From Islamic fundamentalism to a new life in the west: Ali Eteraz and the Muslim comedy memoir

Yaqin, Amina

Abstract

This chapter analyses the Muslim memoir as a hybrid text that both authenticates and satirises the subjectivity of the narrator. Given the social capital of the memoir form, I argue that its trustworthiness is inverted by the author Ali Eteraz to question the premise of social trust. The memoir delineates social trust through the expression of piety and Muslim modernity articulated by the narrator in his different avatars. Eteraz’s satirical representations of himself invite the reader to read against the grain of the by now familiar Muslim fundamentalist-turned-Sufi story. He reverses the contexts of Islamist violence with the performativity of humour and it is in that humour that we can see traces of a multicultural coexistence and a rebuilding of social trust.

Citation

Yaqin, A. (2018). From Islamic fundamentalism to a new life in the west: Ali Eteraz and the Muslim comedy memoir. In A. Yaqin, P. Morey, & A. Soliman (Eds.), Muslims, Trust and Multiculturalism: New Directions (193-214). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71309-0_9

• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Dec 21, 2017
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 193-214
• Series Title: Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series
• Book Title: Muslims, Trust and Multiculturalism: New Directions
• ISBN: 9783319713083
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71309-0_9