Exclusion in the Reluctant Fundamentalist

The already problematic East-West relationship is aggravated by the Muslim anti-colonial stance. Consequently, Muslims were seen as 'enemies'. This state of affairs was made murkier by the terrorist incident of 9/11, for which Muslims were, perceived to be a quintessential enemy and a serious threat, exaggerated by the matchless brand of the Western media, held to be responsible. New practices of exclusion were introduced. Exclusion is a multi-facetted mechanism shaped and driven by uneven power structure, in which certain groups or people are put to disadvantageous position due their affiliation with some community or group. This, as World Health Organization claims, leads to uneven access to rights, capabilities, resources that lead to health inequalities and resistance. This paper discusses how Mohsin Hamid through The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) depicts this exclusion and scenario of suspicion of post-9/11 American society where Muslims are looked as a considerable threat to be excluded, imprisoned and persecuted, and how they resisted it.