Communities of minor race in a region tend to be treated differently by communities of the dominant race. In the United States’ case, Muslim immigrants and expatriates are treated differently in public by dominant, Americans who are mostly white or black. This issue is global as it is very much the same all over the world. It is also explored in Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Since the story takes place at the time around 9.11 happened, the discrimination towards the Muslim community is worse compared to other times and it is expressed in multiple places throughout the novel. Hamid’s Novel argues that Americans are over exaggerating the fear of Muslims and immigrants from similar regions. And this is the root cause of racial discrimination in the United States.

On page 133, Hamid wrote , “Yet even at Underwood Samson I could not entirely escape the growing importance of tribe. Once I was walking to my rental car in the parking lot of the cable company when I was approached by a man I did not know. He made a series of unintelligible noises—“akhala-malakhala,” perhaps, or “khalapal-khalapala”—and pressed his face alarmingly close to mine. I shifted my stance, presenting him with my side and raising my hands to shoulder height; I thought he might be mad, or drunk; I thought also that he might be a mugger, and I prepared to defend myself or to strike.  This entire quote explains Changez’s experience; being a target of racism. There are few important points. Firstly, how Changez did not take any action about it and tried to ignore it as much as he could, though there were a lot of thoughts and feelings going on in his mind. His behavior is a representation of most of the immigrants’ behavior and indicates how they are polite and harmless in real life. It also argues that those terrorists who use violence, are exceptions and rare cases in their community.

Hamid also wrote, “Just then another man appeared; he, too, glared at me, but he took his friend by the arm and tugged at him, saying it was not worth it. Reluctantly, the first allowed himself to be led away. “Fucking Arab,” he said.” This is an interesting point as to how the stranger called Changez, “Arab”. Of course, he is not an Arab as he states right after this quote. This sarcastically expresses Americans are not even recognizing the race of the target and they just want to remove exceptions from their community no matter who they are specifically. Additionally, there is an interesting language technique as well. Hamid did not write anything about Changez’s feeling in here and just describes what was going on physically – the power of unsaid. By hiding that information and just stating what happened, readers will attempt to understand Changez’s feelings which is one of Hamid’s aims. By letting readers think about it, they will understand the feeling of being a target of racial discrimination. Hamid seeks sympathy towards Changez and encourages the reader not to discriminate against someone.

Hamid uses his novel to argue that United States’ view on Muslim immigrants that they are all violent and terrorists, is totally wrong and they are actually polite and peaceful people. He delivered this claim by using Changez’s behavior. He also argued against the indiscriminate racism of Americans. He used the power of unsaid to effectively stimulates readers’ emotion to encourage not to racial discriminate someone.