representations of bearded muslim men
TRANSCRIPT
REPRESENTATIONS OF BEARDED MUSLIM MEN
AND HIJAB-WEARING MUSLIM WOMEN
IN POST-9/11 FICTION:
A STUDY OF MOHSIN HAMID’S
THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST AND
AMY WALDMAN’S THE SUBMISSION
BY
OUMAIMAH ABDOOL GAFFOUR JOHOLEE
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for
the degree of Master of Human Sciences
in English Literary Studies
Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and
Human Sciences
International Islamic University Malaysia
MAY 2016
ii
ABSTRACT
Both Muslim men and women are often depicted and perceived in a negative light in
literature, the media and other spheres of representation, especially in the post-9/11 era.
This smacks of a perceivable return to Orientalism, as similar ideas are recycled and
reused to caricature Muslims. Bearded Muslim males in the diaspora (who refuse to
assimilate in the culture of the host country) are branded as different, violent and
dangerous while Muslim females in headscarves are marked as backward and
submissive. This study aims at discovering the multiple significances behind the
protagonists’ choice of assuming the beard as well as understanding the Muslim women’s
choice of wearing the headscarf in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and
Amy Waldman’s The Submission. Using Edward Said’s criticism of (neo-)Orientalism
as the theoretical framework and based on the representation of the beard and the
headscarf in these two novels, this research seeks to elaborate on the image of the beard
and the headscarf in post-9/11 novels, and how they shape the religious and personal
identity of their wearers. Furthermore, this research also looks into the different aspects
of the beard and the hijab and how they can trigger suspicion in an Islamophobic society.
The study also investigates the role of the media in characterising bearded Muslims and
analyses how Muslim women are perceived by the general public as depicted in the
selected novels and the extent to which mainstream feminism exhibits a kind of
indifference to them on account of their headscarf.
iii
خلاصة البحث
والمرأة المسلمة كليهما بشكل سلبي في الأدب المسلم غالباً ما يتم تصوير الرجل
ووسائل الإعلام ومجالات التصوير الأخرى، وخصوصاً بعد حقبة الحادي عشر
من سبتمبر، مما ينم عن عودة مفهوم الاستشراق. كما يتم إعادة استخدام وإعادة
تدوير أفكار مشابهة لأفكار الاستشراق لتصوير المسلمين بشكل سلبي والسخرية
الرجل المسلم ذو اللحية ممن يرفض الاندماج في ثقافة البلد المضيف فيوصهم. من
المرأة المسلمة المتحجبة بالتخلف فصبالمُختلف، والعنيف، والخطر وتو
والخضوع. تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى الكشف عن الدلالات المتعددة من وراء اختيار
واية "الأصولي المتردد" إطلاق اللحية وارتداء غطاء الرأس من قبل شخصيات ر
للكاتب محسن حميد، ورواية "الخضوع" للكاتبة آمي والدمان. من خلال استخدام
نقد إدوارد سعيد لنظرية الاستشراق الحديث بوصفها إطاراً نظرياً، ومن خلال
استخدام مفاهيم اللحية، وغطاء الرأس التي تم عرضها في الروايتين، سعى هذا
اللحية وغطاء الرأس بشكل أعمق في حقبة ما بعد البحث إلى توضيح صورة
الحادي عشر من سبتمبر، وكيف أنهما ساعدا في تشكيل الهوية والشخصية الدينية
ذلك، تنظر هذه الدراسة إلى الجوانب المختلفة من إطلاق إضافة إلىلأصحابهما.
لمجتمعات اللحية، وارتداء غطاء الرأس، وكيف أنهما يمكن أنَْ يثيرا الشكوك في ا
المتسمة بالرهبة من الدين الإسلامي. كما تستقصي هذه الدراسة دور وسائل الإعلام
في رسم صورة المسلمين الملتحين، والمسلمات المتحجبات أمام الرأي العام كما
ناللامبالاة به نسويال حركةظهر تلى أي مدى هو مبينّ في الروايات المختارة، وإ
بسبب حجابهن.
iv
APPROVAL PAGE
I certify that I have supervised and read this study and that in my opinion, it conforms to
acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality,
as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Human Sciences in English Literary Studies.
