Name: Thoby Dwi Pramudito

NIM: B0316048

Amy Waldman – The Submission: A Monument and its Vitriolic Response

Chapter 1-7

The year is 2003. A jury in Manhattan looks upon a monument design. This jury consists of
Claire, representing families affected during 11 September 2001 attack, Ariana, a
representative from the Mayor of New York, Paul, a banker, and some others. They had an
argument when Claire firmly chose the winner of the design – a rectangular-shaped garden
guided by a precise geometry, with pavilion meant for lamentation in the middle. They
accuse Claire for being too emotional, but this is a monument of a tragedy – emotion cannot
be completely erased. ‘The Garden’ is the design’s name. Although, they finally agreed that
the choice is the best choice. The submission of the contests done anonymously, to prevent
bias. However, later on, the information regarding the creator of the winner is opened and
taken out from an envelope, and the result is… surprising, to say the least. A Muslim, named
Mohammad Khan.

Responses from the juries and the mayor ranges from ‘hmm…’, ‘Oh my…’ into ‘Jesus -------
Christ! It’s a ------- Muslim!’ A recommendation sent to be out of the public’s sight to discuss
and have dessert, and a panicked discussion opens between the juries, the mayor, and so on.
What do they need to do now? The conversation can come off as very prejudiced and quite
dehumanizing by today’s standard – 2003 is still only two years after the attack, OEF A /
OEF I in Afghanistan ramps up as the invasion of Iraq begins, and Islamophobia was still
rampant. (Pew Research, 2008).

The perspective shifts to Mohammad Khan, coming at the LAX. A security guard questions
him extensively, in an investigative and discriminatory way – his job, where he was during
the attack, his travels in the last months, where he was born – questions that would be
considered rude if it were asked to a stranger – and more – and they end up profiling him and
taking his fingerprints and photograph. An ‘informational interview’, they called it. The
chapter also talks about his background – his parents immigrated to India in 1966 (a year
after the United States lifted up racial / Asian immigrant quotas and started putting quotas by
country – the 1965 system are still used now) (S. 232, 89th Cong., 1965), he is a Virginia
born-and-bred citizen and despite occasional jerk behavior – shedding girlfriends, firing
contractors, driving over the speed limit sometimes and getting some tickets, shoplifting the
Three Musketeers shop as teenager – some petty crimes and occasional bad behaviour –most
of the time, he is a good person (and reacts as an average American may react when
confronted with the discriminatory treatment found on the story). And despite being a
Muslim on his ID card, he never visited a mosque in his whole life – he is more ‘agnostic’
than ‘Muslim’ – and he even were confused why his father went to mosque after 9/11, until
now. His parents were secular. He dated atheists and Catholics. He once ate pork, although
not growing up eating pork. Yes, he was in Afghanistan, but he was there because he is
designing a new American embassy in Kabul (and also profiled and went through multiple
scan every time he enters an American building). However, as much as he wants to say that
he’s not religious, he can’t say it, as much as he can’t said the Syahadat. When he want to
renounce it, a subconscious thought resisted it.

Meanwhile, on the times where daily debates about the nature of Islam were still very
common on television (Fox News, a right-wing news media, is the example in the book – the
year is 2003), and the jury still lamenting, the New York Post appeared with the news that the
winner of the design is actually a Muslim. Controversy ensues. Meanwhile, Mohammad
Khan knows this from a Pakistani news vendor who read this news, and greet him;
Assalamualaikum.

A perspective of someone who becoming bitter after his brother died in the attack, Sean (and
his family), is also introduced. Sean, and his family. His brother, Patrick, was a firefighter
who died during the attack. “Yes, we plan to fight this until our last breath. No, sir, this is not
Islamophobia. Because phobia means fear and I'm not afraid of them. You can print my
address in your newspaper so they can come find me. They killed my son. Is that reason
enough for you? And I don't want one of their names over his grave.” (Waldman, p. 56)
Meanwhile, the news become viral, Alyssa Spier (the journalist who found out and wrote the
article) feeling satisfied and working under large news media in just two days after spending
years to get to New York and eleven further years working under a minor news outlet, and
the politicians were all either trying to use that as a political point (talking about it), or trying
to calm the public down by not talking about it or stalling the reaction. Meanwhile, Paul
interviews Mo Khan in a bistro, trying to probe what kind of Muslim Khan is. Mo’s reason to
contribute is simply, ‘because I can’ – simply because he wanted to contribute as an
American. However, the suspicious & xenophobic nature, no matter how kind-hearted or
kind-spoken the interview is, eventually leaves Khan angry, and he left.

Chapter 8-10

The perspective shifted into Asma Anwar, an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant, trying to get
compensation from Nasruddin, her husband’s subcontractor and overseer of the Bangladeshi
community in that Brooklyn neighborhood – she has been illegal from the start of the story,
and later it is revealed that she came in with a visitor visa (grants 6 months of residence) and
deliberately overstays her visa (she met and marries her husband, Inam Haque, also illegal
immigrant, in the US – presumably, he also arrives using a visitor visa – by the time he died,
he worked using fake Social Security number and visa, while whoever offering the job and
Nasruddin silently approves it instead of applying H-2B work visa and EB-3 visa for them
since the beginning – plausible reasons are because it is cheaper, Inam and Asma doesn’t
worth the potential USD 10,000 costs for PERM labor certification cost and the USCIS fees,
or because of the extremely low quota for low-skilled immigrants – which means very long
waiting times – and, as the story unfolds, denying insurance to Asma, but that is for another
story. Later on it is revealed after she married Inam, she works as a pharmacist assistant, and
none of the pharmacist family are willing to sponsor her nor report her either). (Flinn, M.,
Dalmia, S & Colon, T; 2008, Nolo; n.d., Lin & Valdez L.L.P.; n.d.)

