Monocultural commitments are as political as multicultural ones

Evidence

In reality, as David Theo Goldberg has pointed out, the struggle is one over visions of what America is and who should control it: “If the political charge against multiculturalism has meaning, then it implies that monocultural commitments are political also; indeed, that the struggle between them in the final analysis can be played out only on political terrain.” We are returned once more to that battle over the nature and legacy of humanism discussed earlier. On the one side is a vision of a progressive, self-critical humanism, broad and open enough to allow for the modification of its list of sacred texts as part of an ongoing evolution of society. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 231

Categorization

• XREF: This reframing of the canon war as political on both sides maps directly onto how Hamid and Naqvi position their novels within the contest over who narrates the post-9/11 Muslim experience.
• DEFINE: Distinguishes progressive self-critical humanism from conservative fixed-canons humanism, a key frame for reading contesting vs reinforcing.