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Novel the reluctant fundamentalist6/30/2023 He comments to an American observer, “It’s remarkable, given its physical insignificance the impact a beard worn by a man of my complexion has on your fellow countrymen” (130). As the novel progresses, Changez is perceived as a terrorist, more and more often. Initially, Changez chooses the latter, but he realizes that it comes with the burden of being perceived as a threat to mainstream American society. He finds himself in the midst of an identity crisis, feeling torn between his Pakistani roots and his newly adopted American lifestyle. Having moved to America to study at Princeton University, Changez lives happily until he has to deal with increased xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment following 9/11. In his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Moshin Hamid imagines the effects of elevated levels of discrimination on the life of a fictional Pakistani Muslim character named Changez. Many non-Muslim Americans falsely deemed that the tenets of Islam advocated the heinous crime, and this heightened their prejudices against Muslims. On September 11, 2001, the United States succumbed to terrorist attacks as the massive World Trade Center Towers, perhaps the best known symbol of America’s business prowess and world domination, crashed to the ground.
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