...…………………………………..
Md. Mahmudul Hasan
Supervisor
I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable
standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a
dissertation for the degree of Master of Human Sciences in English Literary Studies.
...…………………………………..
Hassan Abdel Raziq El-Nagar
Internal Examiner
This dissertation was submitted to the Department of English Language and Literature
and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Human
Sciences in English Literary Studies.
...…………………………………..
Zahariah Pilus
Head, Department of English
Language and Literature
This dissertation was submitted to the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and
Human Sciences and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of
Master of Human Sciences in English Literary Studies.
...…………………………………..
Ibrahim Mohamed Zein
Dean, Kulliyyah of Islamic
Revealed Knowledge and Human
Sciences
v
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigations, except
where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently
submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.
Oumaimah Abdool Gaffour Joholee
Signature ........................................................... Date .........................................
vi
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF
FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH
REPRESENTATIONS OF BEARDED MUSLIM MEN
AND HIJAB-WEARING MUSLIM WOMEN
IN POST-9/11 FICTION:
A STUDY OF MOHSIN HAMID’S
THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST AND
AMY WALDMAN’S THE SUBMISSION
Copyright © 2016 Oumaimah Abdool Gaffour Joholee. All rights reserved.
No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder
except as provided below:
1. Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may
be used by others in their writing with due acknowledgement.
2. IIUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print
or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.
3. The IIUM library will have the right to make, store in a retrieved system
and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other
universities and research libraries.
By signing this form, I acknowledge that I have read and understood the IIUM
Intellectual Property Right and Commercialization policy.
Affirmed by Oumaimah Abdool Gaffour Joholee
……..…………………….. ………………………..
Signature Date
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praises be to Allah, al-‘Aleem, al-Hakeem, Who illuminates the hearts of the learned
with guidance and wisdom. He opens the path of knowledge to a select few and I am
indefinitely grateful to Him for placing me on this path, brightening and lightening it and
ultimately, broadening my horizons.
I am forever indebted to my lecturer and supervisor, Dr. Md. Mahmudul Hasan, who has
painstakingly gone through individual chapters and then the complete dissertation several
times. I appreciate the time and the consideration that you have given to the dissertation,
as you have been a wonderful supervisor, Dr. Mahmud! Your classes were eye-openers,
and I thank you for reminding your students including me to adopt the correct, critical
approach while studying literature. I also very thankful to all other lecturers who have
taught me during the course of my study at IIUM, such as: Prof. Dr. Mohammad Abdul
Quayum Abdus Salam, Prof. Dr. Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf, Dato’ Dr. Ghulam-Sarwar
Yousof, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aimillia Mohd. Ramli and Dr. Umar Abdurrahman.
I would like to express my deepest and endless gratitude to my parents and my very first
teachers, Koreisha Bibi Jowaheer and Abdool Gaffour Joholee, for having stood by me,
supported me, and provided me with all that I needed. You are the pillars of my life, I
could not have asked for better loving parents and better teachers! You remain a
continuous source of inspiration, my moral compass and fountain of knowledge for me.
I have to mention and thank my siblings – Houmaid and Shazaa – who have constantly
helped and supported me in this journey.
I can never forget the help and encouragements that I received from my friends who have
all been wonderful companions, always encouraging and supporting me. My special
thanks go to Sister Zebunnisa, Sister Rabeah, Abu Sufian and Rawshan. Without your
help and support, I would not have finished this dissertation. My deep appreciation goes
to Caryn and Asadullah who read an earlier version of this dissertation and shared their
comments with me. It has been such a pleasure for me to have known Amel, Rabia and
Eka who have made my stay in Malaysia highly enjoyable and enlightening. Finally, I
would like to thank Mohd. Hannan who has constantly encouraged and cheered me
through the good and bad times. The names of the friends who have made this journey
bearable and tolerable are too many to mention. Please know that you will remain forever
in my gratitude.
