Edward Said takes an unusually sharp and penetrating look at the way in which the experts, the policy-makers and the media have dealt with the crisis in Iran and the Middle East. He shows how our traditional misunderstandings of the outside world have led us to continue to misunderstand events of enormous and immediate importance. Using many examples, COVERING ISLAM demonstrates that the media and the government-business establishment have produced a dangerously misleading and oversimplified portrait of Islam and Muslims, based on ignorance, inaccuracy and prejudice.