Why Validation Only Reinforces the Gaze of the Essentialist
Edward Said and Moving Beyond Reaction to Reclaiming Agency
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Edward Said and Moving Beyond Reaction to Reclaiming Agency
Dec 23
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It should come as no great surprise that we find Elon Musk essentializing the acts of Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, a Saudi national who is “accused of killing five people and injuring more than 200 others by ramming a car into a crowded German Christmas market”. Musk, commenting on his personal X account, stated that the mainstream media, what he terms as “legacy media”, “lies again”, denying the media coverage’s report that Abdulmohsen’s well-documented anti-Islam stances; he describes himself on his X account “as a former Muslim” and that Abdulmohsen, “posted openly about renouncing his Islamic faith”. In fact, Abdulmohsen seems to have been motivated by his perception that Germany was “promoting the Islamization of the country”.
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But let’s return to the key word above, “essentializing”, a key concept in Edward Said’s 1978’s groundbreaking work, Orientalism. To summarize, Said points out that the western observer/gazer of the Muslim/Arab is incapable to seeing their actions are anything other than inevitable expressions of Islam and Arab culture. In fact these two, Islam and Arab culture, are intertwined in the western gaze. So as it pertains to Abdulmohsen’s actions, the fact that he was an avowed atheist, Zionist, anti-Islam activist, are irrelevant to his actions: they are essential expressions of Islam and Arab culture. His actions are informed by Islam and those actions can only, and inevitably, be violent. This Saidian explanation is evident in that fact that Musk, and those like him on the white/right feel no need to justify their explanations; indeed they are, from the point of view of the essentialists, self-explanatory save for the depraved ( or those sympathetic to Abdulmohsen’s actions).
Aside from this explanation it is also equally disappointing to see Muslim groups such as CAIR (un?)wittingly implicating themselves (and by proxy, all Muslims and Arabs) in this essentializing by issuing a statement of condemnation against “Anti-Muslim Extremist’s Christmas Market Massacre in Germany”, demanding that Musk “Stop Spreading Disinformation About Attack”, according to their website. To is more than a little disappointing, and frustrating, to say the least, especially given that many members of CAIR are Palestinian and are doubtless aware of Said and his seminal work.
Said’s critique of essentialization – nearly 50 years old – still offers a profound lens to analyze not only how Muslims and Arabs are unfairly judged through a reductionist framework but also how some Muslims and organizations claiming to represent Muslims (and Arabs), as a result of being gazed upon, inadvertently reinforce this very narrative by seeking validation from those in positions of perceived power above them. Such organizations risk legitimizing the very frameworks that dehumanize them. For instance, in demanding retractions or sympathy from figures like Elon Musk—whose comments epitomize the essentialist worldview—they participate in a dynamic where their worth is measured and mediated all on the essentializer’s terms. Said’s work calls for a reclamation of agency and identity, unburdened by the gaze of the essentialist. Thus, Muslim organizations must recognize that true empowerment lies not in appeasing those who misrepresent or defame but in asserting a narrative that transcends the reductive binaries imposed upon them.
Sources
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/21/europe/suspect-germany-christmas-market-attack/index.html
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1870739695950594302
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