The 9/11 attack casualties list doesn’t list illegal immigrants – they had to be uncounted.
Asma told the officials after the attack about Inam– his habits, history, employment – to
everyone that she has to tell, from the consulate, American Red Cross, FBI and the police –
knowing that disclosing information that will lead into investigation of his personal life and
illegal employment of both persons, and will lead to her deportation. She only held two
wishes – that she could have a child before deportation (making the child a US citizen), and
Inam’s body were found so they can be deported together. The baby was born, named Abdul
Karim, but Inam’s body wasn’t found, or had already cremated. Also, the government had
decided to give compensation for the illegal immigrants who were killed during the attack
(before deporting them), so she’s getting a lawyer to do that. She gets 1. 05 million USD (this
amount of money, by the way, is enough for legal immigration through EB-5 investor visa)
(Immigration Roadmap.com, n.d), but raising Abdul for 21 years before he can sponsor her
back to the United States will require her to watch the amount of money she spent. And being
an illegal immigrant who will be removed by court order, it will be at least 10 years before
she can re-enter the United States and re-trying legal immigration. (Nodo; n.d.)

She heard about the memoriam about to be built, although anti-illegal immigrant protestors
are adamant about not letting the memoriam lists any illegal immigrants. There’s nothing she
can do.

Meanwhile, Mo visited the MACC, the Muslim American Coordinating Council. The Fox
News debate features Issam Malik, the leader of the MACC, in the Muslim side (which was
lambasted on Fox News), and he came into Mo’s attention. He then came Malik’s office and
introduced himself as the Mystery Muslim who just won the memorial contest. Malik led Mo
to the assembled council. Mo told his story, and was met with approval of many. However,
the meeting was quickly devolved into heated debate and vitriol, especially after knowing the
fact that Mo is pretty much secular. The debate devolves into lamenting how Eid Mubarak
wasn’t a school holiday, how Muslims are second-class Americans (many of the
discriminatory screening were similar to the frequent stop-and-frisk procedures that many
black Americans were subjected to, especially during Jim Crow era), one scorned about the
Iraq and Afghanistan war which kills Muslims and lambasting how apathetic the US were
during Kashmiri massacre and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and so on. However,
the stake – Khan’s case has the potential to stir the apolitical and the secular Muslims (and
people who look like Muslims), that their lives are at stake and the MACC can protect and
advocate them. Eight out of the twelve people on the council agreed.

Khan walks out with Laila, the only uncovered woman in the council, and the council’s
lawyer. It is then revealed that Laila is a solo practitioner ‘sponsored’ by Malik because of
how she won a lot of cases (and those cases were involving Muslims) – but then she revealed
that the other women will never won a spot in the council if they were not wearing hijab
(Khan also noticed that she did try to come off as someone unimportant or someone
insignificant to strangers). That even back in 2003, a lot of Americans were already
disillusioned with the ‘liberation’ rhetorics. That even in America, many Muslims – Muslims
who were trying to protect their Muslim identity – are still patriarchal and she would had
been lynched if she ‘behaved inappropriately’. That the distrust Muslims – the council – has,
also had (at least) some capability to be… radical.

Meanwhile, Sean’s movement were gaining tract. He even ‘won’ the support of the governor,
Governor Bitman (who was a Democrat – Sean’s movement particularly attracts people who
lean conservative and won’t vote for Bitman, but now they’re cheering for him). Bitman
advocated a public hearing regarding the memorial selection process and wanted ‘the people
of the United States to decide’, and it is clear that the rally happens because they don’t like
the designer – a Muslim. To them it is a slap in the face to those who died. And Claire – who
represent the families who died – hasn’t appeared to clear things up nor reach out to them.

However, during the rally, suddenly Claire shows up. She only addressed the crowd briefly –
and eventually, telling them – ‘if you let them change you, they have won’. However, when
she went to the backstage, she was immediately confronted with some people, including Sean
and the reporter – Alyssa Spier. Claire claimed she knew almost nothing regarding Khan, and
the selection was anonymous, but they kept trying to probe her, and she quickly leave.

Khan eventually reveals himself in the MACC, with Laila as his attorney. Reporters
crowding the room like no other. He explains plainly about who he is and why he submits the
competition, and despite has been asked to withdraw, he believed that his contribution and
eventual choosing is because of the country’s belief in meritocracy. That a lot of the
questions were asked because he is a Muslim, and if anyone else had won nobody would ask
any questions. Alyssa felt like she was cheated in the subject that she herself uncovered, and
tries to probe Khan further. She eventually found out in business records that he works at
K/K Architects, working with someone named Thomas Kroll. She eventually found his
address and eventually able to make Kroll and his wife hold back and sit down. Kroll told her
that Khan is his best friend and work partner, that his nickname is Mo, that Khan is not
religious (and even more hedonistic than he is) – the point is that he’s not a radical at all, but
he never told Kroll that he submitted a design to the council. After advising Kroll how to fend
off other reporters that will eventually coming to ask more questions, Alyssa left. This
information, of course, becomes public.

