Synopses & Reviews
Among the many shocking violations of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the most notorious was sexual torture. Military personnel justified this abhorrent technique as an effective tool for interrogating Arabs, who are perceived as repressed and especially susceptible to sexual coercion. These abuses laid bare a racist and sexually charged power dynamic at the root of the U.S. conquest of Iraq—a dynamic that reflected centuries of Western assumptions about Arab sexuality.
Desiring Arabs uncovers the roots of these attitudes and analyzes the impact of Western ideas—both about sexuality and about Arabs—on Arab intellectual production.
Sexual desire has long played a key role in Western judgments about the value of Arab civilization. In the past, Westerners viewed the Arab world as licentious, and Western intolerance of sex led them to brand Arabs as decadent; but as Western society became more sexually open, the supposedly prudish Arabs soon became viewed as backward. Rather than focusing exclusively on how these views developed in the West, Joseph A. Massad instead reveals the history of how Arabs represented their own sexual desires. To this aim, he assembles a massive and diverse compendium of Arabic writing from the nineteenth century to the present in order to chart the changes in Arab sexual attitudes and their links to Arab notions of cultural heritage and civilization. For instance, he demonstrates how, in the 1980s, the rise of sexual identity politics and human rights activism in the West came to define Arab nationalist, and especially Islamist, responses to sexual desires and practices, and he reveals the implications these reactions have had for contemporary Arabs.
A work of impressive scope and erudition, Joseph A. Massad’s chronicle of both the history and modern permutations of the debate over representations of sexual desires and practices in the Arab world is a crucial addition to our understanding of a frequently oversimplified and vilified culture.
Review
and#8220;Massad compels us to think creatively about alternatives to our narcissistic subsuming other people's sexual modes of being under ours. . . . This truly monumental book is a corrective to Michel Foucaultand#8217;s
History of Sexuality that inexplicably omitted the role played by the cultural effects of colonial systems on conceptions and constructions of sexuality. . . .
Desiring Arabs is an epoch-making book.and#8221;--Marnia Lazreg,
Arab Studies JournalReview
and#8220;Massad refuses both the essentialized oppositions between Arab and Western civilization and the all-embracing universalism offered in the name of human rights.and#160;Instead he insists that representations of Arab sexuality must be understood historically, as the varied and conflicting products of exchanges between Arab and Orientalist writers.and#160;This is an inspired and erudite intellectual history, complex, nuanced, critical, and deeply engaged.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This compendious study of the discursive production of an Arab sexuality incorporates new readings of the modernity/tradition debates that go well beyond a specifically Arab context, and moves all the way from historical research into the history of literature and literary criticism.and#160;Even as it supplements Edward Saidand#8217;s work by its consideration of Arab Orientalism, Desiring Arabs boldly looks forward to an unscripted future.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;In
Desiring Arabs, [Edward] Saidand#8217;s disciple Joseph A. Massad corroborates his mentorand#8217;s thesis that orientalist writing was racist and dehumanizing. Said came up short, argues Massad, only in not recognizing how far that stereotype-laden discourse in the west also helped shape Arab intellectual writing itself, especially on Arab sexual identities. . . . Massad, a controversial professor at Columbia University, brilliantly goes on to trace the legacy of this racist, internalized, orientalist discourse up to the present.and#8221;
Review
"A modern Arab intellectual history, but with many a groundbreaking and provocative twist. In a sense, it takes up where Edward Said left off, expanding the analysis of Orientalism into new, uncharted and previously concealed territory to reveal its influence 'in shaping the Arabs' own perception of themselves and each other.'"and#8212;Sally Bland, Jordan Times
Review
"Fascinating and controversial."
Review
and#8220;Desiring Arabsand#160;is an elaborate, relentless, and unabashed critique of the way in which Arab culture has dealt with the tropes and constructs of sexual deviances since the emergence of the Arab Nahdah, or Renaissance, in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is bound to be received by readers as one of the most interesting and equally illuminating commentaries on modern Arab culture to be published in the past decade. and#8220;--Anton Shammas, author of Arabesquesand#160;
Review
and#8220;An impressive project that ventures into uncharted territory and can be read as a complement to both Edward Saidand#8217;s
Orientalism and Michel Foucaultand#8217;s work on sexuality. . . . An audacious intellectual journey. . . . A seminal contribution to a number of fields, including Middle East Studies, Sexuality and Queer Studies, Arab intellectual history, and Orientalist Studies.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[The book] captivates the reader and not only because it deals with sexuality in Arab discourse in the last two centuries. It is a brilliant text with a breadth of knowledge and sophisticated analytical techniques. . . . Massad's interdisciplinary approach, dense prose, impeccable research, and above all the thought-provoking issues he raises make his book a scholarly landmark.and#8221;
Review
"Massad's frontal assault on the gay lib crusade aimed at the Muslim world is a defiant call to resist the Orientalist project."
