Rethinking Muslim narratives: Stereotypes reinforced or contested in recent genre fiction?

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the challenges British Muslim writers and publishers face in a largely secular literary marketplace and a society marked by Islamophobia. It explores these authors’ publication experiences, analysing examples from industry diversity initiatives and from conducting interviews with authors. Arguing that distorted representations strip Muslims of their complex humanity, while more nuanced portrayals can humanize them without resorting to stereotypes, we analyse the thrillers East of Hounslow (2017) by Khurrum Rahman and Take it Back (2019) by Kia Abdullah. The article provides unique insights into the publication tactics of Muslim-heritage writers while also demonstrating genre fiction’s potential as a powerful tool for promoting inclusive narratives and challenging stereotypes. It concludes that genre fiction’s popularity and accessibility can help expand readership beyond literary circles and provide a wider audience for diverse storytelling that might otherwise go unheard in mainstream publishing, thus contributing over time to a more inclusive literary landscape.

KEYWORDS:

• Publishing
• diversity
• Muslims
• Islamophobia
• Khurrum Rahman
• Kia Abdullah

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. By the time of the 2021 census, the response of “No religion” had increased significantly in England and Wales from 25.2 percent (14.1 million) in 2011 to 37.2 percent (22.2 million). The Covid-19 pandemic may have influenced the spike in atheism or agnosticism (Office for National Statistics 2022).

2. Initiatives include the HarperCollins Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) paid 12-month traineeship.

3. The statement could easily pass as a description of Nadeem Aslam’s (2004) Maps for Lost Lovers. This prize-winning, post-9/11 novel, nominated for the Man Booker and IMPAC Prizes, winning the Kiriyama Prize and the Encore Award, reinforced what white publishers expect from Muslim communities. If Kean’s respondent is correct, then these plaudits connect as much to the book’s divulgence of “Muslim” depravities (honour killing, the abortion of female foetuses, a paedophilic Muslim cleric, and so on) as to its intertextual and heavily poetic style.

4. Jack Shaheen ([2001] 2009) had earlier done something similar to Ahmed’s British Muslim perspective, from an Arab American standpoint.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claire Chambers

Claire Chambers is professor of global literature at the University of York, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is author of British Muslim Fictions (2011), Britain Through Muslim Eyes (2015), and Making Sense of Contemporary British Muslim Novels (2019), among other works.

Sairish Hussain

Sairish Hussain studied at the University of Huddersfield, and was awarded a vice-chancellor’s scholarship for her PhD. Her novel The Family Tree (2020) has been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and nominated for the Guardian Literary Award and Waterstones Award. She is now writing her second novel.