1 Immigrant Literature Immigrant literature by Wail S. Hassan in Leila Aboulela and the Ideology of Muslims expounds on the challenges, opportunities, and experiences people who have moved from their motherland face in the new lands. This is expounded in the scholarly article by Wail S Hassan by evaluating multiple fictions on the implications of immigration to the victim's cultural heritage, the assimilation process, and the challenges of adaptations and the corresponding need to suspend one cultural heritage. Hassan cites immigrant literature illuminating the minority's challenges in the new lands. The author notes Aboulelas’s fiction, confirming that Muslim minorities face several predicaments in Britain that stem from religion. The author cites incidents of harassment and discrimination of Muslim women wearing hijabs. The Museum by Leila Aboulela complements the insights regarding the predicaments of immigration and cultural integration. Through the lens of Shadia, the main protagonist in the story, the author brings to light the challenges of suspending one's own cultural identity and adopting the cultural dynamics of a foreign land in the face of immigration. I agree with Hassan that immigrant literature about minority populations shows they face several challenges ranging from religious discrimination to the need to uphold their cultural heritage. In The Museum, Shadia also struggles to keep her heritage and adapt to Western culture.
Hassan synthesizes Aboulela's fiction on how Muslim women living in Britain are discriminated against on a religious basis. He cites the multiple incidents of racism and harassment of Muslims, particularly Muslim women wearing hijab, which are depicted in most of Abou Lela’s texts, but so is the unconscious racism of liberals and multiculturalists ( page 306). Such fiction represents the unsuspected gaps in Britain that had barely existed before the wave of immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. Aboulel's fiction also illuminates the challenges and persecutions of the surge of the Islamic region that characterized the migrations between
2 North and South. S similar sentiments on discrimination of religious minorities are put forth in Salis’s fiction, as debated by Hassana. In the latter, Sali’s Season of Migration to the North ( 1966) represents the growth of immigration to the North and the increase in the number of Muslims to the region, increasing conflicts between the dominant religions characterizing the colonizer and the minority Muslims denoting the colonized. As an extension of religious discrimination against Muslim minorities in Europe, Aboulela's fiction explains how Muslim females are perceived as indifferent in Britain. Their religious background and attire are used as the basis of discrimination in economic, political, and social dimensions. Unfortunately, even after independence, there are still aspects of colonization and subordination by the dominant cultures against the minorities. Hassan notes that the psychological chasm between the former colonizer and colonized remains as unbridgeable as it was in Season or, earlier still, in E.M. Forster's A Passage to India ( page 300). Hassan explains the irony of Aboulela’s fiction, characterized by a reactive position of writing back, serving as the primary paradigm of post-colonial criticism (page 299). The irony shows in the open discrimination of minority communities in an age that in a n period that is supposedly marked by independence and equality of all people. Ideally, the age of globalization would be expected to be drawn by civilizations, demographic intention, equality, and respect for human dignity, notwithstanding the social and cultural frameworks involved. While religious differences may mask discrimination against immigrants, Hassan () explains that it is deeply rooted in the historical background, racism, and social-cultural farmwork. In Aboulela’s fiction, history is ever present as a backdrop for spiritual struggles that are rarely seen to have political implications. This rift between politics and spirituality
3 characterizes the particular brand of Islam, informing the ideological worldview of Abou Lela’s fiction ( page 303). The immigrant population still needs to catch up in political and economic dimensions. Even after assimilation, immigrants are still identified with their historical background. This is illuminated by physical attributes such as region. Yet it translates to more profound identification, manifesting in political, economic, and social alienation. Hasan’s scholarly article illuminates the challenges of globalization by bringing to light the challenges faced by immigrants in foreign countries, ranging from religious, social, cultural, and political discrimination. Discrimination of religious minority and immigrants continue in the 21st century, manifesting in racism and religious, political, and religious alienation. Historical works such as Salih and the Museum by Aboulela in the MD 19th century confirm that modernism and post-colonialism were not solutions against discrimination, nor were they transition to independence. Perhaps independence was predominantly set for the dominant populations while the minority had to remain enslaved. Nevertheless, most immigrants are determined to uphold their cultural heritage even in a foreign land. This is illustrated by Shadia, in The Museum, who is committed to supporting her Sudanese heritage even while in Scotland. She notes, “We have a powerful story, which must be told with pride." Yet she also faces significant challenges trying to uphold her cultural heritage and still subscribes to the new ways of life in the new land. This illuminates the pertinent immigration issue: the need to balance one’s cultural framework with the new ways of life in the new land. For example, in The Museum, Shadia is lost between her heritage and the Western culture, pushing her into an identity crisis. Indeed, the Museum” complements immigration challenges, as posited in the synthesis of immigration fictions outlined by Hassan in the scholarly article, including the challenge of assimilation and the need to adapt to different ways of life.
4 Even with the adaptation, the immigrants are still viewed through the lens of their historical background. Conclusion As explained by Wail S. Hassan in the scholarly article, immigrant literature about minority populations shows they face several challenges ranging from religious discrimination to the need to uphold their cultural heritage, and in The Museum, Shadia also struggles to keep her heritage and adapt to the Western culture. Discrimination of immigrants is far-fetched and
integrates religious bigotry, social-cultural bias, and alienation in the political framework. The immigrant literature reviewed illuminates the challenges that people leaving their motherlands face in the country of arrival. While immigration may be motivated by the search for better livelihood and adventure, the aspects of discrimination, racism, and harassment remain to be significant predicaments of globalization.
Work Cited Hassan, Waïl S. "Leila Aboulela and the ideology of Muslim immigrant fiction." Novel: A Forum on Fiction. Vol. 41. No. 2/3. Duke University Press, 2008.