Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (Fully Revised Edition)
by Edward W Said (Author) Format: Paperback
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (167)
Edward Said takes an unusually sharp and penetrating look at the way in which the experts, the policy-makers and the media have dealt with the crisis in Iran and the Middle East. He shows how our traditional misunderstandings of the outside world have led us to continue to misunderstand events of enormous and immediate importance. Using many examples, COVERING ISLAM demonstrates that the media and the government-business establishment have produced a dangerously misleading and oversimplified portrait of Islam and Muslims, based on ignorance, inaccuracy and prejudice.
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About the Author
Edward Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935. In 1951 he attended a private preparatory high school in Massachusetts, America and he went on to study at Princeton University for his BA and at Yale for his MA and PhD. He became University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Said was bestowed with numerous honorary doctorates from universities around the world and twice received Columbia's Trilling Award and the Wellek Prize of the American Comparative Literature Association. He is best known for describing and critiquing 'Orientalism' and his book on the subject was published in 1978. He died in 2003.
Product details
Publisher : VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET
Publication date : 8 August 1997
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From Australia
Random
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in Australia on 11 July 2024
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Another great book by Edward Said. Said’s books are a must read for anyone who wants to understand the world in a deep, academic, and serious manner
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From other countries
M AB
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, needs to be in every scholar’s bookshelf
Reviewed in Canada on 16 April 2023
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Edward Said is a Christian American born in Palestine to a US veteran gives an academic analysis of the media bias. A+
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Amazon カスタマー
5.0 out of 5 stars E・W・サイードのメディア論
Reviewed in Japan on 24 March 2025
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E・W・サイードはその生い立ちと経歴から歴史や権力等の著作、特にアラブ・イスラエルや本書にある宗教を例にしたマスメディアの偏向報道について疑問を投げかけています。1981年の著作ですが2025年の現在にも響く内容と思います。中東やアラブというと少し遠い世界と思いがちですが著作者は現在の状況を喝破し深く憂いていたのではないでしょうか。
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FK
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight to understand the media
Reviewed in India on 25 June 2018
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Great insight to understand the media. One of the best narrative on Muslim in media and about Muslims in media.
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Costumer
5.0 out of 5 stars très satisfaite de mon achat!
Reviewed in France on 7 August 2018
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Un livre que je souhaitais lire depuis un moment et grâce à un vendeur tiers je l'ai eu à un prix et qualité imbattable. Un livre que je conseille, se lit très facilement et fait réfléchir.
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Germinal
5.0 out of 5 stars Roots of Islamophobia exposed.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2008
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I think the review posted by A Customer on 24 Feb 2006 covers a lot of what I would have wanted to say about this excellent book.
We live in a period where there has grown up a new racism which is directed at Muslims. Whether we call this Islamophobia or Anti-Muslim racism is besides the point. What is important to understand where this racism comes from, what are it's causes and origins.
Those who seek to justify this racism will do so by blaming the actions of Muslims and will refer to 7/7, 9/11 and the Rushdie Affair. No-one doubts the importance of these events as milestones along the way to where we are today, but they are not the starting point. If they were the starting point, then it would not have been possible for Said to write this book in 1981.
For what Said does in 'Covering Islam' is point out and document the long history of how 'The West' sees 'Islam' and how this has largely been negative and driven, in modern times, by the needs of imperialism.
Thus it is with the modern rise in hostility to Islam. Said documents change occuring in the 1970's as the oil crisis, Israel-Palestine, Pakistan-Bangladesh, 'Death of a Princess' and Afghanistan grabbed the headlines and some commentators looked for commonality between these disputes and hit upon there being 'somehting wrong with' Islam as an explanation.
Then in 1979, came the Iranian Revolution in which the ally of The West, the Shah, was overthrown and an Islamic Republic founded in it's place. There was also the US embassy hostage crisis. The ideological response to this in the West, especially the US, was to explain the revolution in terms of the backwardness and barbarity of Islam. In other words, again, hostility to Islam and Muslims was serving the need of imperial power.
That this hostility borrowed directly from the tradition of orientalism that Said documented in his work of the same name just the year previously, demonstrates great foresight on Said's part.
I have to say that, much as I admire Said, I find reading him can be a little on the tough side and felt that 'Orientalism' had large parts which were a drag to read - even though the book was tremendously informative. That is not the case with 'Covering Islam' which is written in a much snappier, almost journalistic style and covers the bases covered in 'Orientalism'. It's an easy read and thoroughly recommended.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly relevant a decade later
Reviewed in the United States on 31 May 2013
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Edward Said so eloquently gives us insight into the inherent prejudice in the so called free Western press. He uses examples to bring home the blatant chauvinism, sheer ignorance, arrogance and cultural bias that even today poignantly exist in the international media . This book is an essential study for westerners interested in the Arab-Western interface. His untimely passing left a chasm in a very topical area. Whose measured and articulate prose will rein in the five minute assessments of journalists hell bent on their sensationalist verbal garbage, and often based on the stereotypical diatribe of the biased Western writers of earlier decades? Edward Said's articulate exposition and intellectual vigour in this tome left me with a lasting impression. I cannot wait to read and mull over more of his well-argued and strongly evidenced writings.
