Post-9/11 America
The central conflicts in Disgraced are generated by the prejudices that characterize American culture and politics in the post-9/11 era. Set in New York City in 2011 and 2012, approximately a decade after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that brought down the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, the play shows characters living in the shadow of the traumatic event. Within two months of the attacks, the U.S. Congress passed the Patriot Act, a controversial set of laws that saw dramatic increases in the rights of government bodies to surveil, investigate, detain, and prosecute civilians in the name of counter-terrorism—particularly civilians with Muslim backgrounds. In Disgraced, Imam Fareed is prosecuted under the Patriot Act under suspicion of funding terrorism; similarly, the FBI questions Abe after his friend Tariq utters inflammatory threats at a Starbucks, and Abe suspects the FBI is going to pressure him into cooperating with the FBI by entrapping extremists at his mosque. While the characters of Muslim background face dire threats to their freedom, Isaac—a white man—complains about heightened security measures at American airports, which is how he experiences the negative impact of the Patriot Act. In response, Amir reveals that he submits to the added scrutiny at airports by giving himself over to officials for questioning whenever he flies. With this contrast, Akhtar illuminates one of many stark differences in how Muslim-minority identities and white Americans experience daily reality in the post-9/11 era.
Islamophobia
Islamophobia—a fear, dislike, or prejudice against the religion of Islam and its Muslim followers—is one of the central themes in Disgraced. Akhtar introduces the theme early in the play by having Emily and Amir discuss how a waiter stared at Amir the night before; Emily interprets this example of the everyday racism that Muslim-background characters experience as exposing the gap between what the waiter assumed about Amir and who Amir "really is." Because of the Islamophobia that pervades American culture as a result of the "war on terror" the Bush administration launched in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Amir changes his name to obscure his Muslim background, worrying he will be associated with terrorism and refused opportunities to advance in his career. The pervasive suspicion Muslims face also leads Hussein to change his name to Abe, an allusion to Abraham Lincoln. Ironically, Amir reveals that he holds Islamophobic ideas himself: to counter Isaac's and Emily's "well-intentioned" but "naïve" embrace of Islamic traditional art, Amir launches into a lengthy explanation of the brutality he sees as inherent to the Quran, and says that, "The next terrorist attack is probably gonna come from some guy who more or less looks like me." Amir's Islamophobia is complicated further when he supports his argument by admitting that hateful aspects of Islam still live within him despite his efforts to root them out, and that he felt a blush of pride when the Twin Towers fell because it meant Islam was "finally winning." With this paradoxical element of Amir's identity established, Akhtar invites the audience to question whether Amir's negative reading of Islam is based on a good-faith interpretation of the Quran or a fear of the crueler tendencies Amir perceives within himself.
Antisemitism
Juxtaposed with Islamophobia is the theme of antisemitism—prejudice or hostility against Jewish people. Anti-Jewish sentiment first arises in Scene 1, when Amir tells Emily and Abe the story of how his mother spat in his face and threatened to break his bones when she found out his first crush was on a Jewish girl; the story ends with Amir saying he in turn spat in the Jewish girl's face at school the next day. Amir tells the story to justify his renunciation of Islam, which he associates with antisemitism, among other forms of hatred. While alone on stage with Jory in Scene 3, Amir talks about how minorities such as he and Jory are "the new Jews" in the New York legal landscape, and he suggests that their Jewish bosses will never promote them to be equal partners. Akhtar further builds on the theme of Amir's apparent hostility toward Jews when Isaac tells Emily that Amir said at work that his bosses wouldn't have scrutinized him if he had been pictured in the paper with a rabbi instead of an imam, a comment that his boss Steven interprets as antisemitic. Ultimately, it is ambiguous whether Amir is hostile toward his bosses because they are scrutinizing his Muslim background or because he has not rid himself of the antisemitism his mother instilled in him as a child.
Muslim-American Identity
Through the characters of Amir, Abe, Imam Fareed, and Tariq, Akhtar depicts an array of Muslim-American identities. As an American-born man of Pakistani descent, Amir seeks to assimilate into and succeed within American mainstream culture, renouncing his faith and changing his name so that prejudice against Muslims will not jeopardize his ascension up the legal career ladder. Although Amir's nephew Abe also changes his name to avoid prejudice, Abe is a Pakistan-born Muslim who is Americanized in his dress sense and way of speaking but who is devoted to his faith. Imam Fareed represents a Muslim leader in America who becomes the target of the Patriot Act's enhanced counter-terrorism measures, imprisoned and tried for suspicion of funding Islamic extremists despite little to no evidence against him. As the play goes on, Akhtar teases out paradoxes inherent to each of these characters' identities: Amir reveals that despite his critique of Islam he harbors pride when the faith appears to be "winning"; Abe gives up on ideas of assimilation and embraces Islamic extremist attitudes; Imam Fareed's supposed openness as an imam is undermined by his "defiant" attitude and the implication that the FBI had reason to suspect him. With these seeming contradictions, Akhtar leaves it to the audience to wonder to what extent the vindictive aspects of the Muslim-American characters' identities come from Islam itself or are a consequence of the mainstream American demonization of Muslims.
