Ohlocaldays

Races and Religion in Kite Runner 

All of you who have read or watched Kite Runner might be asking what are the races and religions in this novel, or you just might want to know more about them. So this time, we have the opportunity to tell you more about the races and religion from Kite Runner. Please enjoy :)

Hazara and Pashtun

Hazara is a one of the races in Afghanistan which is supposed Mongol origin. It is estimated that there are 6-10 million Hazara in the world. Most of the Hazara is Shiia Muslims and they speak a distinct dialect of Persian, with certain Turkish and Mongol Influence in the language. They look Asiatic with some Caucasian mixture, some looks like pure Mongols or Chinese.

Pashtun has a very different culture than the Hazara. They are the majority compared to Hazara since there are 42 million Pashtun in the world. The majority of Pashtun religion is the Sunni Muslim.  Pashtun speaks Pashtu, which is one of the two official languages in Afghanistan. They look overwhelmingly Caucasian.

Left: Hazara, Right: Pashtun

        Pashtun and Hazara people have had an ongoing conflict between them for a long time. Pashtuns and Hazara do not get along because they had been brutally conquered by the Mongols previously.

Races in Kite Runner

        Races play a great role in the novel Kite Runner. Pashtuns are discriminating the Hazaras in the novel.  The Hazaras are being called by names because of their physical appearance.

“They called him "flat-nosed" because of Ali and Hassan's characteristic Hazara Mongoloid features. For years, that was all I knew about the Hazaras, that they were Mogul descendants, and that they looked a little like Chinese people … The book said a lot of things I didn't know, things my teachers hadn't mentioned. Things Baba hadn't mentioned either. It also said some things I did know, like that people called Hazaras mice-eating, flat-nosed, load-carrying donkeys. I had heard some of the kids in the neighborhood yell those names to Hassan.” (2.23)

           Even though Amir and Hassan are close friends, Amir still has discrimation thoughts:

”... Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing.” (4.4-5)

This proves that race is an important thing to decide whether you will be discriminated or not in this novel.

What is Islam?

          Islam is the second largest religion in the world with over one billion followers. The world “Islam” itself means “surrender” or “submission”, this means submission to the Will of God. Islam teaches the God (called Allah) is the source of all creation and that human beings are the best of His creation. Islam also teaches that human beings are born pure and sinless. No one is responsible for, or can take responsibility for the sins of others. The doors of forgiveness are always open for those who repent sincerely. 

Islam was founded by Mohammed in the seventh century. Mohammed was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in the year 570 AD. Muhammad was a very truthful and honest person. At the age of forty, Allah asked him, through the angel Gabriel, to proclaim the religion of Islam publicly. 

People who follow Islam are called Muslims. The Muslims have two major thoughts, the Sunni Shia and the Muslim (also called Shiite) Muslim. This split originates after the death of the Prophet Mohammad in 632 AD over who should lead the Muslim community next.

Who are the Sunnis?

          The majority of Muslims are Sunnis. Sunnis are estimated to be dominating around 85-90% of the muslims.

          After the death of Mohammed, Sunnis think that Mohammed’s successor should be chosen by the community, thus they think that the successor should be the caliph, the head of state. Since Sunni is the majority, so the successor chosen is Prophet Mohammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, became the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. 

         Saudi Arabia is one of the countries in the world with the largest portion of Sunni Muslims.

The distribution map of Sunni and Shia

Blue: Sunni, Red maroon: Shia

Who are the Shiia?

The term “Shiia” is shortened from the historical "Shia-t-Ali," or "the Party of Ali."Shia wanted the successor to be from Mohammed’s family. The shiias did not recognize this new leader and chose Mohammed’s son-in-law, Ali.

These differences caused some disputes between the sunnis and shiias. Most of the shiias imam met violent ends at the hands of the majority, Sunni Caliphs. Imam Ali’s son, Hussein, became the victim of beheading at that time and is still marked as a major event shiaa muslims.  Ali himself was killed as a result of intrigues, violence and civil wars.

There are large Shia communities in Afghanistan, India, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

Religions in Kite Runner

Throughout the novel, Amir And Baba do not really put too much attention to religion. Amir is known to be a Sunni Muslim. Amir was listening to mullah’s teaching at first and checks them with Baba’s actions. On the other hand, Baba himself is not a really religious man, he has his own philosophy. This can be seen when Amir asked Baba whether drinking alcohol is sin (as it is against the Islamic law) but Baba said that the only sin is theft.

After Hassan was raped, Amir distances himself from his religion because of guilt. However, after rescuing Sohrab, Amir feels redeemed and started to reestablish his relationship with his God again. 

Despite these differences in opinion and practice, Shia and Sunni Muslims share the essences of Islamic belief. Moreover, not all Shiia and Sunni Muslims hated each other all the time, there are Shii and Sunni Muslims who befriends each other. We can also see from the nove Kite Runner that Amir as a Sunni Muslim and Hassan as a Shiia Muslim can live in peace in the same house. In fact, most Muslims do not distinguish themselves by claiming membership in any particular group, but prefer to call themselves simply, "Muslims."

References:

Boeree, George(unknown) http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/sunnisshiites.html

Hoesseini, Khaled. 2004. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead

Morency, Dana and Jason Hogue(unknown) http://uwf.edu/bookclub/splendidsons.html

Reem(2009) http://insideislam.wisc.edu/2009/09/sunni-shia-or-just-muslim/

(unknown) https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~laurice/project/Racism2.html