The Orient cannot represent itself and needs the Western expert to testify.

Evidence

The Orient and Islam have a kind of extrareal, phenomenologically reduced status that puts them out of reach of everyone except the Western expert. From the beginning of Western speculation about the Orient, the one thing the Orient could not do was to represent itself. Evidence of the Orient was credible only after it had passed through and been made firm by the refining fire of the Orientalist’s work. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 722

Categorization

• XREF: This is the seminal ‘Orient cannot represent itself’ claim that gets cited throughout postcolonial theory and later Islamophobia scholarship.
• DEFINE: Establishes the core Orientalist premise of representational authority.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 722