Journal Article

Rania Khalil's Flag Piece

Mowafi, Shaima El-Sayed Mohamed

2021

Overview

Before 9/11, there were no overwhelming matters that thrust Arab Americans into public attention. In general, Americans have a racist and distorted image of Arabs which is almost invariably negative. However, after 9/11, Arab Americans were doubly attacked, as disloyal, unpatriotic, and unwelcoming citizens; they become regular targets of racial profiling and institutional detention. Although they suffered like every American citizen at the horror of the attacks and some lost their relatives and beloved ones too, they were blamed for events in which they have no hand. Arab Americans became guilty by association, i.e. just because they are of Arab origin or Islam followers. Thus, the question of Arab Americans' patriotism has become highly controversial in the sense that they become the devil incarnated and the enemy within. Accordingly, it is important in this paper to explore two interrelated questions: First, what it means to be a patriot; and second, how the concepts of patriotism, belongingness, and Americanness define themselves among the Arab-American community in the period following 9/11. The critical theory of New Historicism is applied in the analysis of the selected representative performance, Rania Khalil's Flag Piece.

• Publisher: جامعة عين شمس - مركز بحوث الشرق الأوسط
• Subject: أحداث 11 سبتمبر 2001 / الأمن القومي الأمريكي / الدراما السياسية / المسرح الأمريكي