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Ali
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on 28 April 2018
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Wowza! Arrived exactly when I needed it. Thank you
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HW
5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing the truth always hurt!
Reviewed in the United States on 4 September 2013
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This book tells ALL about our media prejudices and the shortcomings of our journalists, writers, intellectuals, academics, etc., when it comes to Islam, Arabs and the Middle East. It is a great analytical essay about false propaganda and the wrong views dispersed about the Middle East. YES there are political problems in the Middle East but which part of the world doesn't have them? If it wasn't for the oil, the Middle East would have been without turmoil and left alone for the last 100 years to manage its own destiny, without constant wars and political interventions. Edward Said does it again: clear, pure truth-telling!
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M. J. Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars As relevant today as it was when it was published
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2017
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Really interesting book. I haven't yet read Orientalism, Said's seminal book, but this is incredibly thought provoking in the way the media treat Islam. It has made me reconsider the sources of my information and remember that the media is of course geared toward national interest and that there is therefore an inherent bias against 'threats' to our societies, when the reality is often less distinct and more fluid. Such a description was seen in a recent discussion with my family where there was a link drawn between Anjem Choudry and the Rotherham grooming gangs as some attempt to attack us and undermine our democratic institutions. Which was twofold in drawing the link between their race as the decisive factor and guiding force for their actions, while also seeing islam as inherently violent or dangerous and incompatible
The impact goes further in that it has made me fundamentally reassess my career goals, as I was deeply interested in working in the MENA region as an analyst or as a diplomat after I graduate. I am going to work hard to learn arabic, as, like Said says, it's hard to be an expert in a culture and region if you cannot even read their language or have an understanding of their literature or poetry or religion that played such a formative experience in the current reality. Said presents a great discussion of the media's role, of course. Yet it has made me want to read Chomsky's manufacturing consent. As a history student it equally raises important questions about how debate is framed, having expert who formulate national policy and how our culture and existing prejudices influence media concentration in our society can have superbly awful consequences. History as a discipline too has a lot of schisms within it regarding the role historians should play in affecting public opinion whilst also maintaining 'impariality' within academia. It has made me much more wary of expert opinion, which is something I grappled with during university when I first started, as even experts are not omnipotent in their areas, so there arguments should be rigorously interrogated, especially by the public.
Regardless it was a lovely book, which addresses bigger issues than simply Islam and I look forward to reading Said's Orientalism.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on 16 June 2016
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Book that depicts the reality of terrorism and the plot to tarnish Islam and the followers of Islam
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elmi
4.0 out of 5 stars Freue mich aufs Lesen
Reviewed in Germany on 1 March 2014
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Freue mich darauf es zu lesen, ist sicher nichts für jedermann, aber wer sich das Buch bestellt, weiß auch, dass er es bei Said mit einem Medienkulturkritiker zu tun hat.
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Chloe Pratt
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most interesting books I have ever read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 March 2013
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I have chosen this rating as 'Covering Islam' is probably the best book that I have bought! Edward Said has definitely helped educate me within the understanding of how 'Islam' is viewed by the 'other'. There is no doubt that this novel has broaden my perspectives on the various influences within society. I would recommend this book to anyone.
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M. Ingram
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading
Reviewed in the United States on 13 July 2010
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Any rational person who values the truth and covets intellectual freedom for his or herself should read this book. This examines the greatest propaganda campaign presently assaulting the American psyche. You can continue with Edward Said, or go on to Naomi Wolfe and Noam Chomsky if you don't buy everything they're selling you on the tube.
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Khalil
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on 11 February 2017
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Interesting read on what Islam is and how the media covers it
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Libby Ingrassia
3.0 out of 5 stars Important points, but...
Reviewed in the United States on 3 January 2006
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In Covering Islam, Edward W. Said makes some vitally important points that remind us that our relationship with many countries (and not just in the countries/cultures/peoples who are Arabic or Islamic or in the Middle East) is informed by a media that does not always do justice to the people they cover -- in many cases, the media generalizes and demonizes. Making one of the most important points in the book, Said reminds us that Islam (like "Christendom" or "the West" or any broad cultural category) is not a monolithic homogeneous structure, but that many journalists, pundits, spokespeople, and citizens see and portray it as such.
