Said’s liberalism foreclosed any possibility that the Orient could instruct the West

Evidence

This is clearly because he himself did not think that the “Orient”—filled with religion, dogmatism, and sectarian conflict—has anything to offer. There is not a single word in Orientalism that even hints at the slightest potential in the Orient to instruct Said’s liberal West. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 355