Saturday, September 12, 2009

Islam and the West : A Conversation with Prof Bernard Lewis

Bernard Lewis,born in 1916, to middle class Jewish parents in Stoke Newington, London. 'Chief Guru'to current generation of Orientalists.Professor at Princeton University,along with Georgtown's John Esposito et al, were intellectual guru to Dick Cheny and the Bush Administration in their 'war on terror'..

The late Prof Edward Said, literary theorist and professor at Columbia University once had a running debate with Lewis and described him as "...dangerous as his knowledge of the Middle East was so biased he should not be taken seriously...The field of orientalism as a field with political intellectualism bent on self affirmation rather than objective study, a form of racism and a tool for imperialist domination....and Bernard Lewis is in the forefront of today's orientalism, he is the god father"

This 2006 interview with Bernard Lewis was testimony to what Edward Said had to say with respect to Lewis: HERE
The present quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan speak volumes of the flawed advice given to Bush et al in the main due to gross 'misreading of the Arab world.Is this intentional[ or intellectual dishonesty] given Bernard Lewis's background and pro Zionist stance??

Edward Said may be 'boiling' in his grave.....

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