Edward Said's theory of orientalism talks about how the Western world, and Western society, regard and portray the Eastern part of the world. Often when the Eastern world is portrayed in Western novels, films, ect, it is shown as very exotic, showcasing stereotypes that have been forced upon the cultures that live there for many years. Many times, this takes the form of showing cultures as more primitive than Western cultures, which adds to a "mysterious" sense to cultures other than the prevalent Western ones.
This issue is still very alive in today's world. When many people think of cultures and people other than Western ones, or their own culture in other cases, the thoughts may be mysterious, exotic, mystical, ect because of what media and society has conditioned us to think about them. It works very much like racism, and is helping Western culture to dominate and oppress other cultures that may not be seen as equal to theirs. Especially in America, many people have learned to fear a lot of countries, people, and cultures in the Middle East because of terrorism. This fear then is loosely applied to anyone who may remotely fit the stereotypical image of a "terrorist," and can then be applied to many different cultures that may have nothing to do with the terrorism that is feared in the US.
I think that some people are scared of terrorist and not using common sense. They label anyone who looks like they are from the east as potential terrorist. Many political candidates also use this fear to their advantage and play on it to gain a political advantage.
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