Blog Post #3: Suspicion and The Culture of Fear

2. The Reluctant Fundamentalist was written in 2007 and directly addresses elements of post-9/11 culture. Does the book feel relevant in 2021? Can you identify with Changez or with the book’s message about suspicion and trust?

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid addresses topics of subtle and extreme forms of discrimination, which are fundamentally based upon unjust prejudices within society. When looking through a historical lens, the recurrence of division between various groups in society is notably woven into the natural existence of mankind. Furthermore, most (if not all) of these examples of segregation begin with themes of suspicion and mistrust between the opposing groups. Therefore, I believe that the elements of the post 9/11 culture addressed in this book will unfortunately continue to hold relevance within society, as there will seemingly always be acts of severance between contrasting groups. However, this isn’t to say that the themes of uncertainty and fear that came to fruition immediately after the 9/11 attacks currently carry the same potency regarding the dominant lifestyle that dictates society. Principally, the overwhelming sensation of Islamophobia no longer impacts Western societies to the same extent that it once did after 9/11, since cultural fear slowly subsides over time, as it gets continually harder to justify discriminatory behaviour (due to the limited examples of Muslim immigrants who engage in terrorism). While at no point am I arguing that Islamophobia no longer exists within society, I believe that the instant relatability surrounding the context of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” was more prominent in a society that was still healing from the concrete societal divisions caused by the 9/11 attacks. 

Nevertheless, direct correlations between themes of suspicion and mistrust can be connected within our current society in 2021. When addressing topics of ingrained discrimination, my mind immediately jumps to the culture of fear that was produced during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Similar to the post 9/11 culture, a disastrous world event occurred and subsequently created an overriding wave of uncertainty within communities across the globe. Just like the story of Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, specific ethnic groups were targeted based on their visible appearance and potential connection to the cause of the problem. Specifically, there was an increase in Anti-Asian racism across North America, simply because Wuhan, China was where the COVID-19 pandemic initially started (https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide#). Asian-Americans who completely integrated with the structural norms of society were subject to vicious racially-motivated attacks, due to the mistrust that certain parts of the population now felt towards the Asian community. As witnessed through Mohsin Hamid’s book, our society “scapegoats” different groups as a way to compartmentalize and cope with the overwhelming fear that is produced during major world catastrophes. 

On a lesser scale, I too can relate to the cultural fear that was developed during the pandemic. Although my suspicions were never related to any specific racial identity, swirling conspiracy theories regarding the creation of the pandemic and its actual severity, definitely impacted the ways in which I interacted with the global issue. Personally, a lack of trust towards the government was also developed, as our society was often promised reduced lockdowns that never seemed to truly occur. Society went into a frenzy, with the trend “panic hoarding” leaving grocery stores depleted and as well as inconsistent rules which created divisions within the population. Through the unfolding of this pandemic, citizens have demonstrated the profound impact that the culture of fear can have on our ability to think rationally. During these times, the unjustifiable somehow seems to become justifiable (to many) and awful detachments between societal groups can occur. As seen through the connection between the novel, suspicion and mistrust still are relevant themes in society today and are capable of producing biased forms of segregation without any concrete evidence to justify these behaviours.