“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…
moved to the United States. He attended Princeton University, imagined it as prestigious, dazzling, and full of excited students. What he did find, conversely, did not meet his expectations. The buildings, Changez exclaimed, were made to look gothic and the student body only consisted of one other Pakistani. The selection process for a non-American at Princeton was immensely more challenging than the flip side. Changez believed this entailed the non-Americans were smarter, and to some extent this was true. Changez graduated Princeton with perfect grades, never receiving one B. These grades opened him up to numerous job offers, one in particular called Underwood Samson. The company was the most prestigious for a student to land out of college. It gave other companies’ valuations and financial models to understand where the money was going and how much was being spent. Race did not have an influence on most decisions in America during interviews, knowledge mattered. His interview came around and Changez was told to valuate a company dealing with time travel, an impossible question, however Changez worked his way through it and showed the main message of the company, fundamentals, and was hired on the spot. Conversation in the café was going strong with the stranger as they sat down to enjoy tea. The summer before landing the prestigious job offer, Changez spoke of a trip in Greece with his friends. Most of which are from wealthy families that attended Princeton, meaning affording the trip came with ease to them. Changez, on the other hand, had to fund his trip with his signing bonus from Underwood Samson. One friend in particular, named Erica, joined the trip and immediately he was love struck with her. She was a magnet to other people and Changez could not get alone time with her, however he knew she was attracted to him. The two sparked, and started conversing regularly, however not interacting sexually. This relationship was odd, carrying out for the months after Princeton while Changez was beginning his career at Underwood Samson. Underwood Samson brought on six new members to their business, one being Changez. These were the best of the best in their fields and were told they would be given performance reviews at the end of each month. He admired the powerhouse that was Underwood Samson, adoring the lobby as he walked in. Changez was grateful. Changez met a good friend named Wainwright, who also worked for Underwood Samson, due to a Top Gun reference. The first month of the job consisted of training the new employees how to perform at the level of merit the company insisted on. Their first task after this training was to evaluate a company in the Philippines, which would take a few months. His time at Underwood Samson made Changez feel different, made him feel as though he was not a Pakistani. “I did not think of myself as a Pakistani, but as and Underwood Samson employee.” (Hamid, 37) He was a New Yorker, he was not foreign, was not an outcast. Changez proved himself time and time again, receiving the number one ranking numerous occasions in the performance ratings. As he was in the Philippines a September night before leaving, the television played the horrific scenes of 9/11 on CNN. His colleagues gathered to watch and see the chaos that was unfolding. The flights to and from New York City were cancelled for days, trapping Changez and his business associates in the Philippines. Changez, talked to the stranger about 9/11, telling him he sort of enjoyed it. Not the people dying, however the chaos that was ensuing on America’s soil. Changez understood this event would change the way people would view foreigners when he described being selected to be thoroughly screened at a separate security checkpoint on his way to New York City. “In the end I was dispatched for a secondary inspection in a room where I sat on a metal bench next to a tattooed man in handcuffs.” (Hamid, 75) People were putting a foreign man who is innocent, in the same category as a criminal. As he returned home, people were scared, terrified, on edge, yet the only thing Changez really cared about was seeing Erica. Returning to New York City, Changez found himself emotionally attached to Erica. After a night of drinking, the two went back to his apartment and Changez made a move on her. Erica had feelings for him, however could not get aroused because of one main reason, her old lover/boyfriend, Chris. Chris died of leukemia at a young age while he was in love with Erica. The two were perfect, and when Chris died it made Erica lose a part of herself. Changez acknowledged her pain and pretended to role play as Chris, receiving positive feedback. Erica became sexually aroused and they interacted sexually. Erica was a different breed, she was still in love with a dead person, someone who cannot love back. Her emotional state was deteriorating, and Changez mind was in the clouds. Changez’s family back home in Lahore, Pakistan was all he could think about over the course of the next few months after the 9/11 attacks. News broke of India and a potential invasion of Changezs’s homeland. He quickly called his family who told him to stay in America and not worry because everything was going to be fine. Email after email, article after article, Changez read through. He focused on this world wide current event more than his own job. Everywhere he went, the dirty looks followed. Once in a parking lot after work, two men came up to Changez and started shouting unintelligent stereotypical noises at him causing an altercation. “’Fucking Arab,’ he said. I am not, of course, an Arab. Nor am I, by nature, a gratuitously belligerent chap.” (Hamid, 117) Changez is not a terrorist and this scene completely describes American citizen’s racial emotions after the attacks. All because he was a different race and from a different part of the world. In his mind, yes, he was a New Yorker. However stereotyping was the huge façade during this time and Changez got more than he could handle. Every flight he took, passengers would stop to stare, point, and talk about him. He was strong however, and did not let this get to him. Changez was excelling at his job at Underwood Samson, and his mentor/boss, Jim, gave him an assignment in Argentina to value a company dealing with books. This job is usually designated for a senior employee, due to the reason the vice president is the only other person accompanying him. Changez was worried about his race before this job opportunity, and thought it could affect his job. The potential war in Pakistan was in his mind and made him become distant with work, only focusing on news articles about the issue. In Argentina, he became so distant, he ended up quitting his assignment. Going back to the United States Changez visited Erica, who was admitted to a hospital to deal with her illness about Chris. Everything was going terrible in Changez’s life. The racial problem was high and he could not take it anymore. Eventually Changez was fired and the worst thing that could have happened to Erica occurred. While at her hospital facility, she committed suicide. Changez decided to move back to his hometown of Lahore, Pakistan where he became a professor. Chnagez led many protests against the United States, which landed him in jail, but also popular among the students. The stranger is listened to Changez tell him this story as they were walking back to the stranger’s hotel. Back in Pakistan, Changezs’ friends warned him that the United States may send somebody to intimidate him or harm him. This person, Changez suspected, was the stranger. Stereotypes are everywhere, and the racial profiling was high in the United States, and Changez’s story explains some of this.
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
life.
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.
...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.
(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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
... 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.’
F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
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