“Look at that Arab!” a stranger points out to his friend as they walk past a darker skinned citizen. The year is 2001 and the fall breeze is in the air. Citizens still scared and on the lookout for any potential harm or threats that may be oncoming. The overall mood in the United States is cautious and angry, trying to force that anger on anyone who looks like a “terrorist.” What does a terrorist look like? The generalization and stereotype at the time was a Middle Eastern man, and this was a problem for Changez, the main character, in Mohsin, Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. (2007) Changez was from Lahore, Pakistan and moved to the United States to pursue a Princeton degree at the age of eighteen. Changez’s story is told by him to a man, an assumed American man, at a small Café located in Lahore. This man, Changez points out, is on a mission of some sort, however the stranger listens to every word Changez has to say. The ups and downs of his life, his love life, and the terrible conflict of being a foreigner in New York City after a deadly terror attack. Life for Changez was an adjustment when he first …show more content…
In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Hamid displays how many people judge each other based on their skin color and race. After 9/11 this judging escalated when Changez started more hostile forms of this racism. He was harassed on the streets and even in airports. Being Middle-Eastern at this time was tough and many people did not understand this. This novel shows that not everyone is a terrorist, not everyone is evil. Yes, there was fear in the United States however people need to promote spreading the love because of the way it makes these people feel, especially in Changez’s case. Once a lover of the American dream, Changez changes his mind and became critical of this system and country through twists and turns throughout his
...I had misunderstood, or rather ignored, the Muslim Brotherhood as it materialized in Egypt and later took root and inspired others elsewhere. If Wright analysis is correct, and I suspect he is in this abundantly researched and well-written book, it was born as an opposition to colonialism and its nationalist / socialist / modernist / capitalist alternatives. It appeared that to Sayyid Qutb and other shaping figures in the Brotherhood, Islam was an all-encompassing system to remake the post-colonial world. Qutb, who actually spent time in the United States studying, returned in the late 40’s outraged and radicalized. Qutb soaked up our supposed corruption and regarded the U.S. as propping up regimes that the majority in the Middle East didn’t like, as well as being a good friend of Israel and opposed to Islam, issues that still are a common complaint heard today.
Tricksters often embody the change occurring to the main character within the story. In “Mohammed with the Magic Finger”, Mohammed is representative of the Uncle’s puberty rite of passage journey. The major change within the story is the developing maturity of the uncle, which is shown through the trickster as he overcomes the obstacles placed in his way. The dualism between the two characters is the lens through which the story progresses.
(Chermak, 2006) The media is one of the leading causes of stereotypes, and what influences our beliefs today. When you think of a terrorist, you may think of either a middle-aged Muslim male or a middle-aged white male with some sort of mental or social disorder. This isn't always the case. A terrorist can be of any race, age, and social class.
Likewise, Goodwin illustrates how the use of categorical terrorism can be seem being used by Al-Qaida during the attacks of 9/11. Nonetheless, it is evident that Al-Qaida is unusual in terms of using terrorism to influence the rise of unity rather than trying to overthrow a standing state. For the purpose of instigating a pan-Islamic revolutionary movement, Al-Qaida tries to unite all Islamic people under one state to develop umma, or Muslim community. The logic of Al-Qaida remained that if their “revolutionaries” could illicit a reaction from the powerful US state, resulting in oppression of the middle-eastern region, that Al-Qaida could, as a result, unite all Muslims to counter this suggested oppression. Although the end goal of Al-Qaida clear failed, it does suggest the organization’s attempt at implementing categorical terrorism.
Terrorist is a novel by John Updike written in 2006. Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, the main character in the story, was instructed in the Muslim faith ever since he was a child of eleven by the Iman Shaikh Rashid, originally from Yemen. The words and teachings of the Qur’an and his devotion to Allah become the centre of Ahmad’s young life which incidentally, lacks all parental guidance. After he graduates from secondary school he gets a job as a truck driver for Excellency Furnishing Stores where he meets Charlie Chehab and his father, from Lebanon and devoted Muslims too. From then on, the young man is manipulated by his elders to perpetrate a terrorist attack against the Lincoln tunnel, below the Hudson River that unites New Jersey with Manhattan, New York. The attack never comes true because Ahmad’s respect and love of a God given life prevail above the Iman’s mandate of hatred towards Americans and their way of life which he had also tried to generate in the boy.
