Even sympathetic Orientalists denied the Orient modernity by casting it as ancient and Semitic.

Evidence

As Hussain states, this process established ‘an absolute and systematic difference between the West … and the Orient, which is aberrant, undeveloped and inferior’. More worrying for him though, and in offering some explanation of what was to follow, Hussain explains that what emerged was a notion and preconception of the Orient that was ‘uniform and incapable of defining itself … either to be feared … or to be controlled’. — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 188 (#expands, via linked claim)

Throughout the book, he returns repeatedly to a common theme in Orientalist writings: the assumption that the Orient is fundamentally different from and inferior to the West. If “the Orient is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, ‘different,’” writes Said, then “the European is rational, virtuous, mature, ‘normal.’” — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 206 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Orientalist writings assumed the Orient was inferior and childlike — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 206; Orientalism fixed the Orient as uniform, undeveloped, and incapable of self-definition — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 188; Latent Orientalism denies the Orient any possibility of development or transformation (+1 more)

Related

• Latent Orientalism denies the Orient any possibility of development or transformation (similarity 0.95)
• Orientalism defines the Orient as innately resistant to change and modernity (similarity 0.92)
• Orientalism fixed the Orient as uniform, undeveloped, and incapable of self-definition (similarity 0.92)
• Orientalism fixes the Orient as passive reactor to the West’s self-assigned agency (similarity 0.91)
• Orientalism presents Arabs as static types rather than historical agents (similarity 0.91)
• The West-Orient binary found its first legitimised modern manifestation in Orientalism (similarity 0.90)
• European representation of the Orient outweighs actual Oriental lived experience (similarity 0.90)
• Orientalist writings assumed the Orient was inferior and childlike (similarity 0.90)
• Orientalism’s essentialism hides both historical change and the Orientalist’s interests (similarity 0.90)
• All Western writers treated the Orient as fixed, feminine, and needing redemption (similarity 0.90)
• Essentialist Orientalist vision erases historical development in favor of unchanging geographic types. (similarity 0.89)
• Orientalist scholarship edited the Orient by excising whatever offended European norms (similarity 0.88)
• Orientalist science and personal utterance alike erase the modern Orient’s human reality (similarity 0.88)
• Orientalist typing subordates individual Arab experience to a fixed collective essence (similarity 0.88)
• The West framed the Orient as uniform, indefinable, and to be feared or controlled (similarity 0.88)

Broader Connections

• Orientalism fixed the Orient as uniform, undeveloped, and incapable of self-definition #expands (0.85) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 188
• Latent Orientalism denies the Orient any possibility of development or transformation #corroborates (0.85)
• Orientalist writings assumed the Orient was inferior and childlike #expands (0.80) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 206
• Orientalism presents Arabs as static types rather than historical agents #expands (0.75)