The Submission

After receiving the 9/11 victims’ family money, Asma doesn’t have to worry as much about spending too much on groceries. One day after purchasing food from Mr. Chowdhury’s Bangladeshi grocery store, Asma considers her life as an immigrant in America. Inam, her devoted husband, had helped her get a job at a local pharmacy where she wanted to work. She had been disturbed by the fact that the proprietor, Mr. Sanjeev, a Hindu, would never give credit to people who needed their medicine a few days before their paychecks arrived. After asking him politely to change his policy, he refused. She finally took a stand and quit.

The Bangladeshis’ take on the memorial design falls in line with that of the angry white Americans. They say the contest is not a democracy, nor should it be. Dr. Chowdhury compares the outcome to the time when Pakistan wished to reverse the election for independence that the Bangladeshis had won. The Pakistanis had wanted an election, but they wanted their outcome. It is the same with the selection of the memorial. Chowdhury and all the Muslims present say they don’t blame the Americans for not wanting a Muslim name on the memorial. A rousing discussion ensues with multiple complex views on the subject.

As Asma takes her groceries home, she notices a trail of rice behind her, the result of a small hole in the bag. She goes back and argues strenuously for a new bag, but Chowdhury refuses.

Meanwhile, Paul is invited to meet Governor Geraldine Bitman, a liberal democrat. Instead of offering Paul breakfast, she allows him to watch her work out on an elliptical machine. Paul is shocked that this otherwise liberally minded woman is violently opposed to Mohammed Khan’s design for the memorial, and she says so in no uncertain terms. She gives Paul a dressing down, all while arguing against Islam. When Paul questions this change in her, she touts her feminist master’s thesis and says that Islam, above all else, is a threat to women. She threatens him with labeling the jury members as elitist Manhattan artists, a qualification she had actually prized when the jury was first selected. Her aims are purely political.

When Mo finally goes back to work, one of the first people he sees is Thomas Kroll. Thomas expresses his anger, but Mo knows that Thomas is soft-hearted and won’t stay angry forever. He does call off their budding business partnership, however.

Roi invites Mo into his office and tells him he doesn’t dislike all Muslims, just the ones who won’t assimilate. However, he and all the top architectural firms in the world are going to back his Garden design for the memorial. Mo wonders if Roi had submitted an entry himself.

Claire wakes up to the news that the Post has accused her of sleeping with Khan. Then her phone begins ringing nonstop. Later in the morning a large, dark green Pontiac Grand Am pulls into the lot. Frightened, she and the maid hide in her bedroom, refusing to answer the door. Looking through the window, she sees Sean Gallagher circling her Mercedes.