The Middle East itself is a product of Orientalist construction.

Evidence

These contiguous regions, also home to sizable non-Muslim and indigenous non-Arab populations, were consolidated into one region called the “Middle East,” itself a product of Orientalist perspective, creation, and geographic ambiguity. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 161

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the history of the term ‘Middle East’ — is its Orientalist genealogy well documented beyond this claim?
• XREF: Mirrors how other categories (region, race) constructed rather than discovered; connects to Said’s constructivist thesis. — connects to: Colonial expansion and Orientalist essentializing emerged together in the nineteenth century. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 201; Orientalism imagined Muslims as a monolithic Arab or Middle Eastern racial bloc. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 161; The clash of civilizations theory rearticulated the Orientalist binary of Islam versus the West. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 217 (+19 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 161

Broader Connections

• Orientalism imagined Muslims as a monolithic Arab or Middle Eastern racial bloc. #expands (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 161
• The clash of civilizations theory rearticulated the Orientalist binary of Islam versus the West. #expands (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 217
• Orientalism converted Muslim identity from a religion into a race. #expands (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 161
• Orientalists reframed Islam as a political system rather than a religion. #expands (0.70)
• Private citizens conflate Islam with the Middle East, erasing Muslim ethnic diversity #expands (0.70)
• Orientalism supplied the pre-existing tropes that the War on Terror redeployed against Muslims #expands (0.70)
• Even anti-imperialist Mark Twain reproduced Orientalist stereotypes of Muslims. #exemplifies (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 136
• The War on Terror weaponizes an invented Orientalist past to victimize Muslims today #expands (0.70)
• Huntington repackaged Orientalist binaries into a new lexicon of civilizational clash. #expands (0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 229
• Huntington popularized a clash-of-civilizations thesis built on Lewis’s earlier Orientalist work. #expands (0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 234
• Orientalist civilizational essentialism is a pillar of race making #expands (0.65) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1277
• US post-war hegemony repurposed Orientalism and modernization theory to justify empire. #expands (0.65) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 28
• Orientalism reshaping into new policy forms outlifted eroding legal restrictions #expands (0.60) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 198
• American Orientalism is the living root system that drives Islamophobia. #expands (0.60) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 168
• Orientalist scholarship conflates Muslims and Jews into one racial type #expands (0.60)