Meanwhile, Bitman appears on live TV, debating with Paul, who is now doing his best to
mediate the situation. Her rhetoric is that even though Mo Khan poses no threat to the US
personally, the fact that he won is a message that radical Islamist can use the American
system to advance their own agenda. And women were oppressed in countries with Sharia
law. There is also a polling showing that 70% of Americans don’t want a Muslim designing
the memorial. And she’s gaining support. And she has the final say regarding the monument,
not the jury – as the governor. Elsewhere, deep somewhere in the darkness and silence of her
apartment, Alyssa’s really satisfied with her work, and started writing op-eds. ‘The problem
with Islam…. Is Islam.’ Her op-eds eventually attacks Claire, whom she claims were ‘having
soft spot with the Muslim’ and ‘sleeping with the enemy’.

Trying to pretend there was nothing wrong, Khan tries to go to work the next day, and he was
confronted by an angry Kroll – knowing that the ensuing controversy will destroy the K/K
Architects. It is revealed that Khan didn’t actually believe he is going to win, and he didn’t
even tell his parents. Both ends up not knowing what to do next.

Chapter 11-13

Claire and Paul eventually met Khan on Paul’s house, and they give Khan the award –
without any sort of fanfare. After a photo (in which Khan reflexively smiles), Khan contacted
Laila and they discussed what to do next in a restaurant. Both of them have some sort of
connection with each other’s situation.

The design came out – and a critic pointed out that the design draws influence from many
Islamic architecture that has been built around history. The garden design, the geometry, the
quadrants – those architecture is quite similar. Is this deliberate? What’s the purpose of the
design? To mock us, or to draw a symbolism about Islamic world-Western world relations,
the critic says. Claire realized that before knowing that Khan’s identity as a Muslim were
known, nobody ever thought this way. She then turned on the television and was bombarded
with the political talk show programs talking about the garden in the obnoxious, ‘in-your-
face’ manner designed to captivate as much attention as possible. The garden is the jihadist’
paradise. The garden is a tomb for the paradise, and the word for ‘tomb’ and ‘garden’ is the
same in Arabic (a quick Google Translate or a quick view of the dictionary proves
otherwise). Then she went to read the newspaper, and it’s all op-eds. The tone is similar.
‘VICTORY GARDEN!’ ‘ASSAULT ON AMERICAN CHRISTIAN VALUES!’ and so on.
Then she went to listen to radio talk host, and there was Sean, Bitman, accompanied with the
popular right wing talk show host turning into tinfoil-hat level conspiracy theorist. However,
all the rage on the media is real.

The Two Minutes Hate finally catches up to Khan. The rage, the shouting in the street, the
bumper stickers, all of it pours down on him. His refuge is Laila, whom he started to bonded
with because of them belong to the identity of the ‘enemy’, yet they were not exactly
‘welcome’ within the ‘enemy’s’ identity. Kroll aren’t as welcoming as before anymore, and
even if he did, the controversy will still break the K/K Architects and Kroll’s family.
Eventually Mo started to virtually live in Laila’s studio. Even The New Yorker – a well-
known left-wing magazine – attacked them with the accusation that he is fueling the
stereotypes of Taqiyya. He was written as a Pakistani, Saudi, Qatari, he was written as
deviant (from the Alyssa’s ‘interview’ with Kroll), that he dated half the female architects in
New York, that he had donated into jihadist organization and so on, and so on. Fake news,
all.

Meanwhile, Paul was confronted by Sean regarding the ‘Islamic Garden’, and the things ends
up sore – especially because the utterance to ‘go down lie on the site if that makes you feel
better’ – like Sean’s family worth less than Claire’s – were uttered. Claire doesn’t represent
the families properly, he said. Paul’s net worth is hundreds of times more than Sean’s,
Claire’s family (both Claire and her husband) is an Ivy League family – this setting is easy to
set up an ‘elitist vs the people’ rhetoric. That despite being building a monument out of a
tragedy, Paul just told Sean that ‘emotions aren’t the cause of judgement’, despite earlier,
Claire uses emotion as part of the judgement regarding the selection.

Angered, Sean joined the SAFI movement – Save America from Islam movement, led by
Debbie Dawson. Most people on the SAFI never lost anyone, but they’re more radical and
more knowledgeable regarding the ‘imperialistic’, they actually memorized the ‘jihadist’
Quranic verses, they studied history – throughout the time, the Muslims colonizes, destroy
something and build an Islamic symbol on this place as the Indians and Ottomans did. They
encourage Sean’s movement to merge with them and even wanted him to ‘make a cheat
sheet’.

Having caused so much controversy, Paul eventually wants Khan to withdraw, or at least,
having someone works alongside him so that he is not the only person. Bitman holds the
ultimate position and she refuses, the accusation of elitism of the juror who were ‘out of
touch’ with the rest of the families were there, and also the general controversy. He talks to
Khan about this, but Khan knows what he’s up to, and refuses to compromise because of his
beliefs in meritocracy (he thought that this refusal to compromise will be his downfall, but on
the other hand, he likes this stubbornness). Meanwhile, despite being an illegal immigrant,
she believes the memorial also belongs to people like her.

Meanwhile…

“What’s wrong with the garden?”

“Some people wanted a different design.”
 “Why?”
“Because they didn’t like the man who design it.” (Waldman, p. 144)

That’s an explanation a grieving mother tell to her child, after the mother had just confronted
Claire about the Garden.

