There are some writers of fiction who are engaged in a clarification campaign to protect Islam and Muslims. Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) is one example where he portrays a dramatic monologue of the protagonist, Changez Khan who destined to abandon his prestigious life and job in America and returns into his own birth land, Pakistan as a victim of the terror discourse soon after the demolition of Twin Towers.This novel depicts the world after the September 11 attacks, from the two conflicting view point; one is of the Muslims and other is of Non-Muslim Americans. Hamid gives a metaphorical touch to his novel by associating Changez with East and the silent American with the West. Although it is a post 9/11 novel, Hamid through his narrator, Changez, discusses many things that are before the 9/11 events and even before the partition of India and Pakistan. The events of 9/11 turn American dreams into American nightmares. The 9/11 terrorist attacks, in their unexpectedness and cruelty, have turned into an unassimilated traumatic episode in the history of the western world.
Changez is at the top of his class in Princeton and is picked up by a leading financial company in New York. He soon becomes the company's best trouble- shooter because of his skill in reordering sick companies and bring financial order into chaotic work places all over the world, from the Far East to Latin America. Changez, becomes neither an immigrant nor an exile after finishing top of his class at Princeton, but instead becomes “immediately a New Yorker” (Hamid, p.33), in a high-paying, glamorous job, sharing time with society’s elite; only one or two people connect with Changez deeply enough to understand his sense of home and family, of origin and core. After the missing of Erica and the growing of indifference in America were forced him to give up his job in America, return to Pakistan and start life over again as a college teacher. In the novel, Hamid sought to counter the negative representation of Islam, Edward Said calls it a re-representation and a reactive counter-response.
As the racial scenario changes in the wake of 9/11attacks, Hamid’s protagonist Changez faces debasing stereotypes based on religion and ethnicity. He is stripped of his illusions and enforced identity. Changez’s sentiment of belonging to New York high society, however, is altered by the events of September 11, 2001 and the following U.S invasion of Afghanistan. Changez is in Manila when September 11 attacks occurs, initially he thinks it isa fiction and then he realizes that it is not a movie but reality. Initially he is pleased to learn about the attacks since he believes that it is just that somebody has brought the super power ‘to her knees’ (Hamid 43). He narrates the story to the American listener, however after seeing his hand tightening into a fist with the evident revulsion in his face, Changez tells him quickly that he is no sociopath who does not have any feelings to the sufferings of others. He admits his own sense of perplexity and pleasure at the slaughter of thousands of innocent people. Changez’s reaction to 9/11 explores the personal and political side of Hamid: how is pleased to hear about the attacks on American hegemony whereas he is so sensitive about the sufferings of others that even movies give him a twinge of pain.
A few days after the attacks, as he returns from Manila with his business team, on the airport he was separated from his colleagues at the immigration desk. “They joined the queue for American citizens; I joined the one for foreigners. (Hamid 75). This is the moment when regression starts and any hiddensubconscious desire to see America harmed is emerged in his conscious self. The transformation begins. His emergence, into visibility for the wrong reasons makes him a locus of suspicion and discourse. As Changez informs his silent American listener: “America was gripped by a growing and self-righteous rage in those weeks of September and October as I cavorted...Pakistani cabdrivers were being beaten to within an inch of their lives; the FBI was raiding the mosques, shops and even people’s houses; Muslim men were disappearing, perhaps into shadowy detention centers for questioning or worse”. (Hamid 94). Suddenly a new identity, that of a terrorist or at least a terrorist-look-alike is imposed on the successful Princeton graduate and a brilliant business analyst for Underwood Samson’s whose cardinal business principle is ‘Focus on the Fundamentals’. Ironically, Changez starts concentrating on another set of fundamentals which turns him into a reluctant fundamentalist and a hardliner. He confronts and suffers many unpleasant changes in American attitudes from the highest echelon to the public sphere. “Affronts were everywhere; the rhetoric emerging from your country at that moment in history – not just from the government, but from the media and supposedly critical journalists as well-provided a ready and constant fuel for my anger”. (Hamid 167).
