Orientalism

Occidentalism Voyeurism
"“Back home, religious differences run so deep and go so far back that no one bothers to talk about it any more. People think the war is about religious freedom, about black flags and opposition to a secular government, but it’s not. The media seized on this idea, putting up side banners and trying to explain to viewers the difference between Sunni and Shiite, Kurds and Arabs, pie charts showing how a country has divided itself up. I get it. Religious conflict is sexy. It’s easy to sell, the way it fits into the simple, dichotomous way people prefer to view the world. It’s easy for news producers and politicians to frame it in terms of a cosmic war being waged in a land far, far away." p28"
". We turn to the men beyond the courtyard as another . insult is lobbed over the iron gate like a grenade: “Fuckin’ ragheads!.. I feel the tension though, in my gut." p50

"”There's a shout, and then the men storm the gate. Led by Mr Big Man, they push through the throng, milling around the front, and start indiscriminately shouting at people to go home.. “This is my fuckin’ country, raghead!” Mr Big Man shouts, his face an ugly mask” p53

““Shut your gob,” Mr Big Man says, a pudgy finger rising to wag in the imam’s face. “If you don’t like it, fuck off back to India!”p53

"“Those curious people—a few of them have gone, slipping out unobtrusively at the first sign of trouble, others have stayed to try and rebuke Mr Big Man, as though their arguments are more rational, or perhaps that they might carry more weight than Imam Abdulrahman’s. »"p53

". I am a girl with no name, a girl with no face. I can be whatever you see. Arab. University student. Writer. Fatty. Muslim. Whore. »"p55

« On the journey here many things were said about me, They called me a bad seed, a blight on the family honor, a brave one, a deviant held fast by jinn, the one who never smiles, a whore who sleeps with men for protection, good with the children, the strongest woman they had ever seen, the weakest, that my head is empty or my father cut out my tongue before I ran away, that I’m from this city, no, that city, from Syria, from Iraq, from Afghanistan. I am all these things at once. I am none of them. Perhaps the result is the same. »"p55

"(Ruth talking on the phone)“Oh, yes, the police went to the mosque. | told you how those people over there were making a ruckus? It carried on for ages and more and more of them kept coming. All these men, Mila.. It’s too much. That leader over there, at the mosque, he’s wanting to turn the whole neighborhood. Every month doing something like this, luring stupid people into that place so he can whisper his magic into their ears. It is magic, Mila! Sorcery! You remember how they were, the wife of the spice man with her pouches and herbs and coffee cups she read the future in? She predicted Nev's death, down to the hour, you know she did…"p66

“Anyway, there were too many of them and then some neighbors made complaints. Not me, I don’t want trouble. But it brings attention. We have the Muslim shop. Tom and I, we buy milk and tea there, what do we need a Muslim priest preaching for? What? Yes, yes, one of those . . ."p66

"So, the police came and they shooed the people away. I heard in the shop, they were saying some men came to attack the mosque, but I think they lie. They want sympathy, you know? "p66

"Anyway, maybe things will be quiet now. Tom and I go to temple and pray with others, but we don’t shout about it in the street. ‘Look at me, look at my God . . .’ It’s disrespectful, but you know how they are.”p66

"“I wonder if she’s taken her business there today, a good fifteen minutes out of her way, just to punish Hasan and the Muslims of the mosque for what happened last night. Or perhaps it just made her nervous and she thinks some sort of attack is imminent, and so she’s chosen to avoid the entire street.”" page 70

". Is it my job, as a Muslim, to try to convince you not to be afraid of me? That my people are not hardwired to hate you, to want to blow you up on a tube or ram you with a van? They said globalization would make the world better, but instead the word has become some hysterical shorthand for anything that threatens the status quo" p73

"VOILA LA RAGE QUI EFFRAIE LA SOCIETE CIVILISEE! Yelling at their children for straying too far away in their games, at teenage daughters who venture out of the tents or wander along border fences and smile at guards, at old aunts and mothers and grandmothers for being stupid and burdensome and useless. Rough slapping of hands against skin. A vengeful fuck. A fist to an abdomen. A plea to Allah. »" p86

"“There’s always a “thing” in the Middle East,.. A constant stream of breaking news, our gift to the world... along with the oil and fundamentalist ideology, of course. You're welcome, and we'll see you when the cosmic checks come in. It used to be a pretty sweet deal for Western nations—take our oil, , grant us some democracy and condescension, and everyone goes away feeling a little bit better about themselves.” p126

« they send us north, to Cambridge and Doncaster and Loughborough, spreading us out so as not to frighten the country with an unmanageable horde of displaced persons. » p130

"Never mind that refugees are not committing acts of terror on Western soil (or any soil for that matter), never mind that refugees are fleeing the terror; any time an attack occurs, there comes this blanket condemnation of an entire faith—as though the problem were one of religion rather than interpretation. The majority have no time for such subtleties of thought. Muslim Refugee = Muslim Terrorist is so much simpler." P139

"And now they're saying that one of the attackers might have been an asylum seeker at one point. So, I think that maybe you need to be careful of making sweeping statements about how we shouldnt fear Muslim refugees because they dont have the capacity for violence or something. These are just some things to keep in mind as you compose future articles. Best, Josie »p145

“The mosque was vandalized… He tells us how the faithful who came for the dawn prayers were the first to see it. “Fuck you!” and “Filthy Pakis!” and other lazy slurs spray-painted on the walls in red, the paint dripping down so it looked like blood. »p161

“More spray paint across the iron bars—penises and pigs and men in turbans with tongues wagging after crude little stick-figure girls with pigtails. And around the big chain that the imam had only just begun to lock at night, someone had wrapped the entrails of what no one suspects to be anything other than a pig.”p162

“the officer replies, jotting down some notes, perhaps about the imam’s gesticulations. Maybe he’s writing him up as “unnecessarily aggressive”; “combative,” even. »p163

"" | was mocked on arrival, pushed around, poked and prodded, assumed to be some stupid sheep herder begging for scraps off Her Majesty’s table. | try to fit in. Americans call it assimilation"p167

“BeccaDent says: Im as touched by the Voiceless’s story as the next person, but there are a couple of things about it that bother me. To start, why wont this person use their name? What’ the point in hiding that? What else are they hiding? It almost makes me think this isn't a real person, but that it’s some journalist or someone pushing an agenda and deciding to masquerade as a refugee to gain credibility. Another thing is if this person is who they say they are, I kind of wish they would just tell their story without adding all of the politics into it. I know it says the Voiceless is studying political science, but that hardly makes them an expert. We all took a poli sci course at uni. I don’t know. Its a good story, but something about it just didn’t sit right. »p169

“How do you suppose they got a daughter like that? Hmm? Yes, I expect traveling would do it. I doubt she will do these things in her own country.” » (Ruth)p225

« At the station, the asylum officer pronounced my name “runner” (Rana) and then laughed and laughed before saying, “Well, I spose that’s what you are.”p250

"They made loud, racist remarks about the proprietor, calling him a “dirty Paki” and a member of ISIS."p263