Muslims And Their Community In The Western World After 911 In Minaret

Leila Aboulela is a celebrated Sudanese novelist and playwright,the first-ever winner of Caine Prize for African Writing.Aboulela’s works focus on the mental experience and cultural dilemma of diasporic Muslims.Minaret is Leila Aboulela’s second novel based on her own diasporic experience.It shows the identity choices of diasporic Muslims after 9/11 in the western world.Muslims in Minaret are divided into two kinds: culturalist Muslims and practicing Muslims.This thesis is based on comparative cultural studies and analyzes the cultural identity of culturalist and practicing Muslims in the western world after 9/11.Culturalist Muslims,being affected by the western culture marked by individualism,have a hybrid cultural identity.Practicing Muslims take Islamic culture as their identity and form a solidary community where the essence of collectivism is displayed in themselves.The “Islamic logic” of community is applied in Minaret.The protagonist Najwa’s choice of career,family and religion is marked by her sense of belonging to a community.Through Najwa,Leila Aboulela conveys the vulnerability of an individual and the collective power of a community in the western world after 9/11.Although Minaret is written in English,it has the core of Islamic culture,which shows Leila Aboulela’s endeavor to revive the Islamic culture and tradition and to refute Oriental stereotypes in the western world.Aboulela receives considerable attention in western mainstream literary market for her Islamic worldview and her exploration of intercultural relationships.