Analyzing an orientalist’s Ideas: Bernard Lewis and Islamic Fundamentalism

Since the event of September 11, the debate about Islamic Fundamentalism became a major discussion in world politics arena. Islamic Fundamentalists are a spectrum of groups who want to reinterpret Islam in a way to use it for special political purposes. To analyze the roots of fundamentalist currents, Bernard Lewis has studied the roots of Muslim rage targeted to the West, which from his point of view has led to contrast between Islam and western modernization. The aim of this article is to analyze Bernard Lewis’ ideas by using content analysis method. According to Lewis, the root of these currents is Muslim rage against the west that in turn is the result of Muslim backwardness. He finds the solution of the backwardness of the Islamic countries in modernizing them through implementation of secularism, by which both the Muslim backwardness ends and the Muslim rage is treated. The research findings show that Lewis’ comments about the motives of these fundamental groups are not theoretic, academic and strategic. Besides, the solution he suggests to solve the problem, i.e. native secularism, is neither accessible nor applicable.