Islam, Prejudiced Western Fiction and Islamic Feminism

Abstract

Colonial narratives about Islam and Muslims are filled with prejudices. The depiction of Islamic religion and Muslim societies in a generally negative and self-serving ways is likewise the consequence of experiences between Western development and Islam. The Western English fiction venture Muslims as suggestive, crude, oblivious, monsters and slave dealers. It was a colonial mindset, but this is also a fact that this trend has been intensified since 9/11, obviously due to the satanic acts of a group falsely projecting itself as the true representative of Islam. That is the reason that most of the fiction writers who somehow or the other make Islam and Muslims their main theme, utilize the terms, for example, fear mongers, maniacs, fundamentalists, and savage for Muslims. Colonial theories and histories wedded with actions of some Islamist groups have been wrongly used to portray Islam and Muslims, especially the condition of women in Islam or Muslim societies, in a negative manner by the fiction writers. A group of scholars has challenged these narratives along with the misdeeds of its own people. The Islamic Feminists have not only challenged these prejudiced notions rich in racial supremacy, they have attacked those traditions of scholarship too which helped in portraying Islam and women in a negative manner. Their discourse is helping a new form fiction written by Muslim authors wherein Islam is the central theme. This paper tries to locate different aspects of prejudiced Western fiction, Islamic Feminist discourses and the rise of a fiction which is against the traditional Islamic interpretations and the Western approach regarding Muslims.

Keywords: Islamic Feminism, Mohja Kahf, Asia Djebbar, Arshad Masood Hashmi, Western Fiction and Islam, Representation of Islam in Western Fiction, Muslim Fiction, Islamic Fiction, Asma Barlas, Amina Wadood