“A Critical Study Of Misrepresentation Of Islam, Qur’an And Muslims In John Updike’s Literary Works”

Abstract

The article examines John Updike’s literary polemics against Islam, the Holy Quran, and Muslims. It aims to look into the characters’ fabricated portrayals and their imaginary remarks on Muslim civilization, and the treatment of women in the Quran. This subjective rendition of Muslim characters in Updike’s novel is a likely reflection of the negative stereotypes and Islamophobia that are common in American society and misrepresent Islam and the Arab world. Updike tries to depict Muslims and Islamic culture as foreign, exotic, and ultimately dangerous to the Western world. The novel instigates interreligious and racial conflicts in oriental and occidental worlds, the postcolonial cultural divide identified by Edward Said. Such literary pieces, for Said, contribute to the postcolonial cultural clash and foster racial and religious tensions in the East and the West. The study analyses the malicious interpretation of Qur'anic verses by Updike who ignores the context of the passages being cited in the novel. It reveals that Terrorist serves as an illustration of how he has novelized his anti-Islamic agenda. Hence, this blatant demonization of Muslims in the novel is the offshoot of Updike’s partial study of Islam based on his theoretical biases, abstractions, and generalizations.