It is vital to inculcate terrorism and counter-terrorism factors for a comprehensive analysis of terrorists discourse as the U.S continues to lead a worldwide ‘War on Terror’ throughout the global South with profound consequences for the human security of population of the region. Furthermore, a critical study of terrorism and fiction should also work to expose the silences present in mainstream research, particularly regarding the terroristic nature of many aspects of the US- led and US- supported ‘counterterrorist’ policy. Mohsin Hamid successfully portrayed the impact of 9/11 events on the Americans and Muslims. By comparing the silent American (West) with Changez (East), Hamid has brilliantly discussed the relations between East and West. The people's behavior and attitude have been changed after the disaster of 9/11 in the USA. USA attacked on Afghanistan and Iraq in the revenge of her own destruction of World Trade Center. USA became more sensitive to her security. The people living in every corner of the world suffered because of this security issues especially Muslims of the world faced serious problems because of this treatment. They are facing identity crisis in the Europe and USA. They are being treated discriminately everywhere. The dresses, physical appearances and the traditions of the Muslims are considered as the symbol of terror and horror everywhere. They are maltreated in every field of life not only in the non- Muslim countries, but in some Muslim countries as well. This is called religious profiling when a person is considered different because of his or her religious beliefs.
Americans are in a schizophrenic and paranoiac conditions after this attack. They feared every man having beard on his face or a women having veil on her body. Much literature has been written to highlight this problem to the world. Writers like John Updike, Sam Harris and Mohsin Hamid are considered as the top icons of this genre of literature written in the post 9/11 situation of the world.
Most of the novels of Hamid have innovating ideas. He focuses on the sensitive issues of the day. The Reluctant Fundamentalist focuses on the terrorism through the depiction of the changes occurred in the life of Changez Khan after the World Trade Centre attack. It shows that a man’s personality is driven by his inner feelings and attitudes of the people towards him. Muslims are being discriminated from the otheridentities of the world. Despite of the fact that Islam means ‘peace’, the terror and horror are being associated with this religion. The attack on the World Trade Centre in the United States became the initiative of this profiling. Muslim children, young men, old women of all ages are being harassed physically and mentally. They are pushed and tortured in many of European and American States. The masjid and other holy places of the Muslims are being polluted with the flesh of pigs and wine. The term ‘Islamist’ and ‘terrorist’ are being considered as synonyms. Following 9/11, public rhetoric in the United States equated Islam with terror. The equation permitted the uneasiness and deportation of Muslim immigrants and lent inevitability to the invasion not only of Afghanistan but also of Iraq.
Changez understood the fact that his home and family are in danger, largely due to the continuing American arrogance and hegemony around the globe after the 9/11 attacks, as hemakes clear in several places throughout the novel, for example: “A common strand appeared to unite these conflicts, and that was the advancement of a small coterie’s concept of American interest in the guise of the fight against terrorism”. Initially disoriented and finally disillusioned, Changez returns to Lahore, from where the novel is narrated. Several events throughout the novel push Changez away from his American attachment and toward his Pakistani origins, the most significant being the attack of September 11, 2001. He confesses his reaction to his dinner companion, the American agent in Lahore. The very beginning lines of the novel reflect that Changez and the silent American do not trust each other. In facts they have doubts against each other, the words “alarmed you” that Changez uses while talking to an American reflect that the American startles to see Changez. While when Changez ask him about the purpose of his visit shows his concern. Yet Changez tries to comfort him by offering his services to him and showing him his affection for America.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks America reshuffled its foreign policy and decided to start War on Terror against all those nations who gave safe haven to the terrorists. The Taliban declined to hand over Osama bin Laden to U.S without having any evidence of being involved in the September 11 attacks. In response to this the United States along with its allies decided to wage war against Afghanistan in October 2001, that disenchanted Changez from America who was shocked to see the footage of American troops landing in Afghanistan. Similarly different incidents of FBI’s raiding mosques, shops and even houses make him more upset and disgust against America. The American policies breeds suspicion and misapprehensions between the individuals of the two countries, especially after the invasion of Afghanistan. When Taliban and al-Qaeda went into landing in the northern areas of Pakistan, the U.S government had thrown thousands of missiles in these areas, in order to kill the militants and in relation there had been a number of suicidal attacks in Pakistan killing thousands of innocent civilians, including children and women. Thus these US drone attacks in Pakistan build up resentment among the people of Pakistan at a larger scale.