May Allah increase your sustenance, make you among the righteous and give you the
best that Jannah has to offer!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract .........................................................................................................................ii Abstract in Arabic .........................................................................................................iii Approval Page ...............................................................................................................iv
Declaration ....................................................................................................................v Copyright Page..............................................................................................................vi
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................1
1.1. Background of Study .................................................................................1
1.2. Statement of the Problem ...........................................................................6
1.3. Significance of the Study ...........................................................................9 1.4. Research Objectives ...................................................................................10
1.5. Research Questions ....................................................................................10 1.6. Theoretical Framework ..............................................................................11
1.7. Research Methodology ..............................................................................17 1.8. Chapter Outline ..........................................................................................18
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................20
2.1. Literature Review.......................................................................................20
2.1.1. The Reluctant Fundamentalist ..........................................................20
2.1.2. The Submission .................................................................................24
CHAPTER THREE: MULTIPLE SIGNIFICANCES OF THE BEARD AND
THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN HAMID’S THE RELUCTANT
FUNDAMENTALIST AND WALDMAN’S THE SUBMISSION ..........................31
3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................31
3.2. The Beard in Islam .....................................................................................33 3.3. The Beard: A Symbol of Religious Growth or Rebellion? ........................34
3.3.1. Changez.............................................................................................34 3.3.2. Mo Khan ...........................................................................................46
3.4. The Beard, the Media and Islamophobia ...................................................54
3.5. Fighting the Media and Common Prejudice with the Beard......................62 3.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................68
CHAPTER FOUR: HEADSCARF, FEMINISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA IN
WALDMAN’S THE SUBMISSION ..........................................................................71
4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................71 4.2. The Headscarf ............................................................................................74
4.2.1. The Pre-Islamic Headscarf ................................................................74 4.2.2. The Headscarf in Islam .....................................................................75
4.3. Representations of Muslim Women in Headscarves in Amy
Waldman’s The Submission ........................................................................77
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4.4. The Complicity of Feminists with Oppressing Muslim Women in
Headscarves ................................................................................................91 4.5. The Palimpsest that is the Headscarf .........................................................96 4.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................105
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ...........................................................................108
5.1. Conclusion .................................................................................................108
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................113
1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of Study
The first string of Islamophobic attacks against Muslims post 9/11 began with the
murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi who incidentally was mistaken to be a Muslim. He was
shot down by Frank Silva Roque four days after the tragic fall of the Twin Towers in
New York. When the police arrested the perpetrator, he insisted that he was acting as a
true patriot. Balbir Singh Sodhi was a Sikh and was the first of many more to suffer the
consequences of 9/11 (US 9/11, 2003). The victim was identified by the beard and the
turban he wore, two symbols generally associated with Muslim men in the popular
media. The perpetrator allegedly bragged of his intention to kill the “ragheads
responsible” for the recently traumatic fall of the Twin Towers (K. Anderson, 2002).
The murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi was the first act of violence in the post-9/11 era. In
the immediate wake of 9/11, there was a surge of hate crimes directed against Muslims,
and the victims included mainly Arabs and South Asians. In 2011, during the 10th
anniversary of the tragic event, there was yet another spike in hate crimes (FBI, 2012).
Muslim women have also been victims of attacks, and many of them felt the
need to take off the hijab for the sake of security. Some Muslim scholars gave fatwas
that women could choose to unveil if they felt they were in potential danger given the
obvious visibility and stereotype centred around the headscarf. For instance, Zaki
Badawi, a London-based Egyptian-born scholar, in the wake of the 7 July 2005 London
blasts, opined that women fearing verbal or physical harassment could remove their
scarves. As he states: “I have issued a fatwa that Muslim women in Britain have an
Islamic right to take off their hijab at this point of time if attacked or fearing to be
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attacked” (Fathy, 2005). A lot of Muslim women in headscarves found such a fatwa
helpful and relieving as they could carry on with their daily lives without drawing
unnecessary attention to themselves and being targets of abuse.
