Intermediality as a means of Resistance: The Repercussions of Neo-orientalist Discourse on Muslims American in Wajahat Ali's The Domestic Crusaders

Document Type : Research Papers/Extracts from dissertations

Author

English Department, Faculty of Arts, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt

Abstract

In The Domestic Crusaders, Ali criticizes the neo-Orientalist generalized negative depiction of Muslims and Islam in news media during the coverage of the War on Terror. Bringing back different media sources on the stage such as radio news, CNN and FOX TV news, and newspapers enable Ali to show the audience their inauthenticity and their repercussions on public opinion and accordingly on Muslims American. The intermediation of media in The Domestic Crusaders enables Ali to resist the ongoing neo-Orientalist generalized perverted imagery of Muslims and Islam during the War on Terror. Moreover, by representing an example of a domestic, nonviolent, peaceful, and non-terrorist Muslim Pakistani American family, Ali informs the Western audience that not all Muslims are terrorists. In this vein, Ali deconstructs the constructed generalized Western imageries of Muslims; the imagery of veiled woman as oppressed by her father or husband, and the imagery of Muslims as terrorists and anti-Jewish.

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