Lawrence Pintak. Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam and the War of Ideas.

PositionBook review

Lawrence Pintak. Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam and the War of Ideas. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Pluto Press, 2006, 392 pages. Paper $26.95.

Pintak provides a comprehensive analysis of media representations on both US and Muslims alike. He discusses the implications of the distorting media reports on Islam and the Muslim world, especially after September 11. This inaccurate image, he argues, is a result of centuries of 'us' against 'them' dichotomy. The gap in perceptions was created due to the dramatically different versions of the same reality. This is a stimulating analysis of what he means by them viewing each other in a bloodshot lens.

The book centers on worldviews, their origin and hopeless direction. The Othering, he says, is the root of much of the world's violence. The US citizens' collective sense of self, that is 'us,' came to replace the 'other' from...

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