From the simple premise, the belief that what Khan did is basically gloating Americans
regarding those who died (and basically what Sean believes), many rhetoric spawns – that
Islam is unwilling to assimilate and wanted to replace, unlike the previous immigrants (this
accusation has been thrown into every time there’s a surge of immigrants throughout the US
history – the Irish, the Germans, the Jews, the Chinese, the Italians, the Mexicans, and now
this). The Rally to Protect the Sacred Ground, led by SAFI and Debbie, is now onslaught.
This is an army that believes the more extreme version of what Sean believes, in which Sean
doesn’t summon and can’t disband – even this makes Sean felt uneasy, with the crowd that
openly advocates to nuke Muslims, with the vitriolic crowd not so different from the lynch
mobs the black Americans face few generations past. As much as he disliked Khan and Claire
(who is now the target too), the lynch mob in front of him now looks creepy, with hundreds
of their photos smeared with question marks and target practice marks on the crowd. The
crowd marches to the street, in which then they were stopped and arrested without resistance
by the police – one of the crowd scream ‘Terrorist Lover!’ at the police, the police answered
with Buddha-level calmness, detachment from emotion and highness of ‘Ma’am, I got four
kids, all I wanted is a paycheck.’. This kind of behaviour irritated the crowd, and Sean. (Is
this kind of irritation is the reason why the Civil Rights era were so violent? Is this why the
movement against Ghandi were so violent towards civil disobedience?) A small
counterprotest by the Muslims were there too, the particular sign of ‘BIGOTS = IDIOTS’
boils Sean’s blood. He approached and confronted the woman who hold that sign, and the
Dalai Lama-level ‘smugness’ of the woman, whom, to Sean, just insulted his parents and his
dead brother, prefers to fight for her identity which kills rather than calling out those who kill
in the name of her identity, provokes Sean enough to pull out her hijab just before the police
arrested him. Debbie praised him, liberals believe that it is a deliberate stunt. Nobody
believes that it is unscripted.

Chapter 14 – 17

People voluntarily protects Khan (without his approval) appears. Khan eventually was invited
to various ‘left-wing’ people and areas – Hollywood parties, the parties of the elite, and so on
– and he felt like half-god, half-freak. He wants no pandering to or against him, but he was
thrusted into a world where people will either will pander for him or pander against him,
without recognizing his humanity. Meanwhile, Alyssa just got the information regarding
Khan’s time in Afghanistan – where he made a ‘threatening gesture’ (out of the frustration of
being scanned and probed every time he enters an American building). She used this to get
Claire (the woman she smeared earlier) to get an interview. She got what she wants – not an
interview, really, but a chance for ‘rewiring’ – to make someone confront their own
hypocrisies, to break someone using words. Actually, Paul knows that Khan was in
Afghanistan, but to him it made no relevance.

Meanwhile, Sean’s act becomes national news, and left-wing magazines attacks Sean as
‘bringing a stream of intolerance’ – and just like Kroll, his family are harassed by reporters.
Sean has an ex-wife who claimed that Sean once hit her, this also becomes national news.
Copycats of hijab-pulling becomes common. Hypocrisies, they say, for the people who
protest Islam’s treatment of women and intolerance of different opinions practices violence
and intolerance themselves. The anti-Khan rhetoric was also more prevalent – it’s even in
television now.

Self-defense Islamic squads with baseball bats began to appear, beating anyone who come
too close to a hijabi. This, to people like Debbie, seems to be like ‘non-Muslims aren’t
welcome in Muslim neighborhoods anymore, and this is the next step to Sharia law’.
Meanwhile, MACC started to publish their own propaganda article, that Khan is an architect,
not a terrorist – on left-wing magazines and media. Get advertisement and each printed face
gives 10 dollars. Khan, being not liking being pandered, feel uncomfortable because of this,
and the fact that whatever anything pro-him will be so scrutinized that anything wrong –
wrong grammar, wrong words – can be twisted. He became a product to be auctioned. Laila,
whom herself was an immigrant just before Shah’s downfall (and the change of political
climate surrounding that), tries to cheer him up.

After too many hijab-pulling and incidents of hate, the US president hold an official press
conference denouncing the movement. Sean was personally lambasted for ‘starting hate’.

Issam Malik appeared, saying that if Debbie and Sean met him and apologize, all this would
be forgotten. Sean is a bit hesitant, but both refuses – because this would mean submission –
Americans, born-and-bred, kneeling and submitting themselves to the enemy.
MACC office. SAFI people on the outside, but Sean comes in alone. With other reporters
everywhere, it is broadcasted live on TV, and the room has many TV sets, all turned on. ‘You
can’t teach an empty classroom’, he said. For the first time in his life, Sean was probed. For
the first time, he’s the only white guy in the room. His gym bag, they thought he bought a
gun (parallel to how Khan was often probed in suspicion that he bought a bomb, that he is
going to terrorize, and so on). The woman’s name is Zahira, and since her humiliation was
public, Sean cannot apologize in private. Long story short, Zahira’s reasoning – far more
rational than Sean ever was – and made Sean feel vulnerable from being exposed as a know-
nothing bigot – made him apologize, and he mean it. He returned to Malik and apologize in
front of live TV. However, he still doesn’t accept the Garden – that his brother died because
of the extremist in the religion, and for a Muslim to build a monument there is insulting.

It is now Ramadan, and for the first time, Mo is fasting. His secularism and uneasiness of
being used as a propaganda prop earned distrust among the MACC, but he is still invited for
an iftah with his parents. His father apologize, for believing in the US so much that he
thought he could name him Mohammad and still get away with it – but his attachment to the
mosque also alienates Mo. The mayor has stand up with the Muslims, but what to do next? It
quickly devolves into debate, with people shoving food as fast as they can because of the
day’s fasting and tomorrow’s fasting. Mo’s perceived affair with Laila, and his attitude of not
‘safeguard us, and we will safeguard you’ – indirectly smears MACC’s name, every right-
wing attacks smears MACC’s name, and some blame him for that. That if the right-wing
succeeds, it will fuel more Islamic terrorism, and they will be held responsible for everything.