Said cites many examples of journalists (and academics) who fall into lazy habits when looking at and writing these cultures. Unfortunately, it seemed to me that Said makes many generalizations himself, about American media and journalists (although, to be fair, he does give some examples in the last chapter of academics and writers who he believes have a more broad and insightful and accurate viewpoint) which made it harder for me to stay engaged with the book.
Finally, I wanted to know his solutions and suggestions, not just the problem. If everything an American journalist or adademic touches in a country such as Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan is tainted by post-colonialism and oil and government, how can the average person learn about that part of the world in a genuine manner? What information is trustworthy? Said has told us the problem, or part of it, but did not seem, in this book anyway, to offer solutions.
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Ali Ahmad
4.0 out of 5 stars brilliant
Reviewed in India on 3 February 2022
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said at his best
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Ummul-Banin
5.0 out of 5 stars Exposing the media
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 November 2014
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This book illustrated the role of the media in twisting the public opinion. A brilliant piece of work and a joy to read. At times it is hilarious in the way it exposes the ignorance of the Western governments and their sense of superiority. You simply must read it!
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JOHN FAIRCLOUGH
4.0 out of 5 stars Good!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 April 2015
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Pro-Islam but balanced and informative. Good!
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J. C. Chen
5.0 out of 5 stars As valuable for its insights today as when it was ...
Reviewed in the United States on 24 September 2014
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As valuable for its insights today as when it was published. Now, it also reads as a history of the heavily biased ideas about Islam and Islamism that have been churning through our imaginations.
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Dr Saibal Bir
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for all adults in the Orient and ...
Reviewed in India on 6 January 2016
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A must read for all adults in the Orient and in the Occident in the present state of our planet.
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ALOKE MONDAL
4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in India on 21 October 2018
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Good
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SIMONE DE BRITO CORRÊA
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, great author!
Reviewed in the United States on 25 August 2013
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The book provides readers not only with a different view on Islam, but also, with criticism on Orientalism. For those who like to broaden their minds, it is an excellent choice.
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Pharaoh
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2018
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Amazing book. Many thanks mentioned therein are still relevant to this very day.
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LD
5.0 out of 5 stars Gift
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 August 2017
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Bought this as a gift, I managed to read the kindle sample and it has a balanced view on this current issue.
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POL
4.0 out of 5 stars Said Covering the News Covering Islam
Reviewed in the United States on 28 March 2017
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This is an important book. Actually, more important today then when it was first published in 1981. My copy is the updated '97 edition, however. It's more important today because it directly addresses our current voguish blather(thanks for the borrow, Arthur jr) concerning the predominance of fake news in a forthright fashion well before the existence of Breitbart, HuffPo, or even the Internet. The focus of media fraud in this book is not on the presidential election, or even American politics, but rather the American media's foreign coverage on all things Islamic. Said states that mostly all of the news coverage concerning "Islam" has been quite thoroughly, and often quite intentionally, fake. Said unpacks why the western media usually reports Islam the way it does, why it(Islam) is otherwise completely ignored as news worthy, and how most of the material offered concerning it that's fit to mislead is picked up and propagated by many newspapers of the finest reputation and all major television news networks of that time. Said states current(70s, 80s, 90s) media coverage of Islam is mostly restricted to elucidating events of crisis only, typically just as it may directly relate to western interests. Selecting only times of crisis for exploring Middle Eastern society reenforces an image of a land with only inherent and unresolvable problems. As the Islamic religion is inextricably attached onto this real estate and its nettlesome problems, an unfortunate trinity of negativity takes root from the so-called western perspective. An old stock of myths, prejudices, and self-serving stereotypes find vigorous, if not rigorous, use in constructing a grand news narrative which makes certain to affix "hero" and "villain" statuses strategically, upon the United States and Islam respectively. Said uses the Iranian revolution(again, this was written and updated before 9/11) as his primary example of how the news media constructs and promulgates false news. Importance as to what's added(the stereotyping of Muslims as all violent religious nuts against education, modernism and technology) is only second in importance to what's excluded(the Shah's oppressive regime that flouted human rights, engaged in extensive social engineering, and attempted to subvert and destroy all connections with past traditional culture). Said alternates between errors committed by the western media out of prejudicial ignorance(explaining present events with jaundiced interpretations of values and history from a distant past, or an inexcusable inability to speak the language, or a lack of knowledge as to what is actually happening in the society reported on), and the more blatant pandering to businesses, government policy, or immediate commercial interests. Oil pops up for Said as a nasty bogey bringing upon the Middle East western harassment and subjugation. Said recognizes limitations placed upon the commercial media by the competence of its audience, also those placed by interests who pay for advertising space, or the bare government pressure exercised on media and research institutions alike. Specialists find their employment may interfere with an ability to simply report "truth" without making expected accommodations to vested interests in a public forum. Those who attempt to do so despite obstacles can at best count on substantial frustration as reward for their efforts. I remember watching a specialist on Middle