Palestinian-Australian author’s novel depicts Muslim lives post Gaza genocide 

SYDNEY, Australia (MNTV) — Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah’s latest novel, Discipline, has drawn renewed scrutiny, with literary critics arguing that it advances a politically charged narrative about Muslims’ alleged radicalization in Australia, according to a commentary published by Quillette. 

Abdel-Fattah’s book Discipline is set in Sydney during Ramadan in May 2021 and follows a small group of Palestinian Muslim characters against the backdrop of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and rocket attacks by Hamas during the so-called “Unity Intifada”.

The novel centers on Hannah, a young journalist, and her husband Jamal, a university tutor and PhD student, alongside a network of academics, educators and students.

A key plot point is the arrest of a Muslim schoolboy for wearing Hamas-linked insignia at a campus protest, an incident that propels the narrative into questions of surveillance, counter-radicalization programs and media coverage of Muslim communities.

According to Quillette, the novel is written in a journalistic style and functions largely as an ideological parable, with characters and events serving to reinforce a political message. 

Discipline shines light on Israel’s oppressive actions and the complicity of Australian government institutions and media in suppressing Muslim dissent.

While critics suggest the novel’s message is unlikely to resonate with a broad Australian readership, Discipline has reportedly sold out its initial print run and is being reprinted, indicating strong demand. 

The book’s success has fuelled the debate over the role of literature in Australia’s culture wars and the line between fiction and political advocacy.

The novel covers the lives of a small group of characters, all Palestinian Muslims, for a few days over Ramadan, in Sydney in May 2021. The background to the events in the story is the “Unity Intifada”—Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. 

The characters in Discipline are all, naturally, transfixed by these events, and by the threat posed to their family members in Gaza and the wider Middle East.

Hannah is a young journalist at The Chronicle. Her husband, Jamal, is a PhD student and tutor at the fictional Joseph Banks University (JBU). Both of them are devout Muslims. 

Jamal’s supervisor at JBU, Ashraf, is largely secular and an opportunist. Ashraf’s flagging academic career gets a lifeline in the form of a project sponsored by Home Affairs: it’s packaged as a “creative” outlet for frustrated young people, but the real focus is anti-radicalization among young Muslim males. 

The event that gets the plot moving is the arrest of a Muslim boy, Nabil, for wearing Hamas-related insignia at a protest against Israeli defence contracts on the JBU campus. 

Hannah is put straight into the story. And coincidentally, Fayza, the principal of the Islamic school Nabil attends, is the sister of Ashraf’s ex-wife, Mya, who is now living a Islamic life with her new husband in Yemen.

Discipline veers over into John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress territory, where both plot and character exist chiefly to illustrate the theme.  

The novel’s most striking feature is the nature of its message: Israel slaughters Palestinians, wantonly and without cause, and it is the righteous duty of Muslims everywhere to fight the Zionist menace. 

In Australia, this means fighting the lackeys of Israel in government and the media, who blindly succumb to the Zionist propaganda spoonfed by the Jewish lobby.