Orientalism sustains Muslim monster imagery without originating it

Evidence

Orientalism is important for the purposes of this study because it substantiates the Western imaginaire about Islam. It is, however, differentiated from the anti-Muslim discourse examined in the first half of this study and from Islamophobia, a generalized anxiety about Islam and Muslims. Orientalism is the vehicle through which the symbols and images generated by these various ideologies are delivered and through which the ludicrous is rendered believable. Orientalism did not invent Muslim monsters, but it helps to sustain their authenticity through an ideological system in which anything—orgasmic harems, flying carpets, fantastic and magical creatures—is possible. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 40

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Orientalism’s relationship to the imaginaire and Islamophobia — a useful analytical distinction between the vehicle and the originating anxieties.
• SEED: The line that Orientalism is what makes ‘the ludicrous believable’ could seed an essay contrasting medieval polemic imagery with the Enlightenment’s romantic-sublime Orientalism as different stages of manufacturing the monster.