Muslim-authored novels are not inherently more authentic than outsider portrayals.

Evidence

It would, I think, be misguided to claim that Naqvi’s narrative is somehow more “authentic” than Waldman’s—to do so would be to fall into the trap of seeking that ethnic representativeness on which Chuck’s interrogation is based. Waldman’s book is in some ways more ambitious in that it confronts directly the public mechanisms by which Muslims are marginalized. Even so, Naqvi’s novel shows itself less inclined to settle for a liberal, individualist, broad-based empathy—a weighing up of pros and cons—that is perhaps the price of taking a more synoptic approach. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 310

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what ethnic representativeness means and why demanding it reproduces the interrogator’s logic.