Even secular Muslims are held morally responsible for attacks by co-religionists

Evidence

The crux of the scene comes when Claire insists on Mo’s moral responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, despite his apparent secularity: ” ‘Followers of your religion have caused enormous pain, And for all of us it’s very difficult to sort out what Islam actually means or encourages.… A lot of Muslims who would never commit terrorism still support it, for political reasons if not religious ones.… So it’s not unreasonable for me to ask where on that continuum you sit. To learn at the hearing that you’ve never denounced the attack—I’ll be honest, that was upsetting. Why haven’t you?” (270, emphasis added). — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 285

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates directly with The Reluctant Fundamentalist’s demand that Changez denounce 9/11 despite his secular modernity. — connects to: Liberal responses to the Ground Zero Mosque controversy tacitly endorsed collective Muslim blame — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 721; Only Muslim violence is read as caused by the perpetrators’ religion — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 366