Has the New York Times negatively stereotyped Arab Muslims for the past forty years? The goal of this research project is to reveal the negative stereotypes directed towards Arab Muslims in the New York Times. The critical focus of the research is the consistency of the negative stereotypes. The underlying focus is what theoretical and historical effects result from the negative stereotypes.
Sherman Alexie’s Flight Patterns, which discusses racial stereotypes, relates to the effects of 9/11 on American citizens, who tend to inappropriately judge Muslim and other cultures in the world today. Although 9/11 was a horrible day, it still should not be used to categorize and stereotype people. Stereotypes do nothing but harm to the people who receive it and to the people who dish it out.
For a second, the U.S. stood still. Looking up at the towers, one can only imagine the calm before the storm in the moment when thousands of pounds of steel went hurdling into its once smooth, glassy frame. People ran around screaming and rubble fell as the massive metal structure folded in on itself like an accordion. Wounded and limping from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, America carried on, not without anger and fear against a group of innocent Americans, Muslim Americans. Nietzsche’s error of imaginary cause is present in the treatment of Muslim Americans since 9/11 through prejudice in the media, disregard of Muslim civil liberties, racial profiling, violence, disrespect, and the lack of truthful public information about Islam. In this case, the imaginary cause against Muslims is terrorism. The wound has healed in the heart of the U.S. but the aching throb of terrorism continues to distress citizens every day.
Targets of suspicion: the impact of post-9/11 policies on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the US. (2004, May 1). Retrieved from http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/targets-suspicion-impact-post-911-policies-muslims-arabs-and-south-asians-us
Islam in America has historically been misunderstood, and this is due to the misconception of culture and religion as well as lack of education and incorrect portrayal in the media, which gives a skewed idea of Islam. Especially in the United States, Islam has been seen as the “terrorist religion” or a religion for the extremists and a religion in which freedom is not an option. Among the countless misconceptions, the basis of stereotypes by Americans is due to the mix up between religion and culture. Furthermore, the media only fuels fire to these misunderstandings and lack of factual information about Islam causing Americans to lash out on American Muslims without reason.
Anyone can be a hero, it is not a predetermined occupation, rather it can come out of anybody when a conflict arises. To become a hero all one has to do is step in to resolve an issue. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner the main conflict of the book is Amir's regret of past sins and desire for atonement. To atone for his sins Amir needs to recognize his wrongdoings, work to make up for them and change as a person. Throughout this story, Amir needs help to complete these steps. He gets help from Rahim Khan: the catalyst for his journey to redemption, Sohrab: Who saves Amir from Assef, and himself who by working hard to make a relationship with Sohrab is able to accept and move on from his past. To complete his journey for atonement Amir needs
Wright, L. (2008, June 2). The Rebellion Within: An Al Qaeda Mastermind Questions Terrorism. New Yorker.
This symbolizes post 9/11 politics of assimilation, a process in which Muslim Americans acquired social and psychological characteristics of the American culture. Hamid illustrates Changez identity through the lens of post 9/11 politics of assimilation when he characterizes Changez as an intelligent man who earned a degree from one of the most prestigious schools in America. Changez degree from Princeton represents his ability to obtain an elite education similar to every other privileged American. In this part of his life he succeeds in assimilating to America’s culture. His job at Underwood Samson symbolizes the United States and the power it possess. Changez feels like he is apart of America when he lands the job and is given the top position because of his outstanding credentials. When Changez visits Pakistan for Christmas he tells the American stranger how “There are adjustments one must make if one comes from America; a different way of observing is required. I recalled the Americanness of my own gaze, when I returned to Lahore” (p.124). During his trip to Lahore, Changez is described as an assimilated immigrant who begins to look down at his roots because of the success he has achieved in America. However, Changez soon realizes that while he may have succeeded and been apart of America, after the attacks on September 11 he was viewed as nothing
F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
... Aside from power, the recurrent leitmotif is the constant comparisons that Changez makes between America and Pakistan. (‘Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, home to as many people as New York...’) Also, he resents the grouping of Islamic identity as one by symbols such as the beard, burqa, etc. Yet, he too homogenizes the American identity to an extent. He frequently describes other Americans as ‘not unlike yourself’ and their actions as ‘just as you are doing now.’