Meanwhile, Claire being confronted all the time regarding how she doesn’t represent the
families started to change her. She started to reconsider her position and… she started to
change.

Chapter 18-25

It has been weeks since the design were known to the public. Finally, the hearing begins. The
architect himself will come forward. Paul had a change of mind - maybe he should let history
run its course, and not trying to ask Khan to withdraw anymore. For the hearing, Khan didn’t
take fasting. After Paul welcomes the audience, Khan is given floor. He explains as calmly as
he can – the murals and the walls symbolizes eternal mourning, but the garden symbolizes
growth that America will be as they grow, but the hostility begins when he tells the
inspiration from – from many places, including Japanese gardens, Mondian and Mies van der
Rohe, and yes, from Islamic architecture – although not necessarily, because the original
design was based from agriculture and predates Islam (as defined by Muhammad) by at least
a millennia. Shouting commenced. ‘Taqiyya!’ ‘Liar!’ ‘The Japanese didn’t blow themselves
up to the paradise!’ That the Japanese didn’t have 72 virgins for suicide bombers. (but how
are they going to explain the Japanese internment camps, the kamikaze suicide planes and the
Banzai charges of WW2? After Pearl Harbor there were similar discrimination against the
Japanese-Americans as well.) The comment time opens.

Few provides honest criticism. Some believe that it is just insensitive. Many believes that this
will provoke radical Islamists who will gloat over this garden. Debbie and Sean was there
too. However, Sean is a bit relented, and only let his father speak that he lost his son. The
session is almost over, until Asma shows up, with Nasruddin, who translates for her. Asma
delivers a powerful speech.

After the conference, while the jurors debating again, Mo is contacted. Good news: The
woman drove spikes of support to Khan. Bad news: The conference, in which Khan refers to
the religion and the Quran was written by a man – ‘preceeding Islam’ – and talks about the
Quran in a scientific, secular manner instead of ‘a believer’s manner – which means that he
refers to Islam as written by Muhammad – and all the imams from around the world, not just
the fringe ones, including the ones in Europe, went up in arms against him. Iranian imam has
made fatwa against him. Pakistanis made a demonstration of a mob burning him. Nice.

Asma’s speech had made such a national news that Oprah suddenly called her to appear on
her live TV. Feminists and MACC had tried to claim Asma as their own – but many feminist
also attacks Nasruddin as the stereotypical patriarchal Muslim male who mistreats women.
She also becomes the new target to anti-Muslim rhetoric, and it wasn’t long before Asma,
Nasruddin and his family becomes a target similar to Khan. But one thing is certain – The US
needs heroes, and the hero came. But this also means the government, with their brand-new
post-911 PATRIOT act and the virtual abolishment of the 4th amendment, will sooner or later
investigate Asma and they will found out that she is illegal. And very quickly she was found.

She HAD to leave. Half the Little Bangladesh neighbourhood is illegal (seriously, did all of
them just deliberately overstays their visa, like her?). If she stays, the whole community
suffers – even the neighbors started gossiping about her. Laila could win her case and put her
on asylum (her sudden popularity might also help to mend the government), but everyone
else will be deported. And she won’t fully recover from her discovery, anyway, had she stays
– being on permanent record on breaking the law would make it very hard to get a valid work
visa, get a real job nor USCIS background checks. Also, the news that she had 1. 05 million
USD from compensation also comes out, and her landlord began harassing her. And she
would take Abdul back home. It’s not enough that the Post would had exposed her as illegal,
they even tell when her plane arrives and where the plane will pick her up. It is a literal
national news, while the neighbors murmurs ‘think before acting, don’t act without thinking’
in their mind – grateful that their illegal status hasn’t been found. However, she was stabbed
that day, and died.

Alyssa tried to ‘repair’ Khan to make him feel responsible for Asma’s death but backfired
spectacularly. Meanwhile, Sean watched the news – he lived near that community, never
knew there were so many of them. That he had a conscience, realizing that he basically gave
hunting permits for all the radical anti-Muslim hate (the ones like Debbie, or far worse). He
suddenly lost the will to fight anymore.

Khan had to meet with Claire and Paul again. They asked him again, regarding the details of
the design, the clarifications that the families were commenting with – the fact that Khan did
uses Islamic visual language in the design. That the visual language and design of the
Garden, while not provoke Khan or moderate Muslims, may provoke people somewhere else
(while not watching the news, where MACC and imams around the world now wanted him
dead from blasphemy). The jurors, particularly Claire (who, since the beginning, also has
doubts regarding Khan’s design), asked Khan to change the design to reduce the association
with the radical Muslims and make the families felt more at ease. But Khan refuses. True to
his word, indeed. He was adamant of the fact that if it’s not a Muslim, nobody would care.
But the thing is, his perceived lack of telling the truth regarding the inspiration and the true
meaning of the design are asking more of them, and the ‘discussion’ got heated. Until Khan
made a comparison – what would she feel if he justified her husband’s death by saying that
he got what he deserved because of the US foreign policies?