Review
and#8220;This is a remarkable book, at once a fascinating history of ideas and a brilliantly analyzed case study of cultural imperialism. There are many excellent studies of Western representations of Arab and Muslim peoples, but there is nothing comparable on the way the latter have responded to the former. With impressive learning and sharp wit Massad describes the internalization of European conceptions of the human among Arab intellectuals, both nationalist and Islamist, since the nineteenth century. His account of their concern to re-orient sexual and civilizational desires (both being closely intertwined in the European imagination) is quite stunning. Anyone interested in the modernization of Middle Eastern culture cannot afford to miss this bookand#8212;nor, for that matter can scholars seriously engaged in postcolonial research or in lesbian and gay studies.and#8221;
Review
"A pioneering work on a very timely yet frustratingly neglected topic. . . . I know of no other study that can even begin to compare with the detail and scope of [this] work."--Khaled El-Rouayheb, Middle East Report
Review
"Fascinating and controversial." Khaled El-Rouayheb - Middle East Report
Review
"Desiring Arabs is an important resource for serious students of sexualities in the Arab world. . . . Above all, the book does a service to scholarship comparable to what Kate Millett did in Sexual Politics or Dennis Altman in Homosexual Oppression and Liberation."
Review
"This is a powerfully—often passionately--written text. . . . The only book that I can think of in comparison is Edward Said's Covering Islam—but Massad’s book is far richer both in terms of the literature covered (much of which was of course not yet available when Said wrote his book) and the range of questions engaged.”
Review
“Massad is an important intellectual voice. He commands attention internationally. He offers distinctive, compelling, and often brilliant critiques of positions that many regard as sacrosanct: most notably the human rights regime, NGOS, and international development organizations, and does not spare the therapeutic enterprises of psychoanalysis and transcultural tolerance.”
Review
"In recent years we have come to take seriously the idea that certain othering concepts such as 'the Orient' and 'Islam' have played a vital role in giving reality to 'the West.' The extraordinary value of Massad’s new book is that he has shown, through a sustained analysis of a wide variety of historical and contemporary discourses, that 'Islam' has been more than a periphery-defining concept utilized merely to lend truth and solidity to the Christian West. Far more importantly, 'Islam' has been at work as a powerful agonistic imaginary indispensable for the self-definition of the West’s own polity as essentiallyfree. This is a deeply considered work that is more than timely."
Review
“This indispensable compendium of rich, critical insights and readings is as learned as it is now necessary. Massad has recreated the scholarly and political context in which understanding of the relationships between Liberalism and Islam will be conducted.”
Review
“A bold and insightful study of the historical and contemporary uses and misuses of rhetorics of democracy, womens rights and sexualities in their deployments in relation to Islam—a rich important contribution to a growing body of such critical literature.”
Review
“It’s hard to imagine a more necessary and timely book. Massad’s work is likely to become the sine qua non of studies on how Islam and liberalism interface in politics and culture.”
Review
“Massad provides an objective and convincing analysis of the West’s exploitation and distortion of Islam for the purpose of promoting liberalism, basing himself and his points of view on old and new [historical] examples, events, and evidence framed in a coherent and fluid presentation.”
Review
“Islam in Liberalism raises important questions about the power and influence of Western NGOs and the humanitarian missions of Western governments. Massad is on unimpeachable ground in arguing that these institutions are not simply altruistic vehicles for do-goodism, and that those who claim that the West has a mission and a burden to save women, gays, or the oppressed in the Muslim world are necessarily rehashing old Orientalist tropes. In unearthing the unconscious motives and unspoken cultural assumptions underlying human rights and international organizations, Islam in Liberalism should be required reading for NGO workers the world over.”
Review
“This is a dense and densely argued book, in the best way, full of lively histories of the political, intellectual and cultural twists and turns that have enabled Western liberalism to so clearly dominate the discourse on Islam, and to claim it as the evil opposite while in fact feeding off that projection in order to strengthen itself. Islam in Liberalism provides a sophisticated set of analyses and critiques for those wrestling with the liberalism that overlays international matters, especially on Israel and Palestine.”
