Young Muslim's Book Club discussion

hello Young Muslims BC members, my name is Andrew and I'm not a Muslim. I've come here for help and advice on my representation of Islam in a novel I've written. It's set in the UK in the early 2010s and includes a wide cast of characters. Three are young Muslim men from London who are tempted by violent extremism. That is a very negative stereotype, but I intend (and hope) that reading the chapter in which it happens actually challenges stereotypes in the end. I'd like to share that chapter with UK-based Muslims to get their feedback, so if you're interested, let me know. The chapter is 17,500 words and is fairly self-contained. The novel has sci-fi and supernatural elements but is mainly a satire of the UK, so perhaps you could tell me what sort of things you like reading. I'd be offering £65 for your honest reactions on less than one side of A4. Thanks for your time.

Hi Andrew,

I read through your request, and here are my thoughts. I know you said that your hope is to challenge the stereotypes, however challenging them by playing right into them is not effective (for example, a female action character commenting on how inappropriate her outfit is for the genre still does not make her sexualization okay). Additionally, there are unfortunately many people who take satire too seriously no matter how well it's written, which might not be an issue in most cases, but it is when it's harming a minority group that is already looked down on. I would highly recommend you take the Muslims aspect of their identity out entirely. You can still write the same story and create a similar satirical message without making the characters caricatures of an already negatively-viewed minority group.

I appreciate that you tried to get sensitivity readers, which shows that you at least somewhat care about Muslim POVs, so hopefully you'll take this advice to heart.

Hi Andrew, UK Muslim here!

Firstly, I'd just like to say that a lot of Muslims are frankly quite sick of the 'Muslim terrorist' stereotype, especially when it comes from non-Muslim authors etc.

However, I am interested in your story, from the way you've described it. If I'm honest, since it's set in the early 2010s, I think you should try to find some older Muslims to read it, since a lot of us younger Muslims were only little kids then, and wouldn't be as familiar with what it was like to be Muslim then. I know for a fact that my experiences now vs my parents' experiences 10 years ago are definitely very different.

Other than that, I'm excited to see where your story will go

Just want to add something; Muslim extremism is a tired trope that Muslims, and people who support them, will have no interest in. The way I see it, frankly no one will want to read about Muslim extremism except people who already believe Muslims are extremists or who don't care, which means there's a very good chance the satire will be lost on them regardless of how well you write it.