Changez talks a lot about his company, Underwood Samsom, and sometimes it seemed like he was dragging on his stories. The reality is Underwood Samsom represents the prejudice in America. Without going into too much detail, it can be seen when Changez decided to grow out his beard. He turns from a colleague and friend to an “other” in the eyes of his fellow employees.
Prejudice against Muslims, which the story focuses on, started to increase after the attacks on 9/11. It put Muslims in a tough place as we can see Changez struggle with it as he sees the faults in America. “For years, Muslims in the United States felt unsure about their place in American society, according to the research initiative by the University of California,” Muslims have been and are still scared to be here in the U.S with a living fear of raising their children here. The prejudice comes in were, of course, the terrorists were a select few with a plan to attack for differing reasons, but the entire group has been blamed.. 20 years later, the prejudice remains strong. The craziest part of this is that “Most Americans don’t know a Muslim, or admit to not knowing anything about Muslims, according to a Pew Research Center survey.” This confirms the fact that the opinions on Muslims are based on baseless opinions, and not facts or personal experiences. We have seen an increase in racially and religiously motivated crimes here in America. Asians were more of the recent victims of this during the covid pandemic. This is a fault in America, we see it in our everyday lives, we see it in politics, and to be honest it’s everywhere you look depending on how observant you are.
The book does a good job of Changez revealing his inner conflict with many different symbols from Underwood Samson to Erica and more. The unknown ending leaves it up for interpretation. The goal of that make us think more about America and our problems. We can choose to see the ending how fit, or if there has been an ending or we are just getting started to fix our problems.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/20-years-911-islamophobia-continues-haunt-muslims/story?id=79732049
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-reluctant-fundamentalist/symbols/underwood-samson
I agree with your post, people have prejudice towards Muslims because they don’t have any idea about Muslims and their beliefs. They automatically associate everyone that has a beard or wears a thobe as a terrorist and that’s not the case. As a Muslim a job that i once worked told me to cut my beard and considered as not appropriate and I felt wronged and not respected for my religion and how beard is considered a good deed and beloved in my religion.
I agree with your post, people have prejudice towards Muslims because they don’t have any idea about Muslims and their beliefs. They automatically associate everyone that has a beard or wears a thobe as a terrorist and that’s not the case. As a Muslim a job that i once worked told me to cut my beard and considered as not appropriate and I felt wronged and not respected for my religion and how beard is considered a good deed and beloved in my religion.
I really enjoyed reading your post and I completely agree with the points that you covered. I truly believe that after the tragic attack on 9/11, Muslims were placed under the impression that their whole religion as a whole was a danger to the United States. This is absolutely devastating and has put the Muslim community in a position that threatens and affects the way they live as well as starting a family. As a whole, people should be more aware of others’ beliefs and not place stereotypes on the Muslim community as well as religion. Overall, I really liked your presentation and believe you have presented great points as well as sources that are valid for this argument.
I really love your topic and the way that you chose to write about it relating back to this weeks topic! Your presentation does a really great job of showing how difficult things became after 9/11 for many people living in the US. Muslims were treated different just because of who they were and where they came from. The truth is this issue has been going on for a very long time and relates to many minority groups. The prejudice people have towards other people is a divide in our nation and separates people unfairly. I truly believe the issue is that people stereotype and never take enough time to learn about something and understand it such as the Muslim religion. People assume things before actually getting to know them. Overall, great post and I loved your very relevant topic.
The fact that not only Muslims go through this but mostly any person of color is very telling about our country. Basing an opinion off of someone without knowing any background history of them is something that should be taught at a young age that is wrong. Especially today, I feel like I see so many more racist remarks than ever before because of social media. The U.S. does have many changes to make to create a place that people feel comfortable living in and raising their children. Thanks for your post! I really enjoyed it.
Thanks for sharing!
I agree with your post. Many American’s hate because they only know what they see on TV. Because America has been in constant conflict with many different Middle Eastern Countries in the 21st century, they seem like the bad guys in the eyes of many Americans. Generalizing all people of a specific religion or region as bad people because of the actions of a few is unfortunately way too common in American society.
