I'm Henry from Fortress on a him.

We're a leftist veteran podcast that aims to expose the reality

of the US military's many wars abroad,

the horror that it puts on the people that live in those places and the damage that military

service does to Americans. Congress has abdicated its role giving oversight to

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Now, back to lions led by donkeys.

And now I'm about to draw a whole new world of knowledge on you.

Aladdin was one of the most Orientalist films of all time.

And Professor Walter Denny, who's taught Orientalist art for decades, agrees.

Like those first three or four minutes of the Disney movie Aladdin are basically very prejudicial.

They create a very, very false and very, very prejudicial view of the Islamic world.

Before I upset you anymore, let me tell you why it's so bad

by explaining what Orientalism is.

Historically, Orientalism refers to the study of the Arab and Muslim world or what was for a long time referred to as the Orient which included more than just Arab or predominant Muslim societies and the discipline basically looked at those societies as though they were interchangeable, inferior, and well, mystical and savage.

Just the fact we say there's an Arab or Muslim world is proof of how pervasive that way of thinking was and is.

But now, Will Yeomans, a professor of media studies

in public affairs, says the definition has evolved.

It's become to mean something else.

A critique, actually, of a particular way of knowing about that part of the world.

The late Palestinian American professor, author, and activist Edward Saeed wrote the book on Orientalism,

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