Beyond Fundamentalism

The book “How Terrorism End; Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns”, written in 2011 at the height of Al-Qaeda, the most well-known international terrorist group of our time. The author of this work, Audrey Cronin, at the time of print, served as a professor of strategy at the United States National War College in Washington D.C., and a senior associate at Oxford University’s Changing Character of War Program. Both positions allowed her to impact strategic policy making in the execution of the Global War on Terror by allowing her access to senior military and civilian policymakers. Her previous area of her prior work has been mainly focused on international terrorism with an emphasis on al-Qaeda. She has authored

Although some areas in Afghanistan and Iraq have improved and schools have been established, the United States has not done enough to help the people there. For example, the United States issued propaganda after the September 11 attacks that called for the liberation of women in Afghanistan. American citizens rallied in support of this movement and also supported the war because of it. Although some conditions have improved for women, the United States did not do as much as they said they would (Stabile). In addition, the opium trade has worsened in Afghanistan since the arrival of American troops; the country produces twice as much opium as it did in 2000 (Aikins). The War on Terror has also caused millions of innocent civilians’

For the past 13 years the United States has been involved in the Afghanistan war, and the reasons for the continuation of the Afghanistan war are very blurry. Not only are the reasons for the United States to fight the war blurry, but it seems the the cost vs. benefit of fighting the war do not equal. Only

Although severe consequences come with the decision of war with Iraq, most blinded United States of America citizens are still yet persuaded to support such a war. The Bush Administration has covered their schemes of war with lies to gain support. While weapons of mass destruction is supposedly the reason why the United States launched military action to begin with, all the clearly ignored consequences will haunt their final decision of war, and will remind them how the war is not and never was justified. Whither the war is for the protection of the United States and their alliances, or for oil production and the spread of democracy, the United States is only intensifying the aggression of the situation.

Since the war on Iraq began on March 20, 2003, at least 1,402 coalition troops have died and 9,326 U.S. troops have been wounded in action. This is no small number and the count grows daily. One would hope, then, that these men and women were sent to war with just cause and as a last resort. However, as the cloud of apprehension and rhetoric surrounding the war has begun to settle, it has become clear that the Bush administration relied on deeply flawed analyses to make its case for war to the United Nations and to the American people, rushing this country, and its soldiers, into war. This is not to say that this war was waged against a blameless regime or that our soldiers have died

This semester we have peeled away the layers of what evangelicalism and fundamentalism means throughout history, especially in our Western culture. I am intrigued with them both and their very presence in many of our modern-day congregations. After visiting Grace Covenant Church of Austin, Texas, much of the contributions that have been emphasized in books such as The American Evangelical Story by Douglas Sweeney and American Apocalypse by Matthew Sutton, I experienced while at Grace.

Hamid’s use of symbolism is significantly effective in The Reluctant Fundamentalistbecause it adds so much more meaning to the main idea of the book. Without understanding the symbolism, the reader might think Erica is simply an American girl who Changez falls in love with, but the symbolism adds much more purpose to her character. Just from understanding the symbolism of Erica, the reader gains the understanding of America’s effect on Changez and how he really is a “reluctant fundamentalist.”

This war cost the American economy billions of dollars, and the military expenditures rise dramatically to cover the wars waged by the US in the name of ‘war on terror’. This ongoing war started less than month after 911 attacks on US when the US troops invaded Afghanistan to retaliate the Taliban government for harboring al-Qaeda and to dismantle that organization to prevent her from executing more attacks on American soil. Although the American troops withdraw officially from Afghanistan in 2014, yet American forces still fighting in a military involvement that turned into the longest running war in the history of the United States. Two years later, although not directly linked to the terrorist attacks, the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, and disposed of President Saddam Hussein, suspected of producing weapons of mass destruction. The immense failure of that campaign led to chaos and civil war that cost millions of victims and refugees . And to make matters worse, the American forces withdrawal in 2011 left the nation in a far more volatile situation with the birth of the most brutal terrorist

In his other collaborative reserch, issued the same year, Cottee & Hayward (2011), searched for the explaination of  “of possible existential motivations for engaging in terrorism.” Where they have identified three principale explaination amoung the others, like: “(1) the desire for excitement, (2) the desire for ultimate meaning, and (3) the desire for glory.”