In the article titled “Time to Address Violence against Women”, Sahar Aziz
(2012) states that women have been the victims of verbal, physical and even mental
abuse at the hands of complete strangers. The writer states that “the biggest threat”
which Muslim women face in contemporary society is “unprovoked attacks in public
places by bigoted strangers” (Aziz, 2012). They are singled out for the religion they opt
to follow by the very much visible scarf they choose to wear out of devotion and, what
some would call, a sense of modesty. However, the majority of mainstream media
consumers will only view the headscarf as a sign of danger infiltrating their society and
as a “harbinger of terrorism” (Bullock, 2002: 30). Bullock also states that those who
“consume mainstream news as their only source of information about Islam cannot
know anything but the negative perspective of the veil” (Bullock, 2002: xxxvi). In other
words, people who do not question the information that is provided by mainstream
media are more likely to believe that Muslims are terrorists or are normatively violent.
Following 9/11, as reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there has
been a 1700% increase in hate crimes against Muslims residing in the USA (C.
Anderson, 2002). A decade later, these feelings of animosity and distrust have not
diminished, as suggested by Potok’s report titled “FBI: Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Still
Up” (2012). He states that the statistics released prove that hate crimes are still up
mostly because of the propagandas against Muslims.
In a survey, Rebecca A. Clay found out that a majority of the Muslims felt “safe”
and “extremely safe” before 9/11, and about 82% felt “unsafe” and “extremely unsafe”
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after 9/11 (2011: 72). She also quotes from the Pew Research Center that rhetoric from
political candidates also contributed to the heightening of religious and racial tensions.
Americans with favourable views of Muslims dropped from 41% in 2005 to 30% in
2010. As such, Muslims continue to be the target of hate crimes, racism and bigotry;
the lines between racial and religious bias are often blurred (Allen & Nielsen, 2002:
43).
Muslims are targeted for attacks and for increased surveillance mostly because
they have been depicted as “irrational, intolerant and violent” with many in the West
presuming that Muslims are “intent on undermining and eventually replacing American
democracy and Western civilization with Islamic despotism” (FBI, 2013). There is a
constant and rampant fear that Muslims in America seek to change its laws, destroy
democracy and impose Shari’ah. Although this may be an irrational, far-fetched ideal
for many Muslims, the media continues to perpetuate it as the norm. However,
hypothetically speaking, even if Muslims realistically wanted to conquer the USA,
Britain or even Australia, statistics show that it would be virtually impossible to achieve
such a feat. The number of Muslims in the USA, Britain or Australia are far too marginal
to take such a notion seriously, with 0.8% of Muslims residing in USA (Whalen, 2014),
4.8% in the UK (Crossley, 2015) and only 2% in Australia (Safi, 2014).
In addition to conventional discourse on terrorism, these irrational, looming
fears have laid the foundation of various fictional works, including Mohsin Hamid’s
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Amy Waldman’s The Submission (2011).
The discussion of this research will be based on these two novels, shedding light on a
variety of issues highlighted in both. Each novel critiques Islamophobic tendencies and
4
depicts the discomfort of Westerners when they interact with bearded Muslim men or
hijab-wearing Muslim women.
The first novel selected for this study, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, chronicles
a three-hour conversation which details, in flashbacks, the life of the protagonist of the
novel, Changez. He interacts with an unnamed American man who seems to be on a
mission in Lahore. Changez approaches him when he realises that the man sitting at the
café is an American, and he starts talking to him regarding his life in America. Changez
was offered an internship at Underwood Samson, an evaluation company. After
graduating from Princeton, he met the beautiful yet fragile Erica who is still grieving
over the loss of her childhood sweetheart, Chris, who died of lung cancer. When the
Twin Towers are attacked, Erica – she represents the United States of America on a
microcosmic level – falls into a depression. There is an air of general suspicion towards
the Pakistanis living in New York. Changez decides to let his beard grow and this simple
decision ends up making everyone around him uncomfortable and wary.
The second novel, The Submission, was selected for various reasons which
include the fact that it attempts to represent various characters from different
backgrounds from an honest, unbiased point of view. Moreover, the author makes use
of polyvocality to provide readers with more complex Muslim characters, observing
that, like Jews, Muslims in the United States and Europe are often “lumped together”
by their religious identities (Nachmani, 2009: 140). Prior to writing the novel, Waldman
worked as a journalist and covered the 9/11 scenes right after the fall of the Towers,
interviewing the victims’ families over a period of six months. Waldman was later
transferred to Baghdad to report the subsequent “War on Terror” which has produced a
death toll of more than a million people and caused massive damage to the region’s
5
infrastructure, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq (About Amy Waldman, 2011; Witt,
2011).
