Immigrant Muslims Before and After 9/11: An Analysis of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Home Boy

That the fall of twin towers in America would drastically change the entire global village into friends and foes, civilized and uncivilized and ‘us’ and ‘them’, was not a fancy but an undeniable reality. It happened and happened bitterly. Things dramatically changed overnight in the winking of an eye. Once the world witnessed beautiful buildings dashing down to earth, everybody was on the bandwagon. There were theories, speculations, discussions, reflections, fears and nightmares. Literature worldwide too opened itself to 9/11. From Pakistan it was Mohsin Hamid and H. M. Naqvi who documented the mighty event which was enough to jolt Muslims throughout the globe. This research too is an investigation of the division of the world into ‘we’ and ‘they.’ Muslims before 9/11 on American land were like ‘we’ but 9/11 pushed them into ‘they’ who were hated, abused, harassed, marginalized and declared as uncivilized. As a consequence, the dreams of assimilation into American society turned into nightmares and Changez and Chuck had to opt for retreatism.