Cultural Issues in Reluctant Fundamentalist

Cultural Issues in Reluctant Fundamentalist
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Cultural Issues in Reluctant Fundamentalist
Introduction
The Reluctant Fundamentalist a novel written by Mohsin Hamid and published in 2007 has received a number of praises and criticism as well. The novel seems to be focusing on the changes that were influenced after the 9/11 terror attack that occurred in United States. In a broader perspective, then novel highlights how cultural perceptions among Americans changed. For instance, Mohsin Hamid highlights how Changez’s began to feel alienated and mistrusted. In addition to these changes, the novel reveals how cultural profiling changed especially among Muslims in America. This paper shall therefore highlight how the three mentioned issues are highlighted in the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Cross-Cultural Issues raised in The Reluctant Fundamentalist
One of the major issues raised in the novel by Mohsin Hamid is religious stereotyping. Hamid in his novel creates a picture on how Muslims in America lost their identity as patriots and almost everyone began to view them as terrorist. In the novel, Mohsin explains how racist slurs was being directed to people like Changez in various locations where he interacted with other people from his work place, at the airport and even on the streets. All the stereotyping were all because the 9/11 terror attack was alleged to have been conducted by a Muslim terror group. Therefore, because of this all these, Muslims in America were being viewed as terrorists. Americans on the other hand, were also viewed as by their Muslim fellows as undercover assassins (Hamid, 2007).
The above issues can be supported by the following quote in the novel where Changez says
“As a society, you were unwilling to reflect upon the shared pain that united you with those who attacked you. You retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world, so that the entire planet was rocked by the repercussions of your tantrums, not least my family, now facing war thousands of miles away.”
This quote clearly affirms that religion profiling was indeed being experienced in the United States after the 9/11 attacks.
The other issue that has been raised in the novel by the author is that of radicalization. It is convincible to argue ...