Waldman’s novel The Submission is about a young, non-practising Muslim
architect who goes by the name of “Mo”, a shortened Americanised version of
Mohammed. In a blind selection for the upcoming 9/11 memorial, Mo’s design is
selected. However, controversy arises from the fact that he has a Muslim name and
cannot, on that basis, be selected to erect a memorial at Ground Zero. Despite the fact
that the protagonist was born and raised as an American, he is on trial for having a
“terrorist” name and is expected to entertain their numerous public accusations
associated with Muslims. Most of the characters in the novel question Mo’s motives to
enter the competition; he is forced to look into himself, as he increasingly becomes the
object of scrutiny by people who remain suspicious about his motives and actions.
Throughout the novel, Waldman introduces a myriad of interesting characters,
including Claire Burwell, the widow of a 9/11 victim, Sean Gallagher, the embittered
brother of a fallen fireman, Alyssa Spier, a journalist without qualms and Asma, the
invisible illegal Bangladeshi wife of another victim.
The world is still reeling from the traumatic event of 9/11. There have been a
number of books which were produced on the issue of Islamophobia and on other
related issues such as racial and religious discrimination. However, this study will focus
on the issue of Islamophobia in the post-9/11 era based on the two aforementioned
novels. It will touch on a cultural context where Muslims have increasingly become the
target of Islamophobic attacks.
The beard and, occasionally, the turban and scarf remain symbols by which
many Muslims are identified. However, in the wake of 9/11, beard and headscarf
6
wearers have become the worst sufferers, as they have become victims of hate crimes
and violence. According to Raihanah M. M., Ruzy Suliza Hashim & Noraini Md Yusof,
Within the western hemisphere, the repercussions of the 9/11 continue
to be felt by minority Muslim communities living within the larger non-
Muslim mainstream society such as America and Britain.… Muslims
living in the west, especially those who overtly exercise their religious
sensibilities, be that in the form of the hijab for women or beard for men,
bear the brunt of xenophobia exhibited by the mainstream society.
(2015: 108)
Moreover, very few authors in the post-9/11 era have highlighted issues related to these
overtly religious and cultural symbols. Muslims have often been caricatured for their
choice of growing a beard, wearing a turban, scarf or veil. As Jack Sheen (2003) points
out, Muslims and Arabs are often vituperated in popular mass media as well as films
produced by Hollywood.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
There are deep scissures that exist in different communities in America as well as in
various countries of the world. Some of these gaps were created by Islamophobia, which
is defined as the “unfounded hostility towards Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of
all or most Muslims” (Runnymede Trust, 1997). Salaita (2005) states that the problem
of Islamophobia had existed prior to 9/11, but this event itself brought even more
negative attention to Muslims.
Muslim males with a beard are often seen as dangerous in the sense that they
are presumed to be supporting mass terrorism. Unlike others, Muslims are expected to
openly oppose it and are often targets of suspicion, fear and social anxiety. Their facial
hair, according to many commentators, represents oppression, backwardness and
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violence. Men who wear a beard are associated with evil, and shaving the beard is linked
to modernity and liberation. According to Culcasi and Gokmen (2011), such a
perception of the beard is evident in an issue of National Geographic Magazine where
it had been reported that the city of Kabul had been liberated because men had shaved
off their beards and increasingly began wearing western attire like suits. Referring to
Muslims, one of the young characters in The Submission claims, “It’s only the ones with
the big beards you have to worry about” (Waldman, 2011: 315). In The Reluctant
Fundamentalist, the protagonist wears a beard that seems to make his colleagues and
strangers uncomfortable: “I was subjected to verbal abuse by complete strangers, and
at Underwood Samson I seemed to become overnight a subject of stares and whispers”
(Hamid, 2007: 130). It is not unusual for the general public to be wary of people (such
as of a certain skin colour), even those wearing beards. The mere presence of the beard
generates unease and suspicion and Changez finds himself attracting more negative
attention as a result.