I really enjoyed reading your post and the connection to the novel we are reading this week. I agree with your post and the points you made that Muslims were placed under danger after the 9/11 attacks because of the stigma that began to follow their religion around terrorism and terrorist attacks against the United States. This stigma around them is absolutely wrong and devastating. I also believe the sad truth is that not only Muslims go through this stigma or stereotype within our country but rather mostly any person of color. Overall, I really enjoyed your post and the connections it made to our reading for this week.
I agree that ignorance has played part in a lot of racism, especially towards Muslims after 9/11. However, it isn’t an excuse to be awful to people based on their race and/or presentation. I believe it is important for people to educate themselves and learn more about other cultures to have more of an understanding rather than judgment and ignorance.
It really is important to discuss the impact of 9/11 on Muslims in America. Your mention of the lack of American knowledge about Muslims is striking, as it is very American to separate from people with different backgrounds and religions. Despite Islam being the second largest religion in the world, Americans rarely learn about the rich culture and teachings associate with the religion. Many people have veiled their Islamophobia and xenophobia with patriotism, creating a hostile environment of othering.
Yes it is a undeniable fact that Muslim’s started to face more prejudice after the 9/11 attacks. This is similar to the spike in Asian violence after if was reported that covid may have originated in China which may or may not be true. It is unfortunate that an entire group of people gets lumped into being othered whenever something bad comes from a country.
Thanks for sharing I completely agree that since 9/11 there has been a lot of prejudice against Muslims and many Americans are uneducated on their religion and belief system.
Many muslims have gotten so much discrimination throughout history, but since the 9/11 attacks it has gotten so much worse. Many people are afraid to be near them because they are afraid that something bad is going to happen. But yet, they do not look at white men and think the same thing, as many of them have done many random terrorist attacks themselves. It is truly heartbreaking to see, and people need to educate themselves on discrimination and the affects of it.
I agree 100% with your post that many of these hate crimes against people of different races in America is based on stereotypes. We saw this after the attacks of 9/11 and also the covid pandemic where we tend to stereotype and profile a whole race based on one specific scenario, when in reality these people had nothing to do with it. This has been an issue in America for centuries and continues to still be a really dangerous and morally wrong issue that people face today.
Great context presentation. A lot of the points that you wrote down were very informational and helped me understand the novel to a better understanding. It’s very unfortunate that stereotypes back then existed against the muslims when the 9/11 attack occurred. Nice presentation once again.
I agree with your analysis that Underwood Samson does epitomize how prejudice, at least financial prejudice, is stimulated and also spread around. Underwood Samson evaluates other companies financially, and evaluating by default creates Othering especially when companies are ranked and compared with other. This toxic process seeps into various other national processes which creates an environment of fundamentalism and Othering.
The amount of misinformation in this world is incredible. American’s are constantly taught the wrong things and are often ignorant in many instances. When it comes to Islamophobia it is no different. 9/11 was hard for everyone, including the Muslim people, which I think not a lot of Americans understand. It’s a horrible thing, and your context presentation did a great job of describing it.
Great post! 9/11 created many fundamentalist ideas in the United States and it is important to recognize when we are remembering this tragic day not to exacerbate stereotypes and extreme patriotic viewpoints.
I definitely agree with you. Many Muslims have experienced discrimination throughout history, but it has gotten much worse following the 9/11 attacks. Many individuals are terrified of being around them because they believe something awful may happen.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I strongly agree with you that hate against Muslim people are baseless because its not based on peoples personal relationships and personal experiences, its all based on stereotypes that have been fed and reinforced throughout the years, especially since 9/11. I think that the best solution for this is exposure. If more people were intentional about having diverse groups of friends, then less people would treat unfairly.
There is so much truth behind the biases of Muslims only from media and news outlets. 9/11 has scared and scarred so many individuals that it has blindsided them from seeing people for who they truly are rather than just their skin color. Being able to speak up about this topic and not be afraid to speak out will help make everyone of different cultures and races feel included and not bullied or put to shame.