Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America

The essay opens at a reading for Lalami’s novel The Moor’s Account. Although the novel is set in the early 16th century, she is asked about ISIS. Lalami’s religious history reflects the complexities of faith in her life as a young woman, when Morocco experienced a power shift between France, which is Catholic, and Morocco, which is Muslim. Conflicts between the US and the Soviet Union influenced politics in Morocco, leading to a wave of religious rhetoric in the 1980s. Lalami notes that religion became an increasingly pervasive aspect of Moroccan culture and daily life.

Lalami comments on being seen as representative of her ethnicity and culture, noting that Americans don’t know much about Muslim cultures. She mentions that Muslims were present at Jamestown, the first permanent English North American colony, yet little is known about them. Lalami notes the privilege of ignorance that allows Americans to know so little about countries and people who helped create their nation and whom the US has attacked or fought against.

This discussion is followed by an outline of the activities of the founder of ISIS, Ahmed Fadhil al-Nazal al-Khalaylah, also known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.