Mickey Mouse: Soldier of Satan, by John Ostrander
As reported here on ComicMix last Monday by Matt Raub via AP : “A sheik from Saudi Arabia, a former diplomat posted in Washington, has put out a fatwa on Mickey Mouse, calling him the new enemy of Islam. ‘Mickey Mouse is a soldier of Satan, and everything he touches becomes impure,” said Sheik Muhammad al-Munajid.
‘Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases. According to sharia law, the mouse is a repugnant and corrupting animal,’ he said during a show broadcast by Al-Majd television.”
So. There’s a fatwa on Mickey Mouse.
It should be noted that a fatwa, in and of itself, is not necessarily a death sentence. As Matt noted, “a “fatwa” is a ruling on a point of Islamic law that is given by a recognized authority.” In that respect, it’s not that different when the Pope speaks ex cathedra. It certainly isn’t different that when the Popes called for the Crusades to free the Holy Land.
This is not the first time that Disney has butted heads with religious types. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association began a nine-year boycott of Disney, citing they were too friendly to gays. The Southern Baptists were part of that boycott and if there was ever a group in Western culture that I think was capable of issuing fatwas, it would be the Southern Baptists.
It’s all part of a continuing war on pop culture that is usually conducted by the conservative and/or reactionary elements of society. It’s not only religious groups, either. The comic book medium in the 1950s came under the scrutiny of Congress who felt that comics were degenerative and an unwholesome influence on America’s youth. To fend off possible Congressional controls, the comic book publishers of the day instituted the Comics Code – a straitjacket that bound and confined the comic book medium for decades and stunted its artistic growth.
Go back a little bit further. From early on, movies were considered to be morally dangerous in many cases and Hollywood was the real “Sin City.” William H. Hays was brought in to clean it up and the Hays Code, written by a Jesuit priest and based on Roman Catholic theology, was created to outline a moral code. The mid 30s established the Production Code Administration, overseen by Joseph I. Breen, and for decades every film had to have a PCA certificate of approval before being released. Eventually, this system was replaced by the rating system we still see today.
Every facet of popular culture has been affected at one time or another. A play could be “banned in Boston” – which often meant better box office elsewhere. Mae West’s 1926 play Sex got her arrested in New York City after a year’s worth of performances to some 325,000 patrons. The police finally decided it was obscene after watching it a few times and Ms. West was convicted to ten days in the pokey, of which she served two.
We’re still titillated by this stuff. Daniel Radcliffe of the Harry Potter films is making his New York stage debut this week in a revival of the play Equus and the big point of discussion is the nude scene he has in it and how you can see Harry Potter’s magic wand.
Rock and roll is constantly under attack, of course. If it isn’t, then it’s not doing its job. When Elvis Presley first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, the TV cameras shot him only from the waist up because his hip gyrations were considered too obscene. My mother used to fume about my watching Shindig or Hullabaloo on TV a decade later, saying I just wanted to watch the female dancers shake their bodies. All true, of course, however much I played the innocent.
Want more recent upheavals? How about the thunderous indignation that followed Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during half time at the Super Bowl a few years back? It was a stunt and a stupid stunt at that but, oh!, the howls of moral indignation. The children! Won’t somebody please think of the children! Excuse me, but isn’t the Super Bowl mostly a male thing? The women I knew who watched it usually did because they wanted to see how tight the tight end’s end really was. For the kids who might have been watching – one bared breast with pasty was going to warp them more than the endless violence where a really good tackle might be defined as popping the opponent’s helmet off?
The war on pop culture goes on because the conservatives, politically or religious, feel their values are being attacked. Their values are “traditional” values that they feel are being undermined and are tempting their children – won’t somebody please think of the children – their spouses and possibly themselves. Tempting them with wicked ways, suggesting that drinking, eating, experimenting with sex or drugs are all fun, exciting, and glamorous. How do you keep “em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?”
You might say, “Then don’t look. But don’t tell me I can’t look if I want.” The problem is that, for the faith based, what is at stake is the soul and if a soul gets corrupted it goes to hell and makes Satan stronger – even the soul of a godless heathen like yourself. So no one should be allowed to see these corrupting spawns of the devil.
For the more secular, it’s the same thing only it’s society about which they’re worried and it’ll all get controlled by the godless Commies or liberals who are really the same thing.
Whether its Moslem cleric, Southern Baptist minister, or conservative Republican, pop culture is perceived as corrupt and corrupting. Won’t somebody please think of the goddamn children?! Maybe it is. Pop culture challenges our notion of what is culture. Pop culture is either ephemeral or it produces change in what culture is. That there is the problem, Clem.
Culture is really our identity, more than flag or borders, I think. The political clash in this country is as much a clash of cultures as anything else. Not Republican versus Democrat although both have their own cultures. Not red state versus blue state – each of those states, especially the large ones, often have cultural clashes going on within it. City versus suburbs versus country starts to capture some of it. East Coast versus West Coast, North versus South all have traditional cultural clashes even if within each of these groups there are sub-cultural groups. For example, there’s the South and then there’s the Deep South. There’s the “new” South such as Atlanta versus more traditional South like Alabama. Miami is geographically south but its Latino in culture and specifically Cuban, which is a very specific culture within the Latino community.
The political clash occurs not when one group tries to establish its culture as predominant over others as when one culture feels another group is trying to do so. Culture is very personal and people will take perceived attacks on their culture very personally – intended or not. The Southern Baptists feel that Disney and Hollywood are trying to impose their gay-embracing values on them. Given the world saturation of Disney, the Muslim cleric may feel that Disney is trying to impose its Satanic soldier of a mouse on his culture.
