Israel's orientalism

I've spent much of this week speaking to Israeli academics specialising in Islam and Middle Eastern history. Some of the open-minded ones have been open to debate and we've had some enjoyable if energetic discussions. Two things have really struck me. One, they're all Orientalists, even the most sympathetic ones. Two, they have a lot of knowledge and resources pertaining to Islam especially in the Middle East. As Muslims, we're so behind on this latter point. We need to study our religion, analytically not theologically, better. And we need to counter the colonialist message much of the Western scholarship, of which the Israeli scholarship is a segment, exhibits.