That was the last straw. Claire then exited the room. She then appeared with members of the
MACC on a public statement, and says that she will find a different design, the one that less
provocative, the ones that droves less controversy. Paul, now only wanted history to run its
course, realized that maybe all of this were started from his insistence for Khan to withdraw.
That Khan got emotional, and eventually angers Claire, from the constant nagging.
The last time Khan appeared, all now has been against him: The MACC, who had distrusted
Khan because of his secularism and reluctance for being a propaganda prop, and his ‘affair’
with Laila (and how Asma’s death can be used as some sort of martyr). Claire, whom he
angers to, because of his over-insistence, his refusal to compromise – Claire now hangs out
with the MACC. Debbie still attacks Muslims indiscriminately. Paul had given up and let fate
sort out the mess. The Imams still wanted him dead for his secularity. Laila, nowhere in sight.
Kroll, he’s trying to protect what’s left of his family, and mentioned that whatever happens,
after the decision is made there will be tons of ‘business’ – work, or legal actions, or smear
attacks? His architecture’s license is also being put on hold now, due to the whole
controversy. There’s only two choice – withdraw, or be doomed. Or, change the design, and
maybe, once the climate is getting better, remodify the design so that he can get what he
wants.

He is then found in Afghanistan, in Kabul, adjusting to a new life and beginning to do shalat
– the last time he do that was in the Virginia mosque with his father, only watching. Now, no
one knows his name. He had forgotten them all, and this is the truest submission of all.

Epilogue

Twenty years has passed. Mo, now in Mumbai, an American in name only, is an
internationally recognized architect. After arguing with a prince regarding a lawn design, he
is visited by two American kids less than half his age. Her name is Molly, and she’s making a
documentary movie regarding the controversy, with her professor telling her that the process
of the creation is also part of the memorial. American Muslims are now being embraced if
not accepted, their rights unquestioned, the country had moved on. Historians will put Khan
as the man who changed the Middle Eastern architecture. He is still somewhat in contact with
K/K Architects, but now Kroll runs it, survived the ensuing controversy. Two years ago, the
Museum of Architecture in New York finally puts his name, as The American Architect, who
completes so many projects – although most of them from dictators and countries with
newfound wealth, while there’s no single building made solely by Khan in the US – but still,
it influences many designers today. His story, of making journey outside of his strangling,
hostile homeland to venture the unknown, and made fortune by doing so, is uniquely
American – only that the story is the US was the strangling, hostile homeland, and the
tyrannical countries he worked for are the promised lands. That the Garden’s controversy,
now sits in the ‘Unbuilt’ design (and ends up being built somewhere else, for some rich
dictator’s garden), has also attracted his talent into the international stage, and for many,
pleasing the radical Imams who wanted his head aren’t the only thing that matters. Only he
stuck in the past. He never spoke about the incident, and perhaps, opening it up will gave him
the apology he wanted for so long.

The right-wing talk-show host died of drug overdose. Paul had died, only his wife remained.
Sean disappeared. Bitman, now vice president, refused any talk about the event back then.
Malik is now in Congress, and Debbie now becomes Ann Coulter-like, fighting with each
other every time anything Islam is brought up. Laila had to return Abdul to his grandparents
back in Bangladesh, and Abdul, having college acceptance in the US, is now attracted but
terrified of the US – the country that killed both his parents, but whom his parents love. Khan
himself sometimes wonders in his bedroom and feel the same way regarding returning home
to the US, now that everything dies down.

Meanwhile, since the Middle Eastern & South Eastern architecture captivates him, he might
as well worked there, where the name Muhammad isn’t a burden. But he didn’t renounced his
US citizenship. His parents knew that he went away and withdrew his submission. He still
knew what happened with Kroll. Looking back, he thought maybe he shouldn’t entered.
Whom does he blame? A lot of people, from the obvious ones to the not-so-obvious ones,
until he remembers Claire. “What happened to her?”

Claire is… regretful, to say the least, but still adamant about her decision back then. Khan
isn’t the easiest person to deal with, and he was very stubborn to the point of arrogance. New
memorial had been made, with new juries and all that, but by the time the construction was
complete the Iraq and Afghanistan war had costs so much souls that it really doesn’t matter
anymore. The legacy – the infighting over symbols of tragedy, fighting for what the country
can’t settle with – is, perhaps, the true memorial.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain
of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political
and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance
is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Isaac Asimov, 1980

This book gives the perspective of all possible by-products of a massive tragedy in the US: A
person who belongs (willingly or unwillingly) into the group identity of the perpetrator, a
victim who happens to be illegal immigrant, a victim who tries to keep prejudices that can
stem out of the tragedy out of her decisions out of honouring the lost Lenore (the more
‘liberal’ victim) but ends up alienating people who also lost their loved one, a victim who
becomes bitter because of the attack, politicians and journalists trying to use the tragedy to
their advantage, and the attitude of the media and the political discourse in the United States
when faced with a goldmine of controversy. This book is a showcase of a wilful ignorance
that is so prevalent in the United States’ political discourse, which stems from over-
emotionalism and the belief that their political enemies are one-dimensional, caricaturized,
incompetent yet omnipotently evil. Alyssa and the media are just exploiting that drive to get
views and position. Because it sells (AlternateHistoryHub, 2018). Because it will gave her
position of power. It doesn’t matter that the right-wing vs. Islam debates on the radio talk
show host is so perfectly smooth and violent, they might practice the script off-screen.

