This book examines how post-9/11 American literature constructs and circulates Islamophobia through renewed forms of Orientalism. Using contrapuntal reading as its central framework, it analyses silences, ideological patterns, and narrative strategies shaping representations of Islam and Muslims in select historical fiction and memoir. The study distinguishes overt Islamophobic rhetoric from subtler Orientalist tropes, offering clearer terminology for analysing gendered narratives, authorial positioning, and the sociopolitical pressures influencing literary production after 9/11. By connecting textual analysis with media discourse, political context, and historical legacies, the book shows how works such as Infidel and The Jewel of Medina function not only as literary texts but also as cultural interventions. Therefore, it also challenges simplified readings of authenticity, insider narratives, Islamophobia, and Orientalism in contemporary scholarship.

Sadiya Abubakar Isa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Western Languages and Literatures at Karabuk University, Türkiye. Her academic background spans Nigeria, India, and Malaysia, where she completed her Ph.D. in English Literature. Her research focuses on postcolonial and trauma studies, Orientalism, Islamophobia, and post-9/11 fiction, with emerging interests in decolonial theories, postconflict narratives, precolonial Africa, and Islamophobia in Nigeria. She previously lectured at Nigerian Army University Biu and continues to work on issues related to identity, representation, and cultural politics in literature.