Muslims are often targeted and forced to speak against the number of terrorist
acts that have happened in the past. In The Submission, Mohammad Khan refuses to
answer the question as to whether he supports or rejects terrorism. The question “why
aren’t mainstream Muslims speaking out against terrorism” is a frequent one (Pasha,
2009). While many Muslims do oppose terrorism, the problem remains that they are not
often heard. This supposed ‘silence’ implies a complicity of sorts.
In each of the aforementioned novels, after every media report or blog post,
there seems to be an increased amount of attacks on the Muslim characters. While the
media seems to inform the public, they also present negative images of Islam. In the
novels, Changez and Mo Khan are seen by the rest of the characters as bad Muslims.
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Mo Khan cannot win the trust of the American public who believes that he has a hidden
agenda. The media is often accepted as an authority when reporting the news. The
Submission brings up the superficial racial and religious stereotyping of not just
Muslims and Arabs but anyone who might just fit the description of a Muslim.
Moreover, in media and literature, the terms ‘Arabs’ and ‘Muslims’ are often used in
an unidentifiable way. As Peek (2011) puts it, “the media and public officials often used
the terms “Muslims” and “Arabs” interchangeably” (11). Thus, mass media plays a
major role in the shaping of ideals and stereotypes.
Many feminists claim to speak for women’s rights even though they are
reluctant to respect Muslim women’s choice to wear the headscarf. In The Submission,
we are shown that Muslim women have their scarves forcefully removed by American
men at the behest of a group of feminists. It is also a common view that Muslim women
in headscarves are seen as helpless and vulnerable. Ancellin (2009) concludes her article
by stating that 9/11 “has refurbished the stigma of Muslim women as abused” since the
terrorists were only men. In The Submission, Sean Gallagher, who has lost a brother on
9/11, seems to believe that Muslim women are oppressed. He tells Zahira, a Muslim
woman in a headscarf, “But also, we don’t make women cover their hair in this country”
(Waldman, 2011: 132). The belief that a Muslim woman in headscarf is forced to
comply with a patriarchal society is commonplace. Helen Watson sheds more light on
how the veil is seen by many non-Muslim writers:
For non-Muslim writers, the veil is variously depicted as a tangible
symbol of women’s oppression, a constraining and constricting form of
dress, and a form of social control, religiously sanctioning women’s
invisibility and subordinate socio-political status. (Watson, 2014: 141)
More than a decade after the 9/11 incident, the perennial issue has not been resolved. In
fact, 9/11 not only magnified the “dominant negative resonance[s]” (Tarlo, 2010: 57)
9
of the headscarf but renewed heated debates and academic studies regarding Muslim
women who had chosen to don the hijab, causing more confusion to many feminists
who believe that the West would offer Muslim women the ‘freedom’ that they probably
could not enjoy if they were still in their native countries.
1.3. Significance of the Study
In the light of the representation of Muslims in these two novels, The Reluctant
Fundamentalist and The Submission, the findings of this study will look at Islamophobia
from a new angle and create awareness about the vulnerability of Muslims as the media
depicts them as dangerous on a regular basis. As such, it is important to understand the
role of the media in the post-9/11 era.
This study will also shed more light on the causes of Islamophobia, and add on
to the general discussion. It will also provide readers with information about the logic
and nuances of the Islamophobic mentality. This study will contribute to the ongoing
literary discussion by describing how bearded Muslim men are represented in the media
and how Muslim women in headscarves are belittled for their choice of dress.
Additionally, this study will explore how Muslims behave in the face of an interrogating
and suspicious public and how they sway between their identity as Americans and
Muslims.
Even though there is a lot of academic research on Islamophobia and Muslim
women, there are not many critical works that have tackled the representation of the
beard in literary discussions. As for the headscarf, despite the fact that there are a great
number of Muslim women who embrace it and ‘Islamic feminists’ who promote it, there
10
are also many who challenge it. Therefore, exploring this specific area in more detail
will contribute more to the ongoing discussion on the subject. Muslims have been the
focus of caricature in both pre-9/11 and post-9/11 media and literature. This study will
use Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism as a theoretical framework in tackling these
perpetuated images and it will lead the investigation to uncover the possible causes
behind them and make suggestions to counteract stereotypes and crystallised prejudices
regarding the headscarf and the beard.
