59 pages • 1 hour read
Samira AhmedLove, Hate and Other Filters
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
When Maya learns that a passport belonging to an Egyptian national was found at the bombing site, she becomes nervous. She wants to be regular American teenager “who isn’t a presumed terrorist first and an American second” (154). She would rather not go to school. Maya’s parents talk to her, explaining that terrorism has no place in Islam. Sofia wants Maya to go with her to the mosque to say prayers for the victims. Maya resists. Asif feels bad and wishes they had gone to the mosque more as a family.
At school, Maya sees Lisa put her arm through Phil’s. Then Brian comes by and asks Maya if the terrorist is her uncle because she has the same last name. Maya tries to explain that Kamal Aziz is Egyptian and she is Indian. Violet grabs Maya’s elbow and tries to pull her away. Brian wonders what the difference between an Egyptian and an Indian is: “You’re both ragheads” (158).
Phil approaches Maya at lunch and asks about the NYU talk. He is happy to hear that things went well. He starts to talk about Lisa, but the dean asks to see Maya. In the hallway, a police officer explains that someone threw a brick through a window at her parents’ clinic. Asif has a gash in his forehead, and a few patients have minor cuts. Violet enters the conversation and urges Maya to tell the officer what happened that morning with Brian.
Three men in dark suits visit the home of Kamal Aziz’s parents in Dearborn, Michigan. Kamal’s mother wails.
Chapter 14 Summary
Violet drives Maya to her parents’ clinic, which is surrounded by police cars. Asif has a bandage on his forehead. Asif and Sofia tell Maya that a note was wrapped around the brick that said, “You’re dead—you fucking terrorists” (169). Sofia wonders if they should go somewhere else for a few days. Maya’s parents argue in Urdu. The chief of police walks up to Maya and asks questions about the incident with Brian. Maya’s parents overhear and come over. The chief assigns officers to watch Aziz family’s house. Violet drives Maya and her mother home. Sofia tells Maya that it is too dangerous for her to go to New York: “You need to stay close to us. It is decided” (173). Maya must go to the University of Chicago. She runs to her room and falls on the floor, sobbing.
The Springfield mayor gives a speech at a memorial for the victims of the bombing. He says, “We will emerge stronger. We will rebuild. […] God bless Springfield. God bless Illinois. God bless America” (175).
Chapter 15 Summary
Maya wishes she could evade attention at school, but “you can’t blend in when you’re the only brown kid in a swell of white students” (178). Phil tries talking to Maya, but she just gives him a look. He walks away.
Maya goes to her parents’ clinic to document the crime with her camera. Violet is outside with the policemen on watch and motions Maya to come outside. There is an announcement on the police radio: Kamal Aziz is not responsible for the bombing; instead, the bombing may be connected to white supremacist group. Violet says that since a Muslim didn’t perpetrate the bombing, perhaps her parents will let her go to New York. Maya is doubtful: “All this stuff happened when they only suspected a Muslim. Imagine if the next time it actually is a Muslim” (180). Violet encourages Maya not to give up.
The local TV reports a news update. Kamal Aziz was in the federal building in Springfield because he was attending a ceremony to become an American citizen.
Chapters 13-15 Summary
In previous chapters Ahmed used September 11 as an inferred American memory to explain the plot, but here she uses it plainly. Maya is too young to remember the experiences that many American Muslims had after 9/11, but she knows what happened: “My parents told me all these stories about things that happened after 9/11—people getting beat up or harassed because they were brown—some of them weren’t even Muslims” (181). Springfield’s mayor even uses rhetoric reminiscent of George W. Bush’s address to the nation in 2001 when he says “God bless Springfield. God bless Illinois. God bless America” (175).
For Asif and Sofia, the terrorism means more persecution, suspicion, and mistreatment because of their religion. Asif and Sofia want Maya to go with them to the mosque to offer prayers for the bombing victims. Maya resists because her parents do not usually expect her to go with them to worship. She confronts them, saying, “You barely make me go to the mosque, except for religious holidays or weddings” (155). In response to the volatility and violence affecting their culture and community, Asif and Sofia have a changing set of expectations for Maya regarding religious observance and college. Maya finds these changed parental expectations especially difficult to bear, particularly since she’s already caught in the shifting intersection between her two cultures.
