Lewis characterizes Islam as monolithic (sometimes referring to all Muslims simply as “the Muslim”), backward, irrational, and emotional (that is, full of rage). The West, by contrast, is dynamic, modern, progressive, and rational, with emotions fully under control. Lewis offers a clear Orientalist framework to help modern Americans and Westerners make sense of why “they” hate “us” and to legitimize a feeling of Western superiority and exceptionalism that, in turn, can help reassure the West in its ongoing efforts to maintain its dominance—political, military, and economic—over the Muslim world.

DEFINE: The passage illustrates what an Orientalist framework looks like in practice: monolithic stereotyping of Muslims versus an idealized West.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 220