The events of September 11 seemed to prove that hybridity can in fact coexist with fundamentalism. If the credo of postcolonial studies is that hybridity is in itself an antidote to every form and kind of fundamentalism, September 11 may thus be an instance where, tragically, “reality” seems to clash with the truth claims of postcolonial studies. Here, Updike focuses on the Orientalist and Neo-Orientalist binary opposition of ‘the Self’/ ‘the Other’, represented by Jack and Ahmad, in order to demonstrate and justify the claimed superiority of the ‘the West’ (or ‘Israel’ here) over ‘the Orient’.

Having witnessed the terrorist attacks of September 11, Updike, one of the most committed American writers, portrayed an Arab-American teenage boy, Ahmad, whose extremist justifications would have turned him into an anti-hero, if Jack Levy, the Jewish protagonist of the novel, had not changed his mind at the end of the novel. Regarding the deep political influence and power of Israel over the United States, the present writer would attempt to trace such influence in recently-written American fictions which deal with the newly-shaped genre, 'literary terrorism', especially John Updike's Terrorist (2006). Since its creation in 1948, Israel has more visibly touched upon different discourses, such as political, cultural and religious, to legitimize its existence in Palestine, a land that had nothing to do with Holocaust and Nazi's violence against European Jews. © 2018 Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Designs of orientalism and imperfection as seen in this novel frame the Muslim other as the imperfect version of the perfect non-Muslim American. In addition, Updike's representation of Islam rests on its blemishes including its disregard for self-improvement and modernity. Using themes of 'religious differences,' 'differences between religions,' 'social differences,' 'gendered and exotic differences' and 'optimized differences,' Updike's Muslim characters are presented as flawed and faulty in their beliefs and conviction. Imperfectionalism as used in this paper refers to the inconsistent, unreliable and unpredictable characteristics that define the Muslim Other in comparison to mainstream American society. Updike's exemplifications of Islam and Muslims within the American context are investigated through the problematizing of Muslims' socio-cultural imperfections within the lens of orientalism and psychology of (im)perfection.

This novel is abundant with binary representations of Muslims whose acts and interactions with fellow Christian and Jewish Americans are scripted by their respective religious values.

John Updike, one of America's eminent 20th century novelists, provides his own fictionalized presentation of the Muslim other within the American socio-cultural context in his 22nd novel, Terrorist.

If i should speak a novel