ABSTRACT
Based on my dissertation, this chapter attempts to investigate and elaborate on the ways in which various meanings of Orientalism inform the making of ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslims’ – two non-static terms that are significations for an undeterminable and diverse array of notions in existing manifestations of societies and individuals – among secularized intelligentsia and policy-makers in Egypt. Through an analysis of segments from five Egyptian leading TV programmes and a presidential speech, this chapter aims to explore the ways in which such programmes and speeches engage in ‘self-Orientalism’. Drawing on critical Discourse Analysis, this chapter proposes that such late-night TV shows and political speeches reproduce, reinforce and normalize a narrative on ‘Islam’ stemming from the Orientalist and Islamophobic discourses through two specific representational practices: (1) it establishes Islam as a static, anti-modern and backward religion that propagates terrorism and irrationality; and, (2) it paints its vast and varied adherents as inherently violent, fundamentalists and fanatics. This chapter also suggests that although the rhetoric on Islam in Egypt originates its vocabulary and ideas from Orientalism, and Islamophobia, Egyptian self-Orientalism still has its unique features.