Maybe we are. Not because of any hidden agenda by a cabal of Satanic gay loving masterminds at Disney. Pop culture is powerful because, well, it’s fun. Pop culture winds up infringing on other cultures because it is popular.
Maybe that’s worth a fatwa or two.
Vaunted comics writer and playwright John Ostrander continues his fatwa here on ComicMix every Wednesday.
Hmmm… Maybe we should threaten to airlift thousands of Mickey Mouse plushies and drop them on Saudi Arabia Cities unless OPEC lowers their price per barrel of Oil? Nah, that would be insensitive of us, 'cause we're PC and love everybody.What's the worst that could happen with a "Mouse Drop"? The poor kids would have fun playing with them?OH! How about we have Mickey Mouse and the gang dressed up as "KISS" plushies dropped on S.A.?!? Wouldn't that justify a Fatwa!
Statements like this serve no purpose other than to make the people who say them, as well as the people who follow them, sound and appear to be catastrophically stupid. It's no less ridiculous than when Jerry Fallwell outed Tinky-Winky. The delineation I've always drawn is that it's EXTREME religious fervor that's scary and dangerous. I'm what they now like to call a Salad-bar Catholic, picking and choosing the bits I like and leaving the rest to molder, and usually bumping my nose on the sneeze guard. I am willing enough to believe there is a higher power, rational enough to understand that most of the Old testament (at the very least Genesis) is allegory, and I'm cynical enough to know that most organized religion is interested in having, wielding and maintaining power more than they are in shuttling people to heaven. The people who try to claim that the proper answer in the science textbook is "because God said so" are the ones that need to be kept away from rational humans. I keep asking, all those compounds where the religious nuts are walling themselves in and separating themselves from the country…explain to me again why we're stopping them? Seems like they're doing our job for us. Heck, let's GIVE them Utah, wall the whole thing in, and they can live there happy as Larry. If they want to leave, and enter the USA, they have to answer a few simple questions:-When did the dinosaurs live? (The correct answer is "a long time ago", but any answer other than "They did not, they are a massive trick perpetrated by the scientists" will be acceptable)-What do you like to do on Wednesday mornings? (Any answer other than "go to church" will be counted as correct)-What was Pat Robertson talking about on the 700 club last night? (If they know the answer, back in they go.
Great response, Vinnie. It’s like an article unto itself. I actually view it as positive when these zealots clarify their positions on issues like the corrupting influence of a cartoon mouse. Better that they let us know how they feel, so that the apologists for their extreme views in this part of the world (often coming from the extreme left, if you ask me) can no longer make excuses for fundamentalism, or write off our disgust to ethnocentricity. I feel the same way about Mahmoud Ahmedinejad of Iran. Better that he comes on Larry King Live and denies the Holocaust in order to justify his views on Israel. At least we know where he stands; with the lowest of the low. If Ahmedinejad tempered his views in public, those without the intestinal fortitude to denounce him in turn could simply write off his positions as legitimate differences of opinion. Additionally, I might add, radicalism will always encounter opposition when it opposes FUN. It’s all well and good to badmouth the Zionists, but you will begin to make your followers uncomfortable when you outlaw smiles and celebration. Yahoo recently posted an article about the illegality of birthday parties in Saudi Arabia, where the government only permits celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. The more, the better, I say! Let the zealots market themselves as the purveyors of dull and obedient servitude. That’s one of the most important steps in turning people AWAY from fundamentalist religion. If I recall correctly, the Puritans opposed (among many other things) the eating of sweet foods, as humble and heaven-worthy folks should not partake in decadent consumption. Now imagine trying to push that crap on the modern American public. Can I have my own column now, Mike?!! ;-)
Recommended viewing/reading: Persepolis. Shows what happens when you keep trying to mandate only certain views.
This Sheik is obviously out of touch with current pop culture, otherwise he would have put the fatwa on Spider-Man for making that deal with Satan just under a year ago.
I was reminded of this when reading an article about Paul McCartney performing in Israel (to which I linked in the byline to yesterday's column). Seems the Beatles were supposed to play Israel in 1965, but the government refused to have them there for fear they would "corrupt" the youth, which was characterized as a pretty big disappointment to their Jewish manager, Brian Epstein.
How the heck can you put a death sentence on a FICTIONAL character?! Reminds me of the bit George Carlin did about Mickey Mouse's birthday being celebrated as if it's an actual event. I miss Carlin, I would have liked to have heard his take on this.Granted, Disney is really screwy when it comes to IP, but satanic? C'mon! Vinnie – Pat Robertson and this nutjob deserve each other. So much for the religions of "tolerance" and "peace". And my family wonders why I'm skeptical about religions!
Actually, my better half, Mary Mitchell, had an interesting if chilling thought on a death sentence on Mickey. There's a place where he ISN'T fictional. The Disney theme parks. She thought this could offer justification for akilling terrorist attack on Disneyland/world. If I was Disney, I'd be paying attention to security at the parks.
They do. A lot. This isn't the first time for any of this.
That is horrifying, and sadly, a distinct possibility. Those "brave" lowlifes killing children and families just on vacation really sickens me. Though there would be apologists anyway.It's a shame that a place where some would go to relax, would wind up being a potential target. Nowhere is safe anymore.
"Nowhere is safe anymore."The entire point of terrorism.
I doubt he Fatwa is actually a call to kill Mickey Mouse as much as ban him. If anybody attacks disney's parks it will be part of a greater plan than this Fatwa. Mickey Mouse might appear in Islamic prpaganda more. If something happens to insite riots they might burn some Mickey effigies, stuff like that.The Hamas actually had a TV show with a Mickey-like character. Unfortunatly he was martyred and replace by a bee. An Israeli punlication named him Mickey Hamouse