatul Ulama—the largest religious organization in Indonesia (the most-populous Muslim country in the world)—has repeatedly condemned extremist groups like ISIS. All of these facts further chip away at Huntington’s archaic clash of civilizations theory. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 691 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Orientalist essentialism painted Muslim societies as timelessly stagnant.; Belief in a timeless Muslim essence underwrote the East-West hierarchy of progress; Orientalism treats Islam as an essentialized cultural synthesis insulated from economics and politics — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 294 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Belief in a timeless Muslim essence underwrote the East-West hierarchy of progress #corroborates (0.92)
• Orientalism treats Islam as an essentialized cultural synthesis insulated from economics and politics #expands (0.88) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 294
• Concrete data show Muslim-majority nations integrating modernization and pluralism #contradicts (0.80) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 691
• Unitary Islam as an analytical category explains little about diverse Muslim societies #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3514
• Islam adapted to survive across widely varying political and economic systems #contradicts (0.75)
• Islam as a monolith is a nominal fiction masking internal diversity #contradicts (0.72)
• The reified notion of Islam has hindered rather than helped understanding of Muslim societies #qualifies (0.72) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 83