1.4. Research Objectives
This research will investigate:
1. Whether the protagonists and other Muslim characters in both novels assume the
beard to express their identity or rebellion.
2. How the media portray Muslim males with a beard in the post-9/11 era, as
depicted in both novels.
3. Whether the perception about Muslim women in headscarves contravenes or
complies with (neo-)Orientalism.
4. How a group of feminists stimulates the oppression of Muslim women as
portrayed in The Submission.
1.5. Research Questions
1. Do the protagonists and other characters assume a beard to express their identity
or rebellion?
2. How do the media portray Muslim males with a beard in the post-9/11 era?
11
3. Does the perception about Muslim women in headscarves in The Submission
contravene or comply with (neo-)Orientalism?
4. How do a group of feminists stimulate the oppression of Muslim women in
headscarves in The Submission?
1.6. Theoretical Framework
Before an in-depth study of the two selected novels, The Submission and The Reluctant
Fundamentalist, it is crucial to explicate the theory that this study will critique. The
theoretical framework chosen will be based on Edward Said’s criticism of Orientalism.
The arguments of Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) which form the basis of this
analysis are crucial to the study.
Regarding the definition of Orientalism, Said (1978) provides the following
explanation. Orientalism can be
discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the
Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views
of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short,
Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having
authority over the Orient. (Said, 1978: 3)
In brief, Orientalism is the study of the East by the West. By defining the East, the West
defines itself as being superior and more civilised and domineering. Western
supremacists believe themselves to be the trend setters, the leaders of the world with
the power to change any other civilisation which they deem as “backwards” or
“uncivilised”. Another clearer definition of Orientalism could be “[a]ny European or
American representation of Islam and the geographic space that it claims” (Varisco,
2007, 31). Orientalism, in other words, is an essentialised neo-European construction
of the East, including its cultures, religions and societies.
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In his study, Said has found out that Orientalism is not just a study by the West
of the East but it is also a way of perceiving Arab peoples (the Arab world is further
divided into smaller groups) and cultures and then distorting this truth to accommodate
preconceived notions. In order to establish its identity, the West must define the “Other”
first. Orientalists portray the East as exotic, backwards, uncivilised and sometimes even
dangerous. By creating an “Other”, the West seeks to establish its putative superiority
in different aspects of life. This stereotype persists until today as the Western world
continues to belittle Eastern societies as being lesser, which serves as a valid excuse for
the former to exercise the “white man’s burden” – a phrase coined by the poet Rudyard
Kipling (1899) – by way of intervening into the different countries to “save” them from
their self-imposed oppression.
Said chronicles the methodology of earlier Orientalists who have collected
materials which mostly disparage Arabs through derogatory stereotypes. These grossly
distorted images and misconceptions remain prevalent in the West, with many believing
that Muslim males are oppressors and that Muslim women are oppressed in so-called
Islamic patriarchal societies. Classical Orientalism dates back to the European
Enlightenment and colonisation of the Arab world by the British and French empires.
The theory focuses mostly on “the white man’s burden” and on the misrepresenting and
romanticising of the East. One of the common persisting stereotypes would be that the
Arabs are an uncivilised people and Islam is a religion of terrorism. The seeds of these
stereotypes can be traced back to when Islam as a religion flourished and clashed with
Christianity, thus, coming to be seen as “a lasting trauma” (Said, 1978: 59) in Europe.
Subsequently, Muslims and Islam were demonised by the European writers such
as Bede (672-735), Guibert of Nogent (1055-1124), Peter the Venerable (1092-1156),
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Dante (1265-1321) and so many others. Their discourses depict Prophet Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him) as a villain, an imposter and use other negative
attributes which were then extended to Islam and to the Arab world in general.
According to Said, modern Orientalism found its way through “a set of structures
inherited from the past, secularized redisposed, and re-formed by such disciplines as
philology” (1978: 122).
Essentialisation became even easier when the Orientalist travellers actually went
to the East and began interpreting it based on their own cultural biases – merely
reaffirming preconceived notions already firmly entrenched in their homelands. For
instance, Edward Willian Lane (1801-1876) orientalised the Orient in his book titled
Modern Egyptians (1836). As Said (1978) puts it, “In Orientalizing the Orient, Lane not
only defined it but also edited it” (167). Following the publication of such works, the
British and French “pilgrims” decided to discover the Orient through their own eyes.
