Raza’s redemptive act is to surrender himself to the state’s misreading

Evidence

His only redemption is to change places with his now hunted friend Abdullah, donning his coat so as to be identified and detained as an illegal Muslim immigrant of dubious motives, with all the inevitable consequences in the Age of Terror: a selfless act of heroism leading to a different kind of martyrdom. — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 434

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The device of exchanging coats so the wrong person is detained as an illegal Muslim immigrant is a strong narrative mechanism — a character choosing to be read wrongly by the surveillance state as an act of love.