Throughout the book, he returns repeatedly to a common theme in Orientalist writings: the assumption that the Orient is fundamentally different from and inferior to the West. If "the Orient is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, 'different,'" writes Said, then "the European is rational, virtuous, mature, 'normal.'"

DEFINE: Distills the core premise of Said's Orientalism thesis: the recurring binary that defines the Orient through deficiency against a 'normal' West.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 206