The pointless love and frustrated efforts at intimacy of Changez for Erica reflects that how East and West can move together in parallel directions but can't meet or intersect. Similarly America after providing a larger amount of financial aids to Pakistan, set up their air bases in different areas of Pakistan with over flight of permission. Pakistan was also forced to provide information to FBI about the suspected terrorists and help the US government to arrest Taliban and al-Qaeda, who hide themselves in the northern parts of Pakistan. As a reaction to 9/11 attacks, America decided to attack Afghanistan. American fighter planes began their bombing in Afghanistan. This shocked Changez, especially when the newscaster calls the intrusion of the U.S forces as a bold step to attack on the command post of Taliban. Changez doesn't like the American strategy of ‘War on Terror’ and said that instead of targeting the specific terrorist networks, America invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Changez believes that majority of the people in America did not want the killings of the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, including women, men and children by attacking this region.
Changez criticizes America for asserting its hegemony in the Middle East since World Trade Centre attack. The American supremacy, with constant intervention in other nations’ affairs, especially Asia has drastically damaged the world. He also tells the American that America engenders all the major conflicts and confrontations in the Middle East, the straits of Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam and now Afghanistan. This hegemonic attitude of the super power makes him happy when he watches the attacks on World Trade Centre.
Changez also complains America for not being supportive of Pakistan in India-Pakistan issue, in spite of the fact that Pakistan had given assistance to America, in Afghanistan. He feels powerless at this point of the tension between India and Pakistan. The post 9/11 America becomes a hard place to live in for the Muslims. Changez decides to go back to Pakistan and doesn't want to serve America anymore. He quits his job after telling the Vice President that he doesn't want to work anymore for Underwood Samson and left. His colleagues start looking him with suspicion when he leaves the post in mid assignment and consider him a terrorist, who wants to kill them. Even the guards look at him with suspicion when he leaving the office building with watering eyes. Hamid believes that Changez is in a challenging space between East and West where the American capitalism and terrorist attacks reshuffle the international world order.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks, in their unexpectedness and cruelty, have turned into an unassimilated traumatic episode in the history of the western world.World Trade Centre is one of the wondersof the world and 11 September was an unthinkable and unforgettable day for America. This attack consists of a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda in the United States on the morning of Tuesday. The attack killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000 others. Four passenger airliners controlled by two major US passenger carriers (United Airliners and American Airliners) were hijacked by nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Centre complex situated in New York City. Both 110 story towers of the World Trade Centre were smashed within an hour and 42 minutes. The third one, American Airliners Flight77, was crashed into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense) in Arlington Country, Virginia. The fourth one, United Airliners Flight 93, crashed into a field in Stony Creek Township near Shanks Ville, Pennsylvania. This attack caused serious economic damages in the United States.
There are several motives behind the September 11 attack by al-Qaeda. These motives for their attack include: the US support of Israel, support for the attacks against Muslims in Somalia, Pro-American governments in the Middle East, being against Muslim interests, support of Indian oppression against Muslims in Kashmir, the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia and the sanctions against Iraq. These motives for attack are revealed in the bin Laden’s (al-Qaeda leader) November 2002 “Letters to America”. But some other have argued that the 9/11 attacks was a well-planned strategic move to frighten America and they have the objective of provoking America into a war that would promote a pan-Islamic revolution. More than ninety countries lost their citizens in this attacks. So that it considered as the most worst terrorist attack in the world history and the most lethal foreign attack on American soil since the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The terrorism threat has nothing to do with Islam when say the word ‘Muslims’ the first thought that comes across everyone’s mind is ‘terrorism’. Right or wrong, the mere mention of the word ‘terrorism’ conjures up images of bearded Muslim men like in the novel. Yet despite the extensive legal and political debates, spanning decades, the question still remains: ‘what is terrorism?’ With no common international legal definition; on what grounds do countries establish and pursue the terrorist entity. No matter what, the attacks are small or big, the terrorism must get a full stop. No religion has mandated their followers to kill the followers of other religion. Killing innocent public doesn't give any justice to the nation. Some even consider the terrorism as a war. But in reality it is completely different, killing soldiers or killed by soldiers in war zone is for rescuing purpose to save their own home land. Hence fight in war zone is for security but “terrorism” calling as a war is to break the security and secularism.
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