A fictional happy ending can quietly reinforce the very Islamophobia it critiques

Evidence

Finally, the book’s liberal utopianism is evident in its epilogue. Not only is Mo now rich and internationally celebrated, with a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Architecture, but we are told, “American Muslims were now, if not embraced, accepted. Trusted. Their rights unquestioned” (287). Just like that! With no explanation. Islamophobia is here mapped onto and equated with all those previous struggles against discrimination, from anti-Catholicism to civil rights, in a patriotic reiteration of America’s inherent capacity to integrate and forgive. Nothing is said about the struggles, bloodshed, and loss of life that always accompany this drawn-out and painful process. American Muslims have somehow effortlessly entered the sunny uplands of the future, conveyed there by some painless magical process we are not permitted to witness. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 296

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the liberal-utopian ending as a covert mode of reassurance — an analytic term for how endings can undercut critique.
• XREF: Connects directly to both Naqvi’s Home Boy and Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist — the reader’s hinge question of which novels contest versus quietly reinforce Islamophobia.
• ADDENDUM: Supports the Islamophobia article framing by naming a specific mechanism (utopian closure) by which a book that appears contestatory can blunt its critique.
• SEED: Angle: reading endings as ideological tell — comparing how Naqvi and Hamid choose to end their protagonists’ stories against Waldman’s painless resolution.