According to Behdad and Williams again, "First, whereas classical Orientalists were commonly male European savants, philologists, established writers and artists, neo-Orientalists tend to be ordinary Middle Eastern subjects whose self-proclaimed authenticity sanctions and authorizes their discourses.
but rather Middle Eastern women and men who use their native subjectivity and new-found agency in the West to render otherwise biased accounts of the region seemly more authoritative and objective.
Second, in contrast to classical Orientalism’s apparent privileging of philological, cultural, and formalistic concerns over ideological ones, neo-Orientalism is marked by an unapologetic investment in and engagement with the politics of the Middle East.
For example, Maajid Nawaz adapted the term to criticize[5] the Southern Poverty Law Center for adding his name to a list[6] of public figures it claims are anti-Muslim extremists.
Finally, unlike Orientalism, which serves as a critical approach to representations of Eastern Culture in its entirety, the present dialogue concerning neo-Orientalism seems to focus on predominantly Muslim countries, and in particular, the Middle East and North Africa.