Anti American Novella

Religious discrimination is a major issue in America. By exploring the themes of numerous Novella writers surrounding patriotism and Anti-Americanism, we will gain Hamid's perspective on Anti-Americanism and the reasons for his stance. This paper addresses the grievances of Muslims who believe they face discrimination in America because of their religious beliefs. An analysis of the point of view of various Anti- American Novella artists helps us understand the stand of Mohsin Hamid's theme in the Reluctant Fundamentalist. To recapture the background of the Reluctant fundamentalist: The Author starts by introducing us to a young man in Pakistan called Changes who encounters a stranger who seems to be of American origin and Changes offers to be of assistance to the stranger. While having dinner in one of the cafes, he narrates to the stranger his American experience of how he was able to get into Princeton university and how he has to several jobs in order to support himself and his family back in Pakistan. He tells the stranger how the University was imparting doctrines of American mindsets into him so as to help the American companies. Changes after graduating from Princeton University begins his career in New York. While working in Manilla, in philistines, he witnesses the collapse of the twin towers in 2001 September. He is happy when the Arrogant America, as he puts it, is crushed. When he returns to New York, he is detained at the airport and it is where he begins to experience racism and discrimination on the rise (Mohsin 53). Sometime later when Changes finds it uncomfortable in New York, he travels to Pakistan to see his family and is angered by the fact that United States supported India’s aggression against his home. Analysis of the factors that contribute to Anti-Americanism Anti- American sentiments are presented throughout the novels. The authors tend to argue against the American racialism of Muslim American men and women. In the book Citizenship denied, Saher portrays the racialization of Muslim Americans where he interviews about 48 Muslim Americans (Saher 77). The Muslims were treated as threats to American cultural values and national security. The Islamic religion was characterized by terrorism, Patriarchy, misogyny and all other anti-American sentiments. When analyzing this aspect of discrimination, it creates insecurity for the Muslim Americans since they are considered as threats and owing to this, they don’t really have their freedom and are treated as criminals. Hasan says after returning to New York is detained at the airport just because he was a Muslim. This is dehumanizing for the people being discriminated. He ends up developing dislike for the American system since before the attack, he was not discriminated at the airport but owing to the collapse of the twin towers, he is associated to the collapse since he is a Muslim. He is an anti- American owing to the discrimination since when the twin tower collapse, he literally laughs. The American Muslims were denied some of their privileges associated with citizenship. New American immigrants are discriminated and in most cases they are have to continually live with this discrimination. Equality and religious freedom is basic for any citizen however; the American Muslims do not get to enjoy this aspect. This is a great contributor to their anti-Americanism since no one can be patriotic to a place that clearly justifies discrimination. It is unlawful since it only targets people based on their faith and pin points them to the negative occurrences that may have been carried out by some the people same religious group. Justification of discrimination is evil and unacceptable, Changes is a victim of American discrimination, prejudice and racism and due to this, he extends his Anti- American sentiments by deliberately encouraging hostility at work. He refuses to also shave his beard to protest against the unfair and unjust American practices of prejudice and racism. Anti- Americanism has also been attributed to the discriminatory policies. Most immigrant policies in America are such that they target people based on their faith, nationality and their national origin. Owing to these policies, most American immigrants suffer severe consequences since they are characterized by hateful crimes such as terrorism. Refugees too and any other traveler that is associated to Muslim policies and origin also tend to be discriminated. They are being discriminated for exercising their basic constitutional right to religious freedom. Saher says that Muslims are incredibly diverse in the United States. The can be white, Arabs, South Asian or African American. He says that this does not necessarily give Islamism a radical category and it is just that the Muslim identity has been radicalized as people who occupy a specific racial category. Saher Selod in his book pictures rationalization in this manner: racialization is a process of racial formation where the racial categories are created. Particular racial groups were associated to social problems. He relates the attacks of 9/11 to the experience of the Arabs who were racially classified by the US government and the visibility of the Arabs as minority. He shows how they were denied the rights and privileges the other white Americans did. They were denied social membership and were given the status of the enemy