The madness that is affecting Western Europe today has many causes, but two of them are the failure to properly come to terms with the colonial past and the still prevailing orientalism. These provide a rich breeding ground for racism and xenophobia. Therefore, it may be useful to pay some attention to the history of the interaction between East and West. No, Edward Said’s book will not be my starting point.
English is a foreign language for me, so my texts need to be corrected by a native speaker. But my spontaneity should not be hampered. Therefore I publish a text first, and afterwards it is corrected.
Author: Wim Raven, retired arabist of Marburg University, Germany. scholar2620@gmail.com
East by East West 