US immigration is a major component of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and contributes greatly to the plot as well. Hamid’s use of US immigration affects the plot of the story as it connects to the theme of identity, through the use of ashamed tone as well as precise diction.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid, The main character Changez experiences life both as an American and as a Pakistani. The setting take place in a restaurant in Lahore and Changez is talking to a stranger to our knowledge about his endeavors in America. Changez is in America, and finds himself becoming more and more fond of the American lifestyle and even meets a girl named Erica who he first thinks is the love of his life. Fast forwarding into the future Changez’s job is not all as great as he thinks and America in general is not the dream he thought he had been living, Changez soon figures this out after his relationship with Erica becomes a total bust and his job isn’t the amazing job he thought it was, and he soon feels like a slave to America and the American ways of life. He ends up returning to Lahore back home and becomes a professor at a university, and is an advocate to disengagement from America to Lahore. Within this novel Hamid shapes the protagonist, Changez, as someone who is sincerely both a lover and critic of America. Changez truly does love America, at least in the beginning, because it was like his relationship with Erica: you first meet a person and you like what you see, and you get to know that person and start developing feelings and enjoy being with that person, like he did being in America, but when he started finding out bad things or things she was doing he did not like, like he did when he found out America was bombing near his country. When Changez found this out he felt in a sense betrayed. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love America anymore, but he was simply unaware and now that he’s aware he became a critic as well as a lover.

A central theme in the book is examining the effect that the ruthless and unsympathetic drone strikes have in creating enemies of those tribal societies that under other circumstances would be neutral in the war against literalist terrorist organizations. Ahmed explains how these strikes not only lead to the massive amounts of innocent people, but that they also lead to trauma and resentment among the survivors who stage acts of retaliation which leads to more violence on behalf of the US military  - creating a brutal pattern of violence and oppression. For example, in one section, Ahmed describes an interview with Osama bin Laden in which he is quoted as saying, “If killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, let history witness that we are terrorists,” and in which bin Laden asserts that innocent Muslim civilians are being killed by the enemies of Islam; therefore the killing of their innocent civilians is justified, which he claims is “valid both religiously and logically.”  This framework works in tandem with the concepts that we have been examining in class

Your place of employment isn’t just where you work, it is your second home. In essence, the time you spend at work is equivalent to the time you spend with the most important people in your life. Each house, relationship and family dynamic are different. Expectations and relationships intertwine to create the world we live in. With varying experiences, how do we create an atmosphere that suites the needs of tweeners, believers and drives out fundamentalists? Who is responsible for developing and maintaining this atmosphere, or climate? I pose these questions to spark thinking about how we can be a positive force in our work environment.

In the source it is illustrated that their “aim” is to be “victor[ious] in spite of all terror”, this reveals a chauvinistic belief in the author. Chauvinism is an extreme form of patriotism where collective interest is placed above individual interest. The source also tends towards militarism, which is a belief of a people to have a military to aggressively achieve their national interest. This is proven in the source when the author expresses that “for without victory, there is no survival”.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist there is a notion that the American business model is a process of militarization. In another obvious allusion, the initials of the company that Changez works for, Underwood Sampson are those of the United States, linking the company to the American way of business, politics, and life that is originally admired by Changez. Underwood Sampson is a micro chasm of American business dream where efficiency is the ultimate goal and individual differences are ignored in a melting pot society in favor of a homogenous international identity. The American way is revealed in the company’s claims to be a “meritocracy”. Changez is told “We believe in being the best…if you do well, you’ll be rewarded. If you don’t you’ll