Orientalism sustains the credibility of preexisting Muslim monster images

Evidence

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

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Said’s Orientalism as an ideological delivery system; connects to the monster figures established in earlier chapters that this chapter shows continuing into modern discourse.
• DEFINE: Defines Orientalism’s function in this study — the vehicle delivering the imaginaire, distinguished from Islamophobia.

Related

• Orientalism sustains Muslim monster imagery without originating it (similarity 0.92)
• Orientalism legitimizes Muslim monsters rather than creating them (similarity 0.90)
• Orientalist monsters shifted from animal hybrids to demonized Muslim men (similarity 0.87)
• Orientalist exoticism and horror are two poles of one manufactured image (similarity 0.86)
• Anti-Muslim tropes depicting Muslims as inferior, subservient, and in need of saving were deployed to justify Western colonialism and imperialism, rooted in medieval depictions of Muslims as monsters. (similarity 0.84)
• Enlightenment and Romanticism both generated new Muslim monsters via different means (similarity 0.84)
• Fantasy tropes shaped how Orientalism constructed Jewish and Muslim men (similarity 0.84)
• Orientalist monsters could migrate across religious and ethnic targets at will (similarity 0.84)
• Medieval Muslim-monster imagery persists today through Gothic horror and Orientalism (similarity 0.84)
• Orientalist Muslim dehumanization legitimizes colonial and imperial adventures (similarity 0.83)
• Modern Muslim monsters rest on medieval fantasies (similarity 0.83)
• The medieval monster narrative of Islam was cemented by colonialism and Orientalism (similarity 0.83)
• Orientalism passed medieval Muslim horrors into modern Gothic fiction (similarity 0.82)
• Orientalism generated a free-floating mythology detached from actual Orientals (similarity 0.82)
• Award-winning depictions of Muslim monsters are familiar, not exceptional, to Western audiences. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Medieval Muslim-monster imagery persists today through Gothic horror and Orientalism #corroborates (0.85) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 75
• Orientalism supplied the pre-existing tropes that the War on Terror redeployed against Muslims #expands (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 278
• Literature, drama, art, and cinema sustain a habitus about Islam built on Muslim monsters #corroborates (0.80) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 67
• Oriental villains shaped the Muslim monsters of Gothic horror #corroborates (0.70) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 380
• Islamophobic tropes become real violence through perceived enemy images #expands (0.60) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 180
• History invents phantasms — fantasies attached to Muslim bodies — that remain powerful #corroborates (0.60) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 66
• Muslim monsters emerge period-specifically and must be read within their generating milieu #complicates (0.55) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 70