The Nomad and the Olive Branch

Many scholars have attempted to draw hypotheses regarding socio-political attitudes and, in the loosest meaning possible, ideologies from usually superficially unrelated discourses. Such analytical work, however, tends to provide a framework for more complicated and specific theses vis-à-vis current social phenomena. Oftentimes, this has worked with marginal success, such as Edward Said’s widely-read Foucauldian eponymous treatise on Orientalism (Vintage Books, New York, 1979), a plethoric “vault” of imagined constructions about the “Orient”, or the lands of the East. This tour de force has been used numerously in critiques of “Orientalist” discursive pieces. In other cases, it has resulted, in my opinion at least, in utter failure, such as Ibn Warraq’s – a bigot who has a serious ax to grind – The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims (Prometheus Books, New York, 2008), a book that errantly alleges that the Muslim psyche is geared towards violence against n