East terrorism practically pull out his hair as he repeatedly tried to explain how El Qaeda might have had nothing to do with Benazir Bhutto's assassination. The CNN interviewer not only couldn't follow the complexity of the various groups perhaps involved in potential insurrectionary activities in Pakistan at the time, she couldn't bring herself not to use the label El Qaeda, despite persistent corrections. Reduction of a complicated problem to its simplest explanation is a very common error, according to Said. Said would ask that journalists and reporters maintain a critical stance against any possible myth purveying, conscious or otherwise. Said provides examples of some journalists he considers to be knowledgeable, critical, and objective. Two Frenchman, Maxime Rodinson & Eric Rouleau, and one American, I.F. Stone, are singled out for special praise. The first two were communists, while the latter flirted with it for much of his life. One can hardly dispute that their perspective on the Iranian revolution would be different than, say, Ted Koppel's. Though one could retort that their smuggled assumptions were just more palatable to the ardent anti-capitalist Said. Another intriguing feature to Said's commentary on western perceptions of Islam is his abject disdain for the west's consistent tendency for reducing Islamic people and events into negative ontological symbols. Said would claim this dehumanizes authentic subjects. Said also points in turn to the ontological symbolism of the Embassy hostages for the new Iranian Republic while acknowledging their basic innocence. At times, this feels like an offsetting game that really reduces into standard power politics. At times, it feels as if Said is really only upset at the amount of media power the west has at its command. If so, it reminded this reader nothing is more off-putting than a whiny Nietzschean. Still, Said does accurately hit his target when he states that quantity of news coverage indicates little to nothing of its quality. Reporting necessarily involves interpretation of facts. This process is never neutral. Because of this reality, Said warns us that we must all be aware of any potential prejudices, biases, deceptions, and even outright fraud, not only in our news consumption, but in our personal judgement. Said accuses the American media of mostly perpetrating the latter when it informed an hungry American public looking for answers during the hostage crises that insane zealots beyond any reasonable discourse were only ones available to blame. This was a narrative that was all too easy to write up, which also utilized convenient, though bigoted, sources from past and present, but was also often misleadingly simplistic, uninformative, and frequently false.
Because of this simplistic media assessment and the following public judgement, the media on the whole dropped Iran as a focus of scrutiny after the hostages were released, seldom acknowledging it again outside the briefest mention as a state still in support of terrorism until the beginning of the twenty-first century. The media mostly failed to convey an appropriately intricate and informed examination of the events leading to, during, and after the Iranian revolution, despite an apparent professional journalistic obligation to do so on behalf of its public. Most hardly cared, especially after the hostages were released; though Said did and made it the topic of arguably his best book. Sadly, an assault on America's "fake news industry" would have to wait until it finally inflicted injuries much, much closer to home. In fact, inside its very TV parlor...
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Hisham
5.0 out of 5 stars exactly what was described
Reviewed in the United States on 24 October 2010
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i needed this book for a research paper, it was exactly what i needed and what i expected it to look like. it was delivered on time, no problems at all. Thank you
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Haddy
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 March 2017
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Brilliant book. So relevant for today's world
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JT
3.0 out of 5 stars good
Reviewed in the United States on 14 January 2013
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An excellent look into media coverage of Islam broadly. My problem was with the methodology of the book. There is no guiding theory or set of theories developed to explain the wide ranging assertions by the author.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars used for a class
Reviewed in the United States on 12 March 2021
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some interesting info
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Margarita
3.0 out of 5 stars I get the idea in the first 6 pages. ...
Reviewed in the United States on 17 February 2015
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I get the idea in the first 6 pages. The media exaggerates on Islam, but what doesn't the media exaggerate on.
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SeaGull
4.0 out of 5 stars Biased book but nice topic
Reviewed in the United States on 16 October 2009
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this book is an eye opener but has conflicting views and is hard to understand.
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tobias mostel
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 22 June 2017
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Can't go anywhere in the Middle East without it.
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Martin Berry
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United States on 5 December 2012
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I looked forward to this book, but ended up disappointed. Said spent a good deal of time criticising a range of other's arguments, without giving views of his own. It read like a critical essay rather than a tale of its own.
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Bayo
5.0 out of 5 stars ok
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 November 2013
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I am very pleased with this product .This is brilliant and I highly recommend it. GREAT QUALITY product and delivery FOR THE PRICE!!!
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2015
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A must read!
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Dale L Meyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 31 January 2018
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good book
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vique mora
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 15 May 2015
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Received on time an excellent read
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 8 October 2015
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very eye opening!
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Mr H.
5.0 out of 5 stars Edward Said is truly the most important philospher that offers social/ political crtique written with ease.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 July 2015
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All time classic arrived on time. MUST READ!
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