within the American states. They were valued as violent and oppressive to women. Owing to the discrimination, they end up hating the policies and the leadership in the American government. When changes insist that he always hated American foreign policies, he portrays how much an anti- American he is. He in fact feels guilty of playing the finance role in the American imperialism. He dislikes all the foreign policies that the US government has placed that are majorly unjust. In public places, private American citizens treated the Muslim women who wore hijabs as if they did not have the same rights to public places as they did they were denied the right to exist in space without scrutiny and owing to this, the Muslim women disliked the policy on equal treatment. Their right to exist in space or be part of the fabric community was not a privilege enjoyed by all citizens. The skin tone, their origin, sexuality, culture and religious identity were major contributors to factors that would trigger rationalization in the society. Symbols such as hijabs were gendered and the women who wore the hijabs were treated as foreigners. The whole reason behind the racialization and mistreatment of Muslims was the fact that their religious values contradicted the American values. Changes mentions how he too felt out of place in America when trying to bond with other people. The rules at underwood Samson sounded like an American dream, however owing to the fact that there still exists discrimination that contributes to the feeling of being out of place, changes tend not to side with the promises. Racialization in Clarke’s book depicts some of the things that Hamid was trying to portray in his novella, reluctant fundamentalist. He opposed some of the unfair and unjust practices that the Americans practiced that affected people who were not of American nationality. Changes portrays his Anti Americanism by his differential attitude of being completely sincere of regarding the stranger as an adversary. Changes also portrays his anti-Americanism when he asks the Stanger a question then answers it for him (Clarke 45) It shows that he is not even interested in learning anything about the American culture. As an adult, changes is more concerned about the way America maintains its power and he does not think the imperialist strategies when he was a student, how they worked in his favor. Changes anti Americanism can also be depicted in the way he heightens the stranger’s anxiety instead of dissipating it. He doesn’t care whether the stranger feels safe or insecure. This can be interpreted to show how anti Americans are not bothered about the Americans security state (Olsson 4). In the long run, they are still characterized and associated to threats and terrorism and owing to the discrimination they face due to this, the American Muslims have developed a mechanism that helps them cope with discrimination, which is being anti - Americans that involves either ignoring the security policies or not being bothered about the security state of America. This is not to say that it is the anti- Americans who pose threats to the security, however, if a security issue is posed in the country, it will not necessarily bother them. He refuses to focus on fundamentals because he realizes that he has received American training but not necessarily American loyalty. When he describes how militaristic and aggressive he finds America to be, he denounces his services to Underwood Samson since at that moment he is unsure of his identity. Conclusion This paper majorly focuses on anti – American sentiments as portrayed in the above discussion. The cause of anti- Americanism is however, majorly contributed to by the unfair American government policies. The characters in the various novels show how they were discriminated basing on their religion, nationality and skin color and tone. Saher shows us how the American Muslim women who wore hijabs were denied the right to exist in space without scrutiny. Richard Clark on the other hand, criticizes the presidential administration of America for the terrorism that occurred and yet it pins the threat to all the American Muslims and makes them feel alienated since they are seen as objects of terror. He detests the justification of discrimination in America on the basis of protecting the country. I pledge allegiance on the other hand shows how the narrator is feels out of place even after receiving the American education because he has not yet received their loyalty. All the scenarios portrayed by the different authors generally sum up to the causes of Anti- Americanism and the reasons why the different characters end up being anti- Americans. Work cited Selod, Saher. "Citizenship Denied: The Racialization of Muslim American Men and Women Post-9/11." Critical Sociology (Sage Publications, Ltd.), vol. 41, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 77- 95. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0896920513516022. Olsson, Karen. “I Pledge Allegiance.” 22 April 2007. The New York Times. Web. 15 August 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/books/review/Olsson.t.html?_r=0 Clarke. Against all enemies: Inside America’s war on terror:R. A.; 2004, New York: Free Press. Hamid, Mohsin, and Keren Shlesinger. Mohsin Hamid’s the Reluctant Fundamentalist: Insight text guide. Elesternwick, Vic: Insight publications, 2010. Print.