My son, the fanatic

“My son the Fanatic” is a short story by Hanif Kureishi which deals with Religious Fundamentalism through Parvez and Ali’s story. Parvez is a Pakistani man migrated to Britain to feed his family, he’s an outcast of society who finds his home as the only place in which he can just be himself without serving others. He discovers his own son changing rapidly into a young fanatic, so involved in Muslim attitudes that he parts from his English girlfriend, stops ringing his old friends and to be a English boy with his love for playing guitar, listening to music, meeting friends, being a common student. The culminating moment or “climax” is in the final part when Parvez don’t want to tolerate his son’s behavior anymore, so he hits him without receiving any kind of reaction. In 1997 Kureishi’s short story was put into a movie, which is now of current interest thanks to the recent London bombings. The conflict between father and son in fact exemplifies the conflict between two different way of life and cultures: father and son, family man and fanatic, Parvez and Ali (Farid in the movie) love each other but the religion divide them...