Unpacking Jihadist Culture and Identity Reconstruction in Aslam's The Blind Man’s Garden

Abstract

This study looks at the consequences, concentrating on Jihadist culture after 9/11 and its portrayal in Nadeem Aslam's novel "The Blind Man's Garden." The 9/11 attacks played an important role to create a shift in world politics, and changed the Muslim-West relations and fueling prejudices of Muslims as extremists. The 'War on Terror' contributes to these factors by combining them with Western stereotypes. It explores the psychological aspects of Fanatical cruelty and calls for deculturalizing Islam, focusing on Aroosa Kanwal's theoretical framework on “Rethinking Muslim Identities, Beyond 9/11”, the study argues for an assessment of changing views on reconstructing Muslim identities in the context of present-day Pakistani English fiction. This study delves into Aslam's novel to better comprehend the complicated connections between world affairs, cultural depictions, and psychological components of extremism in present narratives. It emphasizes the significance of varied intellectual collaboration for an in-depth discussion on reconstructing Muslim identities that extends beyond the historic events of September 11th. Future researchers may expand this study by conducting comparative analyses across a wider range of Pakistani English novels to trace budding representations of Muslim identities in the post-9/11 era and broaden the discourse surrounding jihadist culture and identity reformation in contemporary literature