Islamophobia In The Wake Of 9/11 With Reference To Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist And Eteraz Ali’s Native Believer

Abstract

Following the 9/11 attacks, it was said that all Americans and those in the West underwent a cultural shock. White people's sorrow and pain were used to maintain a regressive concept about Muslims, as fear of the unknown arose and surrounded them. The succession of violence meted out on vulnerable people of colour (POC), especially those belonging to a faith affiliated with Islamist terrorist groups, is explained by their purposeful removal from an ideologically created collective imagination. Trauma of the minority did not figure in the mainstream concerns of Western society. Every act of resistance was surgically decimated to keep alive the irrational fear of the Other. What a culture identifies as ‘living beings’ is always conditioned by social norms and these norms are especially manipulated during the times of crisis. We, as is known, are products of our social and material conditions. The attempt at generalizing an entire community and fleshing out totalizing narratives rests on the dominant power structure. The increase of Islamophobia in the West and other areas of the world, as well as the widespread idea that all Muslims are violent in the aftermath of America's invasion on Afghanistan and their alleged 'radicalization,' have all contributed to Muslim fear psychosis. By exploring two post-9/11 books, Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Ali Eteraz's Native Believer, this paper will discuss the subject of Islamophobia, its ramifications, and the formation of a Muslim consciousness.