‘Beyond That Which the Victim Suffers in Death Alone’
Pain, Orientalism, and Non-Violence at Guantanamo Bay
In: Sociology of IslamSearch for other papers by John Harfouch in
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Abstract
I argue that Orientalism constructs Arabs as subjects that cannot suffer violence, particularly the violence of torture. Beginning with Edward Said’s observation that Orientalists represented ‘Arabs’ in the nineteenth-century as inorganic, metallic, and mineralized beings, I trace these themes through various sites in and around Guantanamo Bay. One finds the tropes of Orientalism in the Bybee memo as well as in the diary of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Through these three distinct but related moments, one finds that Orientalism continues to produce Arabs as inorganic entities beyond death and thereby immune to violence. Insofar as imperialism has co-opted the language of non-violence by constructing its enemies as inviolable, one must recognize the Orientalized Arab as a receptor of limitless ‘non-violent’ hostilities.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 473 | 86 | 11 |
| Full Text Views | 46 | 4 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 98 | 12 | 6 |
‘Beyond That Which the Victim Suffers in Death Alone’
Pain, Orientalism, and Non-Violence at Guantanamo Bay
In: Sociology of IslamSearch for other papers by John Harfouch in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
I argue that Orientalism constructs Arabs as subjects that cannot suffer violence, particularly the violence of torture. Beginning with Edward Said’s observation that Orientalists represented ‘Arabs’ in the nineteenth-century as inorganic, metallic, and mineralized beings, I trace these themes through various sites in and around Guantanamo Bay. One finds the tropes of Orientalism in the Bybee memo as well as in the diary of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Through these three distinct but related moments, one finds that Orientalism continues to produce Arabs as inorganic entities beyond death and thereby immune to violence. Insofar as imperialism has co-opted the language of non-violence by constructing its enemies as inviolable, one must recognize the Orientalized Arab as a receptor of limitless ‘non-violent’ hostilities.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 473 | 86 | 11 |
| Full Text Views | 46 | 4 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 98 | 12 | 6 |
