Muslim precarity: Plagues of the mind and corona orientalism

Abstract

AbstractBy focusing on epidemics that cut across time and space, this article analyses William Wittman’s Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria: and across the Desert into Egypt during the Years 1799, 1800, and 1801 (1804); John Lewis Burckhardt’s Travels in Arabia, Comprehending an Account of those Territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans regard as Sacred (1829); and recent COVID-19-related media narratives. This article suggests that the orientalist agendas of the Eurocentric world towards the Muslim community are far from over, irrespective of geopolitical space. The article conceptualizes the everyday existential crisis of the Muslim community as “Muslim precarity,” exacerbating, as such representations do, the community’s life conditions, and making it more vulnerable and insecure. These Eurocentric views, racist as they turn out to be, can be termed as “plagues of the mind” that need a constant supply of stereotypical images to perpetuate their agendas and ensure their hegemony over Muslims.

Keywords

• plague narratives
• Muslim precarity
• orientalism
• plague of the mind
• corona orientalism
• Arab land