e-Makalat Mezhep Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

Bernard Lewis, one of the greatest orientalist of the twenty-first century, is an academic who has devoted his studies to the Middle East and Islam. The general perception in our society towards Lewis, who was a consultant to George Walker Bush for a while, is that he did his research beyond academic curiosity with the aim of providing intelligence to his state in order to shape the US’s Middle East policies and reorganize the geography. With the exception of academic circles, the general perception of Lewis and his work in our society is negative. Bernard Lewis, most of whose works have been translated into Turkish and who is widely read in our country, puts Turkey in a separate place from the Middle East countries. It has engaged our attention that Lewis’s criticism of Islam, the language he used in his criticisms, and more importantly, the research on his objectivity has been neglected while he has been glorified in some academic circles for praising Turkey’s democracy adventure. Studies on Lewis’s ideas are important because he is an effective academic. According to Lewis, who thinks that religion is the most fundamental reason for East-West polarization, it is not possible for the two civilizations in question to approach each other with tolerance in the short term. The reason for this is that there is no effort to renew the teachings and religious thought of Islam. In this research, the possibility of a philosopher’s absolute isolation from his belongings and an impartial view of the other will be discussed in the context of Bernard Lewis by dealing with his ideas on the subject.