Supervisors info:
Εκάβη Αθανασοπούλου, Επίκουρη καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Σχολή Οικονομικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
This thesis is about George W. Bush and Barack Obama's narrative on Islam during their presidency, from 2001 to 2009 and 2009 to 2016 respectively. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and highlight the orientalist approach adopted by both presidents as to the religion of Islam, detecting, at the same time, similarities and differences in the two presidents’ rhetoric.
To serve the above purpose, I theoretically approach the concept of Orientalism, as conceived by Said, and use his doctrines as tools based on which I will demonstrate the Orientalist nature of various elements found in the political discourse of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Furthermore, I will refer to the transformation of Orientalism into what is known as Neo-orientalism after the events of 9/11. Then, I will analyze the political discourse of the first two US presidents of the 21st century, identifying the elements that testify to their orientalist disposition towards the religion of Islam. I then proceed to an inventory of similarities and differences between the attitudes adopted by former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama regarding their narrative on Islam. Via the study at hand, I seek to showcase the ways in which neo-Orientalism, becomes evident, sometimes more subtly and sometimes indistinctly, conveying to the public opinion a distorted, generalized, American-made image of a 1.5 billion adherents’ religion, contributing to its targeting, its direct link with terrorism, and thus to the rise of Islamophobia.
Keywords:
Orientalism, Neo-orientalism, Islam, Islamophobia, USA
