This paper titled, Fall out of 9/11 for Muslims in America- A study of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist examines the fall out of the terrorist act of 9/11, which inflamed the American sentiments and consolidated stereotypes against Islam and Muslims in America and how they became targets of the negative media stereotype. The study also reveals that the American reaction towards Muslims after the attacks on twin towers was blind, indiscriminate, and disproportionate to such an extent that the very concept of multiculturalism on which the American society is based was threatened. Further the events subsequent to 9/11 led to the tide of ultra-American nationalism, which was at fault, for alienating Muslims leading to anti-Muslim sentiment and their stereotyping as antithetical to the American way of life. Hamid tries to offer a counter literary response to not only to the American rhetoric but also dominant literary discourses that prevailed after 9/11.The novel shows how such treatment put a question mark on multiculturalism, citizenship, identity and alienation, belonging and national affiliation as well as Muslim integration in the American society. Hamid, through this novel offers a fascinating narrative of infatuation and repulsion of the protagonist, Changez, a Pakistani Muslim migrant towards America as a fall out of this event. Hamid, a self-confessed “transcontinental mongrelâ€, maintains an atmosphere of imminent danger and radical violence throughout the novel.
Keywords: Reluctant Fundamentalist, America, Pakistan, 9/11, Changez, Alienation, Anti- Muslim, Terrorism.