Zeitoun Analysis

In the years after 9/11, sentiment toward American Muslims has become hostile. In 2002, violence against Muslims in the United States went up an astonishing 1600 percent (Lean 3). Statistics give a good idea of the overall effect of 9/11 on Muslim violence, but narratives can provide a much more personal and compelling account. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers present a frightening (yet real) story of dramatic injustice against a Muslim Syrian American during Hurricane Katrina. Zeitoun, the main character, is profiled, embarrassed, and jailed unjustly. In the text, we see that islamophobia manifests itself in the form of violence and discrimination. Kathy, Zeitoun’s wife, even says in Zeitoun that “any trip to the grocery store or mall presented the

Much to some people’s surprise, nowhere is there a command to kill non-Muslims or commit acts of terrorism. Thinking that Muslims aim to contradict American values is only a result of the fear of Muslim extremists. In contrast to the two stories we have heard already about innocent Muslims being attacked or imprisoned because of their religion, "Shifting Signifiers Of Otherness: The 2002 ' DC Snipers' In The U.S. Press” by Angie Chuang and Robin Chin Roember examines the media representation of two people with ‘othering’ identities who committed a crime. The authors took 141 different articles from the Washington Post and the Seattle times about John Muhammed and John Malvo, who had gone on a shooting spree in Washington, D.C. Malvo was primarily portrayed as having the identities of a Jamaican immigrant, black, and Muslim. Muhammed did not the have the background of an immigrant, so he was just portrayed as a black Muslim. The authors of the paper closely examined the terms used to describe them in all 141 articles. They chose Malvo and Muhammed because of their overlapping yet unique identities. They found that, “U.S. news coverage of crime or terrorism perpetrators belonging to “Other” identity groups tends to focus on single, salient signifiers of race, religion, and immigration status” (Chuang). Malvo and Muhammed were not represented as an entire identity,

Zeitoun may have been targeted after the hurricane simply because of a government command to “speculate on possible terrorist exploitation of a high category hurricane” (Eggers 308). The government was so concerned about possible terrorist activity that they became the terrorists. Government officials were commanded to stop terrorist activity, and in their minds that equals Muslim identity. The only reason that Zeitoun was arrested was because he stayed in New Orleans during the hurricane and, more importantly, he was Muslim. When he is taken into custody, they only pay attention to his identity as a Muslim. Not him as a father, a husband, an immigrant, or a hard-working member of the New Orleans community. This use of a single identifier is directly harmful to Zeitoun, who was just trying to fulfill his religion and do his best to help people in the aftermath of a natural disaster. As they say in “Shifting Signifiers Of Otherness: The 2002 DC Snipers In The U.S. Press,” “The Other is either Black, foreign-born, or Muslim—not all three, and not with some identifiers overlapping between two individuals, some distinct between them” (Chuang). In the media coverage of Mohammed and Malvo as well as Zeitoun’s story, only one identity is targeted. Even at the end of the story when people are given an opportunity to testify for Zeitoun and prove his innocence, the government shuts it down. They only see him