Said uses the example of the traveller named Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869) who
“became an incorrigible maker of an imaginary Orient” (1978: 177). In other words, not
only did the travellers construct their own versions of the Orient but they attempted to
exercise their superiority by stating that the Orient needed to be ‘civilised’.
Said outlines how the West would often highlight the importance of “civilising”
the East. Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930), a British politician who ruled as a
Conservative Prime Minister (1902-1905) and later became Foreign Secretary (1916-
1919), regarded the Egyptians as needing assistance. This “white man’s burden” could
not be more noticeable than in his speech where he states, “I suppose that a true Eastern
sage would say that the working government which we have taken upon ourselves in
Egypt … is the dirty work, the inferior work, of carrying on the necessary labour” (qtd
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in Said, 1978: 33). The early Orientalists from Europe created an image of the Orient
as per their own biases and comprehension. Later, succeeding Orientalists would re-
affirm and build on these images by creating more belittling stereotypes of the Arabs
and Muslims. The process of ‘defining’ the East brought the Orientalists to the
conclusion that Arabs and Muslims originating from the Orient were “backward,
degenerate, uncivilized, and retarded, the Orientals were viewed in a framework
constructed out of biological determinism and moral-political admonishments” (Said,
1978: 207).
The discourse on “Orientalism” includes the entirety of the Orient, including the
Arab world, the South Asian subcontinent and China, but recently, the term has shifted
from the larger Orient to a more specific area: the Arab world and Muslim countries.
The problems with the supposed superiority of the West is that it had begun projecting
itself by imposing its culture and way of life onto different nations – often violently –
based on constructed assumptions that the Arabs needed to be civilised.
Orientalism in the past was far more inclusive of the different countries of the
Orient. Today, Orientalism has been reduced or “essentialized” (Macfie, 2002: 135).
The focus has shifted from a larger Orient to a more specific geographical location.
While the constructed images of the West were largely determined by the coming of
Islam and Europe’s rejection of the new religion (they were mostly followers of
Christianity then), the prejudice against Islam and Muslims still remains rampant due
to misunderstandings. The religion was seen as devilish and apocryphal, and even when
the Ottoman Empire thrived, these grossly distorted images were not dispelled.
According to the Palestinian historian, Abdul Latif Tibawi (1910-1981), while the fight
against Orientalism may have been reduced to a missionary goal, the fight in the
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academic world has been intensified while using the same methodology employed in
the past: “animosity and prejudice using distortion and representation” (Macfie, 2002:
82).
However, four decades after the publication of Said’s Orientalism, the dynamics
– political, social, cultural, etc. – have drastically changed with globalisation, wars and
revolutions in the Arab world. These new events may push the reader to believe that
Orientalism has become an ideology of the past. However, with the appearances of neo-
Orientalists such as Patricia Crone (1945-2015), John Hall (1949-), Daniel Pipes (1949-
) and Niall Ferguson (1964-), whom Yahya Sadowski (1993) calls neo-Orientalists,
there is a new modernised version of the conventional Orientalism which is often termed
as neo-Orientalism. While the times may have changed with globalisation and new
changes in regimes across the world, Sadowski (1993) shows that the ideology of
Orientalism is still quite vibrant in the contemporary period.
According to Nissim Rejwan (2000), the neo-Orientalists of today “have
retained exactly those ideas that vitiated classical Orientalism” (74). In other words, the
core ideas of Orientalism are still palpable in neo-Orientalism. Rejwan demonstrates
the uniqueness of Islam and the different religious and cultural factions which exist in
the Middle East, thus dispelling the view that Islamic fundamentalism and extremism
represent Islam in its entirety. Dag Tuastad (2003) argues that certain groups of people
who are in power have the ability to construct and project sensitive images that can help
them advance their political motives. As he states:
In the same way that Orientalism once served the policies of colonial
powers, the new barbarism thus serves the political interests of people
who are aware of the need to produce images of a conflict as one
between civilisation and barbarism. (Tuastad, 2003: 594)