The Domestic Crusaders

The Domestic Crusaders
Written by	Wajahat Ali
Date premiered	2005
Place premiered	Berkeley Repertory Theatre Berkeley, California
Original language	English
Subject	Trials and tribulations of Pakistani-American Muslim family post-9/11
Genre	Drama
Setting	Post-9/11; family house in the United States

The Domestic Crusaders is a play by Wajahat Ali about a Pakistani-American Muslim family.

The play made its Off Broadway premiere at the Nuyorican Poets Café on September 11, 2009. The story is about the lives of a Pakistani-American family grappling with their own internal trials and tribulations, the changing dynamics of American society and a globalized, post-9/11 world.McSweeney's published the play in the Fall of 2010.

With a keen sense of timing, this dramatic-comedy utilizes the generational and culture-driven political and social evolution of American society following 9/11. Six members of a Pakistani-American Muslim family, spanning three generations, reunite at the family home to celebrate the youngest son's 21st birthday. Each individual family member, or "domestic crusader", attempts to assert his or her individual definition of self and destiny in the face of collective family and societal constraints, fears and misunderstandings.

The play takes place over the course of one day during the present time, in an upper middle class suburban family home of a Muslim American family of Pakistani origins.

"The Domestic Crusaders is exactly the sort of theater we need today. The gulf that separates cultures must be bridged and Art is one of our best hopes." -Academy Award-winning actress and screenplay writer, Emma Thompson

"This play is brilliant. Moving. Shapely. Clever. Funny. And the cast is amazing!" —Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize–winning author

"Ali's sensitive treatment of the tensions and triumphs of the Muslim American community gives viewers a rare window into this often discussed but seldom heard member of the American mosaic. His debut play is destined to be a social and cultural phenomena." --Dalia Mogahed, President Obama's Advisor on Faith

"Wajahat Ali is a major new voice in American literature. His play is to Muslim American theater what A Raisin in the Sun is to African American theater." —Pulitzer Prize nominated author Mitch Berman

"The Domestic Crusaders is fast, funny, whip-smart and both constantly surprising and deeply edifying. If you see only one irreverent, hilarious, profound, furious and big-hearted play about a Pakistani-American family living in a post-9-11 world, make it this one." —Dave Eggers, Pulitzer Prize nominated author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and author of Zeitoun

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