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MY SON THE FANATIC ESSAY

The clashes between Muslim culture and the western, has caused many problems over the
years, because of the inability to accept each other’s religions and lifestyles. The Muslim
culture is much different from the western, it is clearly shown in the movie “my son the
fanatic”. In the movie we follow the Muslim father Parvez, and his difficulties with his son
and wife, with his constant effort of trying to be an honored man in England, and his
relationship with the English prostitute Bettina.

Parvez has integrated to England when he was young, he lives with his son and wife.
Parvez spends a lot of time at work being a taxi driver, and almost every day he spends
time with his friend Bettina, which is strongly prohibited in the Muslim society. Parvez is
not a strong believer in the Islamic religion, he drinks, and likes the fact that there are not
many rules in England.

Ali is Parvez’s son, in the beginning of the movie, Parvez is very proud of him, he brags
about Ali being a part of the cricket team, and that he is studying to be an accountant.
Later in the movie, Ali begins to act strange, he throws all of his things out, and his
relationship with his fiancé is not going well, this is because Ali has turned from being a
weak believer in the Islam, to a very strong one.

Ali judges Parvez multiple times in the movie, for being with Bettina and for drinking. One
of the things Parvez likes in the western culture is that there are so much things allowed,
and no one is judging him, so when his own son judges him, it hurts him a lot. One of the
reasons why Parvez enjoys being with Bettina, is exactly because she is not judgmental,
another reason is that she is a very good listener, with Bettina, Parvez can say anything.

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The movie is set in the 90’s, this makes a difference, because the Muslim culture was fairly
new to the British at that time, the western countries are much more multi-cultural in
present time. The elderly Muslims are more passive than the young ones, the 2 nd
generation are more brave and aggressive about their cause. Ali joined this young Islamic
movement, because he misses some comfort in life, maybe he has not had many friends,
and perhaps he has experienced some kind of discrimination. The 1st generation Muslim
integrators are more respectful and grateful for being a guest in a foreign country opposite
to the 2nd generation.

As the title says, Parvez thinks that his son has become a fanatic, but this is only seen from
Parvez’s perspective. Because of the perspective, the story also seems as Ali is in fact a
fanatic, but if on the other hand we had seen the movie in Ali’s perspective, we would
have believed that Parvez was the fanatic.

A fanatic “is a person whose enthusiasm or zeal for something is extreme or beyond
normal limits”. If we follow this definition of a fanatic, Ali would fit in, he performs his
religion to the extreme when he riots against the prostitutes and performs violence by
punching Bettina. Ali also went beyond limits, when he had no control over the expenses,
for the phone bills and etc. Parvez on the other hand, has not executed any form of
enthusiasm to its extreme, Ali thinks that Parvez is a fanatic for hitting him, but there is
nothing fanatic of the actions that he did, he only had a moment of very bad
temperament.

Muslim families, and the Muslim church has a very close relationship, this is one of the
reasons to why Muslims fear to cross some of the rules based on the Islamic Koran,
because if they do, they might be judged by the others in this circle, and never be a part of
it again. Foreigners can often have a hard time integrating in western countries, and
possibly not be able to gain any friends outside their own religion and nationality, this is
what I believe is the cause to their dependence on others. In this case, Parvez is one of
these examples, he does not fancy the religion his wife and son preach to, he wishes to be

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independent, but he can only do this in secret. Parvez crosses some of these rules written
in the Koran, this leads to his wife and son leaving him.

The conflicts between Ali and Parvez could happen in any family, with a strong believer in
religion. These conflicts happen because of the clash of cultures, and the different opinions
of whether to embrace this new culture, or to repel it.