Mohammad Khan is an average American who just happened to be a Muslim (a non-

practicing one, but his identity stays), and an act of goodwill made him the center of a
controversy. He tried to distance himself from the Muslim identity as much as possible, he
tries as much as possible to be himself, while he is at a country that is so entrenched with
group identity politics that he ends up alienating everyone. The political right hates him
because of his Muslim identity, MACC and the radical Muslims from the outside world hates
him for not being Muslim enough. He came from a family (and he initially believes too) that
praises the US for its devotion to meritocracy (compared to where the social standing you
were born into matters more, in places like Bangladesh or India), and seemingly ignorant (or
wilfully ignorant) of the history of discriminations runs thorough in the US, until he
personally experience it himself. He adamantly believes the only reason people asks
questions are because he’s a Muslim, to the point of arrogance which alienates even more.
Asma is a person who cheated her way into the United States by applying for visitor visa and
deliberately stays after she’s out of status. If the author wrote her differently – for example,
she or Inam had an unskilled job offer and granted H-2B visa for 3 years, but circumstances
outside of their control or the companies makes them have to stay there after they’re out of
status, working using a fake name and fake Social Security number, while the employer
refuse to sponsor them for legal immigration because they’re not worth the $10000 labor
certification cost and other USCIS costs, the author might be able to write about the
exploitation of low-skilled people in the Third World, how companies and con artist are
selling them the American Dream only to use them as a cheap, undocumented labor that they
can abuse (and they can’t speak against, lest they will be deported and banned for 10 years –
especially if they have children who were born in the US, making them US citizen and away
from their deported parents, courtesy of Child Protective Services), she might be gaining
more sympathy. However, the fact that she deliberately applying for visitor visa only to stay
after she’s out of status will come off as unsympathetic, especially for legal immigrants who
must pay billions (for example, education without scholarship (scholarship requires people to
go home after graduation), so they have a US degree, so they have some chance to work
using H-1B visa / OPT post-grad work visa, which then can transition to Green Card) and / or
waited for years while working or studying using visa just for a chance to get a Green Card.
(Nolo; n.d. Immigration Roadmap.com; n.d., Lin & Valdez L.L.D.; n.d.)

The MACC represents a demonized identity group which adamantly refuse to compromise on
their identity, but still tries to mend out the hatred directed towards them. However, they too,
can also feel wronged – not only how America treats them in the domestic policy but also in
foreign policy. That they denounced Al-Qaeda, but they approved of whatever Palestine is
doing even if Palestine becomes questionable. They give off a different image of how
Muslim treats women – Zaina wore hijab willingly – but probably refuses to talk about
countries where hijab is enforced socially or legally. That they welcomes more ‘liberal’
Muslims which aren’t as authoritarian as their more conservative counterparts, but they
become immediately suspicious when knowing that Khan wasn’t interested in the Muslim
identity either.

Sean & Debbie represents wilful ignorance of the right-wing. Sean (and Debbie) are people
who becomes bitter because of the attack. Sean lost his brother, many lost their loved ones
during the attack, and wilfully close their hearts over the identity who attacks them –
Muslims. Debbie felt threatened about the ‘creeping sharia’ – the belief that Islam, being a
religious ideology with dictates every part of human life (therefore, true Islamic society will
require Islamic government – secular system or non-Islamic system may exist but the rule of
law and the government must be Islamic), will replace the Western culture. It doesn’t matter
that there are billions of Muslims who hold different beliefs and levels of piousness, it
doesn’t matter that Khan and his family is pretty much Muslims in Name Only, and
sometimes it doesn’t matter if they becomes the intolerant thing that they accuse every
Muslims with, indiscriminately. It is only until Sean gets a taste of his own medicine that he
finally relents, although gradually. And when Sean is in doubt, Asma’s speech and killing
eventually made him realized that he’s going too far, that he basically becoming the thing that
he hates, that he basically giving indiscriminate hunting permits to many people who were
more numerous and closer to him than what he think.

Claire represents those who had to choose between using her mandate as the voice of the
victim, or the voice of her own conscience. She lost a loved one on the attack, but initially
she tries to not judge Khan for his Muslim beliefs, partly because of her own beliefs, and
partly out of respect to her husband, who also probably believes the same thing. However, the
hearing and the fact that she is responsible to represent families who are not exactly believing
the same way as she did, and doubts regarding Khan’s design, eventually turning Claire
against Khan. As Claire becomes more hostile to Khan, Sean becomes less hostile to Khan.
The truth is that sometimes, people can change, and sometimes, empathy does works.

During the, for example, Charlottesville Neo-Nazi attack on August 2017, the conservative /
libertarian position is ‘instead of censoring Nazis, let them spout their own belief and let the
crowd gets repulsed by themselves’ – especially during the heated political climate where
argumentum ad Hitlerum is a common tactic. (Dalrymple, 2017). However, the same rhetoric
of how the Constitution is not the only thing that matters, the general climate that Muslims
doesn’t deserve the First Amendment, the same anger that demonizes groups of people, the
double standard – the same tactics that the left-wing today uses towards the right-wing (User:
ebilgenius, 2018; Bolt, 2016; Concha, 2017; Logan, 2016; Queally, J. et al., 2017) and vice
versa – is used in this book towards Khan, who meant no harm to anyone.

