The West projected romantic legends onto Turks to serve its own debates

Evidence

The same delusions have contributed to the ideological alienation of Muslims from normativity, leading to the ways in which Muslims are seen today, as characters in a story the West has created about itself. The Orient, like the Western-created category called mysticism, which is often employed to describe “good Muslims” (i.e., Sufis and secularists), is a concept both “uncompromisingly Western and Christian.” Both the Orient and the Muslim exist in the mind of the West, bearing little semblance to reality. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 44 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A positive romantic legend of the Turk coexisted with outright hostility in the West — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 633; Western scholars projected their own religious anxieties onto Oriental figures — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 695; Even failed portrayals of Muslim extremism expose the West’s own comforting fairytales (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The West’s Muslims are fictional characters in a story about itself. #corroborates (0.95) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 44