By Adriana Alarcón (Written for MakerZone)
There is currently a Eurocentric myth of modernity, which imposes and narrates a "universal" history with Europe as its epicenter, as the panacea of development. It is then that Eurocentrism becomes a developmental fallacy that hierarchizes societies, cultures, and people while dignifying the violent process of hegemonic modernization. This provokes a dichotomy that divides the world into us and them; into dominant and submissive. This can be exemplified by the region of Southwest Asia and North Africa which has been referred to as the Middle East, and its link to "terrorism".
According to Terry Eagleton, professor of English Literature at Lancaster University, in his book "Holy Terror" in this last century, the term terrorism has been adapted under an exact imaginary, although there is no clear definition of it. This is done or validated through an orientalist vision as Edward Said, who was a professor of literature at Columbia University, and in his book "Orientalism", seeks to generate a new reality which is anti-human, including its institutions and beliefs. And they try to generate that this imaginary becomes reality for the dominated, through homogenization, ending with their culture or labeling it as not following the modernist discourse of "development and progress" justifying their domination over it.
Eagleton also mentions the conceptual background of terrorism, although the term was not used per se, there were others to name this type of action. And he talks about the importance of understanding the word terrorism as a concept, not looking for an ideological application behind it, because its origin, as the author mentions, is before modernity, to the discovery of the sacred and unknown.
However, all this analysis is made before value judgments, this system transforms a vision of the past into an anti-progressive action. As Gil Perez, professor of the Comillas Pontifical University, mentions in his text "Conceptualization of Islamism" why countries that guide their ideology by Christian-democratic values are not questioned or pointed out as fanatics? Because that is the true known religion. The unknown is impure, backward, and threatening. That is why even Dionysus could be said to be "pagan" or wrong, because he does not preach with those ideals and is not controllable, especially because of what he represents. Hence the dichotomy of the Dionysian and the Apollonian.
The same happens with fundamentalism, which originally emerged as a Western term for Christianity, but has re-emerged in a context of "the war of terror". The above can be explained by means of Max Weber's thought, where he exposes the relationship between capitalism and religious asceticism, which covers more asceticisms such as sexual, professional, among others. Where a predominant, universal perspective was established, and there was a relationship between the spiritual and the material, as differentiated ways to understand theodicy, in which they seek to reach a soteriology, that is, when they already fulfilled their codes of conduct, it is expected to get something in return, in this case, salvation. Thus, it is of our understanding, that capitalism is the means by which the ideology was concretized, where the Europeans exercised a typical ideal bureaucracy, for greater control.
Having established all this, it is important to keep in mind that even 40 years after the publication of Said's text, Orientalism is still present. The differentiation established between the West and the East and between "us" and "them" continues to cause countries such as the United States to see the East as a factory of dictators, terrorists, and jihadists, making war a constant temptation.
Orientalism as a critique conducted at the hands of the "expert," the creator of knowledge, has evolved since Said wrote about it. It is arguable that the quality of the "Orientalist" has gone from being an "educated" white male to anyone in the West with access to a social media platform and news about terrorism and radicalization.
Hence, it is necessary to analyze from the point of view of the "underdog". As it is established by Enrique Dussel, in his book "Europe, Modernity and, Eurocentrism", through "Trans-Modernity", as a new project of political, economic, ecological, erotic, pedagogical, religious liberation, etc., that is, to break with the coloniality of power, knowledge and being in the Western world.
Sources:
Dussel, E. (1993): Europa, modernidad y eurocentrismo, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, pp. 41-52.
Eagleton, T. (2008). Terror Santo. pp. 14-117
Gil Pérez, J. (2010): Conceptualización del islamismo, Retrieved on: http://www.teologiaycultura.com.ar/historia/conceptualizacion_islam_2.pdf
Said, E. (2004): Orientalismo, Debolsillo, Barcelona, España, pp.57-109
Weber, M. (1991) La ética protestante y el espíritu del capitalismo. Retrieved on: http://medicinayarte.com/img/weber-max-la-etica-protestante-y-el-espiritu-del-capitalismo.pdf pp. 1-130
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