Islam and Arabs in Early American Thought

The introduction to this book credits the author with clarifying theoperative attitudes of Americans towards Islam by looking at the causeand result of the Muslim image in American literature. However, regretis expressed that Sha'ban had to be heroically selective about a subjectradiating in many rich directions. Apparently, the book offers fresh insightsand new possibilities for exploration and discovery, therebycontributing significantly to the enhancement of a literary tradition thatcame to the forefront with Said's Orientalism. Sha'ban studies orientalismin tenns of America's exposure to and understanding of Islam by focusingon Muslims of nineteenth-century North Africa and the Middle East.Even though the book's thrust is political, Sha 'ban challenges the readerto review familiar American writers and trends from an unfamiliar perspectiveas he traces the historically biased approach of Americans intheir dealings with the Muslim world.In chapter one, “A Place for My People,“ the author explains howAmerica’s Puritan beginnings shaped its self-image and its attitude towads“the Arab world, its people and land.” The Pilgrims saw themselvesas the chosen people in a promised land. Under the umbrella of aprovidential plan and the divine covenant, they were heirs to the kingdomof God in the new world and therefore shared a common responsibilityto execute the divine mission. Unlike European monamhs who relied onreligion for personal privilege (i.e., the Divine Right theory), Puritansshifted away from emphasizing the personal and private aspects of Christianityto its communal or corporate nature. They constantly endorsedtheir national responsibility to share the benefits of their chosen status ascitizens of God’s kingdom with the rest of the world ...