Amy Waldman used to be a journalist, and how the world of journalists & news media
wishing a top position by using questionable tactics and rhetoric (this happens in real life too)
(Imgur; 2018, Lott; 2017; Gramlich & Parker, 2017), and how politically active talk show
hosts and political news will use smearing tactics (this, too, happens in real life) (Blackwell,
2018; Rensin, 2016; Flanagan, 2017), is an unfortunate, but perfectly real, part of the US’
political discourse – which feeds the people’s desired for simple, caricatured, black-vs-white
answers. It is ridiculous how university-educated, otherwise-smart-people who were taught
ethics in journalism often disregard (or forced to disregard) all ethics when they apply for a
job, but that’s the reality. Alyssa embodies the controversy-seeking journalist who are willing
to divide a country for her own advancement in career, who are willing to break and rewire
someone just to write them as a hypocrite later in the news, who are willing to spread fake
news just for her own power and position. This controversy-seeking, one-sided, opinion-
based / paid-based journalism exists then, and exists now, especially during the times of
political uncertainty displayed by Trump (and his opponents). She would still fit right in on
today’s world. Despite the higher level of violence displayed during, for example, the Civil
Rights Movement, the media were not as opinionated and full-of-hatred or full-of-opinion as
today, thanks to President Reagan’s decision to remove the Fairness Doctrine in 1987.
(Ruanne, 2011; Rendall, 2005).

Upon closer inspection, the book is also revealing different kinds of Muslims – that Muslims
are diverse, with various level of deviousness and various kinds of mindset. On a grieving
and angry America after the attack who discriminates against Muslims indiscriminately, this
is a big deal. From the Muslims in Name OnlyTM who tried to disassociate himself from the
identity and the religion like Khan, the refugee who doesn’t believe in the more religious
aspect of the religion but cares about the Muslim as an identity and their rights in the Western
world like Laila, the ones who believes in the religious aspect of the religion but believes that
Islam can integrate with the West and tries to adjust the mindset to make it more compatible
(only to receive scorn from the more bigoted parts of the Western world – and possibly, the
more radical parts of Islam) like Zahira, to the ones who is a bit more radical and tries to
inject a bit of Islam into the Western life, living in the Western world but believes they’re
victimized by the Western’s foreign policy like Malik and some members of the MACC
(believing that Eid Mubarak should be a holiday and believes that the Western world should
repent for Palestine), to, of course, the radical Imams outside the US who wanted Khan’s
head because he’s not religious enough.

This book will evoke different reactions to different people, depending on their own personal
backgrounds and beliefs. Those who belongs and believes in an identity which is demonized
will probably sympathize with the MACC, because incompatibility of your own personal
value with the people around you, combined with perceived (or real) injustice that your
environment do towards your ilk, will entrench and demonizes people. Especially if your
beliefs will dictate how something other than yourself (namely, other people), should run.
Those who believes in ‘open borders’ might be sympathetic to Asma’s story despite coming
to the US illegally, however a US legal immigrant who paid billions for the right to live and
work in the US or those who believes that immigration should be controlled, with hate Asma.

Those who were lumped with a demonized identity, despite not exactly being one of them
(and actually feels like they belong more to the identity that lumps them into the
‘undesirables’) will probably more sympathetic to Khan. Khan has no ill-intent when he
submits his work – he submits his work because he wanted to participate, as an American –
but the ensuing controversy eventually making him have to leave the United States. Khan’s
parents were granted the chance to remake their destiny by the United States, while Khan’s
controversy found him being moulded so much by the United States that he found out that he
belongs more in the country which lets his parents down – reverse immigration. MACC
wasn’t exactly sympathetic with Khan, while emotionalism drives the people who smears
him regardless of the fact regarding himself.

Those who had personal tragedy or personal problem or political disagreement with Islam
will probably side with Debbie or Sean. That Islam’s authoritarian side (at least), with their
Sharia law, doesn’t belong in the civilized world. That Islam (at least the conservative part of
Islam) is barbaric when it comes to their treatment towards women and LGBT community.

The characters were written as talking points, or a perspective, rather than a person – a
character’s purpose, for, say, Khan, is representing the secular Muslim who were dragged
into controversy – forced to confront his fierce belief in meritocracy while people around him
weren’t think so, while Sean is representing those who becomes hostile from the loss of a
loved one, and so on. Many of the characters lacks depth that would make a character a
character. The depths / background of the characters seems to be written as a necessity, not
from a passion to make a character a character. But, it seems, the book isn’t about the
character, but more about a showcase of ‘what if’, what might going to happen when a
Muslim designed the 9/11 monument on 2003, when Islamophobia is still rampant, when OIF
had just begun with popular support (Pew Research, 2008). And the book showcases all the
possible reaction quite perfectly.
There are some parts which has potential but squandered (for example, the entirety of Asma’s
story). Few parts are explained thoroughly – for example, how did MACC suddenly hates
Khan? Not as explained as Sean’s or Debbie’s.

The book’s happy ending – where America has learned its mistake and moved on, like she
had always been throughout history – are set 20 years later (2023), but it seems like it is still a
long time to finally achieve that kind of situation. The rise of ISIS, the migrant crisis that
sparks populism & isolationist policies (explainable by Trump, Brexit, Le Pen and Doug Ford
victory in the Ontario election in Canada and Angela Merkel’s gradual unpopularity), and the
rise of Islamic conservatism in Islamic countries (including Indonesia) are still kicking the
same type of international discourse regarding Islam. The left, portrayed briefly in the book,
are smugger than ever, while the right gains power through the aforementioned politicians,
and the Islamist, feeling wronged by the world (especially regarding Palestine), becomes
more entrenched than ever. Meanwhile, the more ‘liberal’ Muslims favors Democratic Party
(or their equivalent) very strongly (therefore will still becoming the eternal enemy of the
conservatives) (Mohamed et al., 2017.), so this divide will not be bridged anytime soon.
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