Mike Gold: Fatwa In Four-Colors
It’s possible you’ve heard about the superhero comic book series The 99. According to the Grand Comics Database, it ran for a total of 19 issues between 2007 and 2011, plus a six-issue mini-series crossover with the Justice League of America.
Despite its professional credits and its careful design, it was unsurprisingly clear that here in the United States a series about Muslim superheroes who derived their team name from the 99 names for Allah would be a tough sell. Even Superman and Batman couldn’t help. PBS did a documentary, and it was cover-featured in Newsweek – back when Newsweek actually had covers. President Barack Obama, a former comics reader himself, praised the series: “His comic books have captured the imaginations of so many young people with superheroes who embody the teachings and tolerance of Islam.”
The “he” in “his” referred to the series’ creator, Kuwaiti psychologist Naif Al-Mutawa. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Al-Mutawa wanted Muslim children to have Muslim heroes who selected a path different from the suicide bombers and jihadists.
Sadly, to no avail. It was a noble effort, one that was successful in places like Saudi Arabia – it even spawned a television series. But success can bite you on the ass, and the laws of Newtonian physics apply to politics as well as to apple trees.
The 99 is now the subject of a genuine Saudi Arabian fatwa, issued by grand mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh and his council because the comics and the television show are “evil work that needs to be shunned.” Good grief, I’ve worked on comics that received bad reviews, but nobody said they needed to be shunned.
For the record, a fatwa is defined by Merriam-Webster as a decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader. It is not a death sentence per se, although with organized religion one has to take into consideration how the zealots might react.
But what the fatwa does do is effectively end The 99’s commercial prospects. Unless the fatwa is lifted the teevee show, which is off-season, is unlikely to continue. The comic books face the same fate.
There really isn’t that much difference between a fatwa in Saudi Arabia and an undeclared boycott of The 99 in the United States due to its pro-Muslim content. Despite solid promotion here in the States and the aforementioned exposure from both PBS and President Obama, people simply did not sample the series to see if it was to their liking.
To those of us who vest our first amendment fantasies with a zealot’s enthusiasm, both actions are repulsive. I wish Dr. Al-Mutawa well, and I hope he’s got a great idea for a Wolverine mini-series.
I hope I’m not tarred & feathered for this comment but I would take issue with some of the underlying assumptions I see in this article. First, PBS & Newsweek are big influences for the readers of comics, much less the public at large. PBS’s ratings are low, low enough that it would be shut down if it had to make money on its ratings. An article in Newsweek might have driven people to try the 99 thirty years ago but it’s influence has be dwindling steadily for years. For the last decade it would have been better to have Jay Leno or David Letterman make a joke about the 99 it you wanted people to know about it. Second, “undeclared boycott of The 99 in the United States due to its pro-Muslim content”. You seem to imply that there was some kind of organization to the boycott but show no evidence to prove your point. Did the 99 get enough sales to even warrant someone organizing a boycott? Given what happened on 9/11 it is understandable that the american people would be a bit hesitant to embrace anything Muslim. Especially given the stands of the imams we hear about (the imam you cite in your piece seems to be of that ilk) that are want everyone to convert to Islam and if some (they don’t care how many) infidels are killed along the way, who cares. Unfortunately this seems to be a main stream belief in most of the muslim world or at least what we get to hear about. Where are the protests of the moderate muslims outraged about how their religion is desecrated by those advocating & practicing murder of those that disagree? Given what happened on 9/11 the american public’s response was & still is restrained and admirable. Given that so many countries in the world teach their children to hate based others on battles & wars that happened centuries ago it is amazing to see how few incidents have happened. Third, a review/recommendation from Barack Obama? Politics aside, it has been decades since a president’s recommendation would cause a rise in sales. Once again, I am not out to create a firestorm but feel compelled to point out flaws in you argument and your conclusion that a boycott occurred. The market is what it is despite what we may want. At some point that may change to what you seem to want it to be and I am not opposed to that. I do think you opinion of the american public needs some examination.
A proofread to find and fix the missing words that make some of your sentences read the exact opposite of what i assume you meant might be in order. For instance:
I assume there was supposed to be a “not” in there.
Plus, i love how you repeat the right-wing’s conventional narrative:
Given that right-wing evangelical “Christianity” has been the pretext for so much hatred, bigotry and violence here in the US, that is hilarious.
In fact, i’d guess that Christianity in general, has been the pretext for at least as much slaughter and brutality as Islam. (At a minimum – my personal feeling is that it’sprobably more.)
Also hilarious is that you fail to see the irony of a USAian saying
Also, after struggling through that huge block of text to try to find the sense (if any) of it, i have one more thing to say:
“Mr Paragraph is your friend.”