Homefire - Religious Betrayal

Homefire’ written by Kamila Shamsie in 2017 follows the story of three Pakistani-British siblings living in London and the suffering they experience because of family conflict stemming from the struggle between their religion and their British nationality. The novel serves as a reimagining of Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’ and demonstrates the hardships that families face when choosing between following the laws of the land or maintaining religious morality. Shamsie portrays Karamat Lone; the home secretary of London in the novel as a direct parallel to Sophocles’ King Creon. Both these characters have a governmental position which gives rise to much dispute between their family. The Jakarta Times mentions that the novel demonstrates “how British people of Pakistani descent struggle to be accepted in society and provokes readers to re-examine views on terrorism, returning jihadist fighters, minorities and identity.” (Heriyanto, 2018) Shamsie demonstrates Lone as a symbol of the incompatibility of religion and politics as he is seen to betray his Muslim roots and religion in order to succeed in the political sphere. However, he soon comes to realise that he has come to betray his family, as well as his religion, while struggling to stay true to his political role.

Shamsie’s portrayal of religious betrayal through the character of Karamat Lone can be illustrated firstly through Isma’s point of view. Shamsie uses the protagonist Isma as a counterpoint to portray his acts of disloyalty. This is strongly presented when Isma receives a message from her sister Aneeka, informing her that Karamat Lone has been made the new Home Secretary. When Isma reads, “from a Muslim background” about Lone in the news article, Shamsie narrates through Isma, “as though muslimness was something he had boldly stridden away from.” The mockery behind Isma’s voice suggests her disapproval towards Karamat Lone, particularly due to his disassociation with Islam. The adverb “boldly” implies that Karamat took a willing and informed decision to separate himself from Islam in order to reach his political position and has an almost heroic tone towards his betrayal which can be seen as juxtaposing ideas. This heroic undertone could stem from the stigma around Islamophobia by those who criticise Islam and Shamsie uses this news article to demonstrate how often Islam is misrepresented as a hostile and unforgiving religion. Therefore, Lone’s escape from the religion can be viewed by his advisors and members of the public as a chivalrous and brave act. This juxtaposes the way in which Muslims in the novel view his act; not so much the escape from religion, but the disassociation with the culture and community around it.The noun “muslimness” could imply not only the religious aspect of Islam but also the culture and morality that embodies someone who identifies as Muslim. The use of Isma’s point of view to analyse Lone’s religious betrayal is pivotal as Shamsie introduces the novel with her viewpoint. This structural choice could demonstrate Shamsie’s aim to manipulate the reader’s response to disapprove of Lone’s actions.

As well as through Isma’s point of view, we can gain a further understanding into Lone’s religious betrayal through Shamsie’s use of Lone’s narrative voice. In Lone’s statement, after two Muslim children from Bradford are killed, he says to Aneeka, “you will be treated differently—not because of racism.” Rather than defending his own culture and community, Lone conforms to the rhetoric that he thinks is correct and that will provide a pathway to popularity amongst the non-Muslims in Britain. The definitive nature of the verb, “will” portrays how Lone is insisting that loyalty towards one’s own beliefs and culture will cause injustice. He goes on to say , “you insisting on your difference from everyone else in this multiethnic, multireligious, multitudinous United Kingdom of ours.” The irony of that fact that he is insisting that British Muslims conform to British societal behaviour and then praises the United Kingdom as “multiethnic, multireligious, multitudinous” implies this inner confusion. This antithetical statement has clear evidence of persuasion and evident rhetoric skills which can be seen through the use of the alliteration of, “multiethnic, multireligious, multitudinous” as Lone may be trying to convince the public that these are secure characteristics of the United kingdom. This religious disloyalty can be further evaluated when Lone tells his son Eamonn, “I’d be nervous about a home secretary who’s spoken openly about his atheism but secretly recites Muslim prayers. Wouldn’t you?” Shamsie’s use of illeism here could demonstrate embarrassment, as the shameful tone in which he exclaims this presents his hypocritical behaviour and almost implies his avoidance of personal acknowledgement. The use of the rhetorical question could be inciting the reader to ask whether they can trust Lone as a narrator and Shamsie may be deliberately making him confirm his hypocrisy so that we do not trust his viewpoint entirely. The condemnation of his culture and background is further expressed when Shamsie describes Lone’s reaction to Aneeka’s return to Pakistan, “She’s going to look for justice in Pakistan?” The italicised “Pakistan” could be Shamsie’s way of emphasising the disgusted tone behind Lone’s statement. The nouns ‘justice’ and ‘Pakistan’ can be seen by the reader as oxymoronic as Lone feels as though this is the one place where Aneeka will not find justice. Shamsie indicates that Lone understands the difficulties that his parents went through in order to give them a better life in the UK and therefore their loyalties should lie with the country that provided them with their opportunities.

Not only can we see Shamsie’s portrayal of his religious betrayal through different narrative viewpoints, Shamsie demonstrates it through his character’s actions. His incipient animosity towards Muslims is evident when Lone regrets his decision about Aneeka’s. He reassures himself by telling his bodyguard, “let her continue to be British, but let her British be outside Britain.” This first mention of “British” could be Shamsie referring to her nationality. However, the second “British” follows the possessive pronoun “her” which demonstrates that Lone indicating that she cannot belong inside of Britain as “her British” is disparate from others, implying that Aneeka does not fit in. This could anaphorically reference Shamsie’s use of the word “muslimness” which could further imply the incompatibility of religion and politics as she illustrates how Aneeka does not qualify as a British citizen due to her alignment with her ‘terrorist’ brother. We can further gain an understanding into Lone’s animosity towards the religion when Shamise illustrates his reaction to the possibility that Parvaiz could be let into Britain again, he says, “I will not let him enter. Do you understand me? Not Jibreel himself.” The dominating tone behind Lone’s anger evokes a sense of nationalism and Lone’s staunch loyalty towards Britain which seems to appear at the expense of his religion and community. The short declarative statements reveal his authoritative and assertive standpoint and how he considers himself superior than Isma to whom this is directed. The divine allusions behind the mention of “Jibreel” represent his familiarity with Islam however, he undermines his religion by giving himself control over the most prominent angel in the Islamic religion. This blasphemous statement truly captures the essence of his resentment towards the religion and how it seems to play a hindering role in his life.

Shamsie’s demonstration of Lone’s betrayal towards religion for political gain could signify her attempt to critique men in high political positions and their political ambitions being met at the expense of religion. Throughout the novel, Lone is presented as being ultimately loyal to Britain as he is appreciative of the opportunities the country gave him. However, in turn, he has abandoned his Pakistani and Islamic roots as he feels as though they have disappointed him. It is clear that although there are instances where Shamsie portrays him as hating Islam and Muslims alike, his relationship with the religion is more complicated. Lizzy Emanuel sheds light on this when she says, “because of discrimination in Britain, he often felt that he had to distance himself from his faith in order to be accepted as a British person.” (Emanuel, 2020) We can see that Shamsie may have aimed to illustrate Lone as insecure as unlike Aneeka and Isma, he chooses to be accepted into Britain as someone who the public deem as “British” rather than staying true to his religion and background and not losing his identity. Through the manipulation of narrative voices, the reader is able to view Lone just as Shamsie does and she uses Isma at the main carrier to shape the readers response into resenting Karamat Lone.