Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies by Ian Buruma, Avishai Margalit Page B

in the nineteenth century. And most forms of Occidentalism contrast empty Western rationalism with the deep spirit of whatever race or creed the Occidentalists extol. But even the most fervent Slavophiles never regarded the West as barbarous, or Westerners as savages. This attitude is peculiar to certain strains of Islamism, the main religious source of Occidentalism in our own time.
    Islamism, as an ideology, was only partly influenced by Western ideas. Its depiction of Western civilization as a form of idolatrous barbarism is an original contribution to the rich history of Occidentalism. This goes much further than the old prejudice that the West is addicted to money and greed. Idolatry is the most heinous religious sin and must therefore be countered with all the force and sanctions at the true believers’ disposal.
    The metaphorical use of idolatry to depict the capitalist West is not in fact new; nor is the view that Jews are its archetypical idolaters. Karl Marx, that bitter grandson of a rabbi, once remarked: “Money is the jealous god of Israel before whom no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of mankind and converts them into commodities.” He also believed that the “bill of exchange is the Jew’s actual god. His god is only an illusionary bill of exchange.” 1 This kind of rhetoric was later adopted by radical Islamists, some of whom probably read Marx before they read Islamic texts. But the literal use of idolatry, which emerged among political Islamists, is a lethal innovation.
    Lest we blame Islam for everything, it should be pointed out that the idea of idolatry as the ultimate religious sin comes originally from Judaism. In terms of scale, Judaism is not a world religion. It has barely the size of a sect. Yet Judaism has had a huge influence in shaping the idea of idolatry as a key religious concept. Idolatry in the Bible is couched in terms of personal relations. God is the husband and Israel the wife, who betrays her husband with a lover, a false god. Idolatry is adultery. The jealous God of the Bible is modeled on the jealous husband. This is particularly striking in Hosea. Israel, the wife, prefers other lovers to God, thinking they are better equipped to satisfy her material needs. She says, “I will go after my lovers, who supply my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink” (Hosea 2:5).
    These lovers are in fact the big powers of that time, ruled by alien gods: “You played the whore with your neighbors, the lustful Egyptians—you multiplied your harlotries to anger Me. . . . In your insatiable lust you also played the whore with the Assyrians; you played the whore with them, but were still unsated. You multiplied your harlotries with Chaldea, that land of traders; yet even with this you were not satisfied. . . .
    Yet you were not like a prostitute, for you spurned fees. [You were like] the adulterous wife, who welcomes strangers instead of her husband” (Ezekiel 16:26-32).
    This shows that the nightmare vision of big powers as potential seducers, who compete with the reign of God, is as old as the Hebrew Bible. The relationship between husband and wife is not the only formative metaphor for idolatry in religious texts. Religious language is full of metaphors for political sovereignty, describing the rule of God. God, after all, is the only legitimate king of the universe. God the King rules exclusively in relation to His creatures. That is why people should worship only Him. Violating His exclusivity is idolatrous.
    Heads of great powers are constantly accused of hubris for trespassing on the domain of God. This is what God told Ezekiel to say to the Prince of Tyre: “Because you have been so haughty and have said ‘I am a god; I sit enthroned like a god in the heart of the seas,’ whereas you are not a god but a man, though you deemed your mind equal to a god’s . . . I swear I will bring against you strangers, the most ruthless of nations” (Ezekiel