The Place of Minorities
Another of the major themes in Disgraced is the place of minority identities in mainstream American society. Akhtar introduces the theme with Emily's portrait of Amir, which shows him surrounded by the luxuries of a spacious apartment and a six-hundred-dollar shirt. Emily says she hopes to depict Amir as a minority who has succeeded as a lawyer and attained the prosperity promised by the "American dream." However, Emily's depiction is complicated by the fact that she has Amir strike the pose of Juan de Pareja, an enslaved artist's assistant who lived in the 17th century. Amir says it's "a little fucked up" that her portrait likens him to a slave, even if the original painting sought to depict the slave with dignity. Akhtar builds on the symbolism of Emily's painting in Scene 3 when Isaac suggests that despite the affluence surrounding Amir in the portrait, the portrait raises the question of Amir's "place." With this euphemistic statement, Isaac suggests that some people will never see a minority like Amir as having been assimilated into American culture, even when he has succeeded within the American legal system. Amir also questions his place, suspecting that his Muslim background will preclude him from being made partner at his mostly Jewish law firm. Amir seeks to make an allegiance with his colleague Jory, an African-American lawyer, arguing that people like them will only ever be "just invited to the party" and not put in positions of power like their bosses. Ironically, Jory has already been made partner, complicating Amir's belief that he is being discriminated against because of his minority background. The play ends with Amir—fired from the firm and separated from Emily—staring into Emily's portrait of him. The image suggests that Amir questions whether he has lost his place as an American success story because of his minority identity or because of conflicts stemming from his individual personality.
Orientalism
Orientalism—the representation of Middle Eastern and Asian people and cultural products in a stereotypical, colonialist way—arises most overtly as a theme in Emily's embrace of Islamic traditional art. Although she is a white Anglo-Saxon protestant, Emily creates artworks that borrow from Islamic tiling traditions, among other ancient Islamic forms. Isaac warns her that her work will be viewed as orientalist, but she disputes the notion, insisting that her work is a sincere and transparent embrace of a culture that already informs the foundation of white Western culture and art. Isaac becomes convinced by the argument and stages a show at the Whitney Museum inspired by Emily's ideas about paying homage to the sacred aspect of Islamic culture. Amir, however, remains antagonistic to what he considers a naïve embrace of art forms that have arisen from a religious culture that advocates for beating women and stoning people to death. Despite his objections, Amir seems to have a change of opinion by the end of the play, and he tells Emily that he finally understands her work. Ultimately, Akhtar counterposes Amir's wholly negative reading of Islam and Emily's positive reading to show how both attitudes stereotype Islamic culture, resulting in polarized opinions that obscure the nuances inherent to any culture.
Duplicity
Duplicity—meaning both "deceitfulness" and "doubleness"—is another major theme in Disgraced. Deceit is embodied in each of the characters, coming out in Emily and Isaac's affair, Amir's concealment of his Muslim background, and Jory's concealment of the fact that she has been promoted. The theme of duplicity also emerges in the dual facets of Abe's and Amir's identities: as they both struggle to make efforts to assimilate into mainstream American society, both men change their names to obscure their Muslim backgrounds, and they both maintain a sometimes paradoxical mixture of beliefs, simultaneously embracing the concept of the life of freedom and affluence promised in America and harboring allegiance to the Islamic fundamentalist teachings they have absorbed from their families. Duplicity also arises in the context of Amir's law career. When the Times runs an article that associates him with an imam who is being tried for allegedly funding terrorism, Amir worries his Jewish bosses will not promote him to partner. By the end of the play, it is clear that Amir has not been promoted; however, it remains ambiguous as to whether Amir's Jewish employers decide not to make him partner because they are Islamophobic or because Amir, as an individual, cannot be trusted. Jory explains that Amir's duplicity is what makes him a successful lawyer, but the trait also makes it impossible for his bosses to trust him.
