In contrast to the painless transition to Muslim acceptance offered at the end of Waldman’s novel, Naqvi’s take on social “progress” is much more acerbic: “I understood that just like three black men were gangbangers, and three Jews a conspiracy, three Muslims had become a sleeper cell. And later, much later, the pendulum would swing back, and everybody would celebrate progress, the storied tradition of accommodation, on TV talk shows and posters in middle schools” (121).

XREF: Contrasts with Waldman's more hopeful treatment of Muslim acceptance, per the surrounding essay.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 305