Reading Religious Education text books: Islam, liberalism and the limits of Orientalism

This chapter explores the representation of Islam in 72 RE textbooks published between 1968 and 2012. The analysis of textbooks reveals that contemporary books are often Orientalist and informed by a liberal desire to present Islam and Muslims positively. The tension between these two trends is located in a critique of Orientalism and liberalism. It is argued that Orientalism itself is an essentialised concept and therefore perpetuates many of the features that characterise contemporary expressions of the unequal relationship between East and West. Secondly a liberal interpretation of Islam appears to eradicate most Orientalist markers from textbooks but it serves to impose an interpretation of Islam that is equally as false. The Islam of the media and in the public imagination is not negated by the liberal portrayal of beliefs and in textbooks but reshaped to make it palatable for liberal consumption.