Fundamental Commitments of Muslim Identity: A Study of Tabish Khair’s How to Fight Islamist Terror from The Missionary Position

Abstract

This paper focuses on the Muslim identity of the narrator of Tabish Khair’s novel, How to Fight Islamist Terror from The Missionary Position, the conflict that he confronts due to his being in an alien culture, and the subsequent resolution of this conflict. The research, first, postulates Bilgrami’s argument of fundamental commitments in connection with cultural identity based on Bernard Williams’ interpretation of the ethical theory. Then it presents Bilgrami’s position about how fundamental commitments cause a serious conflict in Muslim individuals on account of the reformation deficit in the Islamic world, leading those individuals of the minority Muslims to have compromised Islamic/Muslim identity in alien cultures. The argument rests on the claim that this conflict never resolves but stays in the individual as Tabish Khair’s first-person narrator shows it during his treatment toward Karim Bhai until he discloses him to the Danish police and differentiates between Karim’s identity and his own identity, feeling remorse over his betrayal. The narrator demonstrates wavering in his thoughts about his Muslim and otherwise-supposed-liberal identity by the end of the novel, showing his lack of fundamental commitments and Karim Bhai’s staunch commitments to his belief.