Synopsis
Sexual desire has long played a key role in Western judgments about the value of Arab civilization. In the past, Westerners viewed the Arab world as licentious, and Western intolerance of sex led them to brand Arabs as decadent; but asand#160;Western society became more sexually open, the supposedly prudish Arabs soon became viewed as backward. Rather than focusing exclusively on how these views developed in the West, in
Desiring Arabs Joseph A. Massad reveals the history of how Arabs represented their own sexual desires. To this aim, he assembles a massive and diverse compendium of Arabic writing from the nineteenth century to the present in order to chart the changes in Arab sexual attitudes and their links to Arab notions of cultural heritage and civilization.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;A work of impressive scope and erudition, Massadand#8217;s chronicle of both the history and modern permutations of the debate over representations of sexual desires and practices in the Arab world is a crucial addition to our understanding of a frequently oversimplified and vilified culture.
and#160;and#8220;A pioneering work on a very timely yet frustratingly neglected topic. . . . I know of no other study that can even begin to compare with the detail and scope of [this] work.and#8221;and#8212;Khaled El-Rouayheb, Middle East Reportand#160;and#8220;In Desiring Arabs, [Edward] Saidand#8217;s disciple Joseph A. Massad corroborates his mentorand#8217;s thesis that orientalist writing was racist and dehumanizing. . . . [Massad] brilliantly goes on to trace the legacy of this racist, internalized, orientalist discourse up to the present.and#8221;and#8212;Financial Times
Synopsis
Joseph Massads Desiring Arabs (UCP, 2007) was an intellectual/literary history that sought out links between Orientalism and representations of sex and desire, rebutting in the meantime Western efforts to impose categories of heterosexual/homosexual where (in Islam) no such subjectivities exist. His new book broadens the purview to show us what Islam has become in todays world, attending fully to the multiplication of meanings of Islam.” Islam in Liberalism is an intellectual/political history, enabling us to understand that history in terms of how Islam operated as a category within western liberalism; another way to phrase this is to say that Massad underscores how the anxieties about what Europe constituteddespotism, intolerance, misogyny, homophobiahave gotten projected onto Islam. It is, he avers, only through this projection that Europe could emerge as democratic, tolerant, gynophilic, and hemophilicin short, Islam-free. But in fact Islam has been there since the birth of Europe. Liberalism has been the weapon of choice since the late 18th century against the internal” and external” others of Europe. Massads brilliant critique of anti-Muslim sexual politics in Desiring Arabs is now broadened provocatively to include NGOs, international organizations, and therapeutic programs. He moves from consideration of the meanings of democracy” (and the ideological assumption that Islam” is not compatible with democracy) through chapters on women in Islam, sexuality and/in Islam, psychoanalytic interpretations of Islamic themes, and the more recent development of the idea of Abrahamic religions” among those valorizing an inter-faith agenda. Overall, Massad sets this book up as a biting critique of the sort of liberalism Euro-American propagated and brought as good news” to an unenlightened Islam.
Synopsis
In the popular imagination, Islam is often associated with words like oppression, totalitarianism, intolerance, cruelty, misogyny, and homophobia, while its presumed antonyms are Christianity, the West, liberalism, individualism, freedom, citizenship, and democracy. In the most alarmist views, the Wests most cherished valuesfreedom, equality, and toleranceare said to be endangered by Islam worldwide.
Joseph Massads Islam in Liberalism explores what Islam has become in todays world, with full attention to the multiplication of its meanings and interpretations. He seeks to understand how anxieties about tyranny, intolerance, misogyny, and homophobia, seen in the politics of the Middle East, are projected onto Islam itself. Massad shows that through this projection, Europe emerges as democratic and tolerant, feminist, and pro-LGBT rightsor, in short, Islam-free. Massad documents the Christian and liberal idea that we should missionize democracy, womens rights, sexual rights, tolerance, equality, and even therapies to cure Muslims of their un-European, un-Christian, and illiberal ways. Along the way he sheds light on a variety of controversial topics, including the meanings of democracyand the ideological assumption that Islam is not compatible with it while Christianity iswomen in Islam, sexuality and sexual freedom, and the idea of Abrahamic religions valorizing an interfaith agenda. Islam in Liberalism is an unflinching critique of Western assumptions and of the liberalism that Europe and Euro-America blindly present as a type of salvation to an assumingly unenlightened Islam.
About the Author
Joseph A. Massad is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. He is the author of Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan and The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Choice of Liberalism
1 The Democracy Offensive and the Defenses of Islam”
2 Women and/in Islam”: The Rescue Mission of Western Liberal Feminism
3 Pre-Positional Conjunctions: Sexuality and/in Islam”
4 Psychoanalysis, Islam,” and the Other of Liberalism
5 Forget Semitism!
Works Cited
Index