“Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be”: Islamophobia, Neoliberalism, and Neo-nationalism in Tabish Khair's How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position

Abstract

Tabish Khair's irreverent How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position underlines the personal travails of three South Asian immigrants in Denmark. Specifically, it highlights the social and political situation in Denmark in the aftermath of the infamous cartoon controversy. Khair's novel critiques the neoliberal prejudice of the publicly visible Muslim, often suspected of manufacturing terror, and highlights the role of tabloids in fomenting Islamophobia and engendering neo-nationalism in Denmark. This study combines Benedict Anderson's ideas on the role of print capitalism in engendering neo-nationalism in Denmark and Juergen Habermas's concept of “communicative action” and “universalizability” to understand Khair's novel as a call to eschew limited nationalist underpinnings, thereby stressing the post-national aspect of current times.