Re-Imagining the Other

Abstract

The Other is not inherently alien to the Self, but is often imagined as such. Whereas Western and Muslim societies have had intermittent clashes for over a millennium, there is overwhelming evidence of them engaging productively with each other for most of this time. However, this knowledge is overshadowed by the dominant discourses that accentuate conflict. The news media are the major vehicles disseminating such discourses (e.g., Hafez, 2000; Karim, 2003; Perigoe & Eid, 2014; Poole, 2002), but other cultural forms such as children’s toys, bedtime stories, educational materials, paintings, songs, plays, novels, film, television entertainment programs, and computer games also play a significant role (e.g., Karim, 2003; 2012; Shaheen, 2009). Some voices in Western and Muslim societies have sought to revive memories of long-standing collaboration, but the dominant discourses in both emphasize the adversarial aspects of the relationship with the Other. This has tended to encourage forms of thinking that promote terrorism and war, both of which have seen an intensification in the twenty-first century. Richard Bulliet urges for “a fundamental reconsideration … of the long-term sibling relationship” between Christians and Muslims; without a reappraisal, the future of their relations “will be thorny and unpredictable, haunted by dashed hopes and missed opportunities” (2004, p. 133). Given the scale of death, destruction, and expense resulting from Western-Muslim conflicts, it is imperative that the Other be re-imagined in the broader context of the mutually beneficial intersections that have occurred in the long term.