Islam-inspired Comic Superheroes Fight For Peace

[Richard]

Some will find this concept interesting.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to "Ideas worth spreading," which it makes available through talks posted on its website. Naif Al-Mutawa, who was trained as a clinical psychologist, created a comic series called "THE 99," with superheroes based on Islamic archetypes. The series is coming to television in the U.S. and THE 99 heroes will be in a joint comic book this fall with Superman and other Justice League heroes.

And so it goes...

Richard

Islam-inspired Comic Superheroes Fight For Peace
CNN, 22 Aug 2010

Fifteen years ago I walked out of a mosque in silent protest of the imam's sermon. Outside, the heat of the desert sun could hardly match the fire of the rhetoric being spewed forth inside.

The imam was railing against the foreign enemies of Islam and the sinners within. With every genocidal rant came an "amen" from the congregation. Some regrettably came from the heart. Others came from those on autopilot putting in their "time" at the mosque to fulfill their quota of good deeds. Still others were a tradeoff: penance for their sins, an economy of convenience that was born long before Islam and long sold as the path to heaven of other faiths.

It was not the first time I had heard terrible notions of fear and hate peddled in the name of my religion. But that day was different. That day I felt complicit. I had reached a point of intellectual critical mass where my love for my religion overwhelmed my sitting in silence any longer. As I stood up, I stared at the imam to make sure he knew that at least one person would no longer accept the recipe of his revenge.

Islam and Christianity were born in the same neighborhood under similar conditions 600 years apart.

Christianity came about at a time when harsh rulers subjugated their people, making already difficult lives nearly impossible. The people responded to the message of Jesus as they did 600 years later to the message of Mohammad. Both Christianity and Islam offered simple messages to the poor: Live by the rules and your rewards will come later.

TED.com: How Arab cultures are borrowing from western pop culture.

Islam came of age at a time of open warfare between what was loosely called Arabia and the occupying Roman Byzantine Empires. It was a religion for the willing believer, further steeled by the Christian Crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries and the Medieval, Papal and Spanish Inquisitions.

Many imams today are still preaching in the rhetoric of the seventh century without regard to contemporary reality. But unlike Jesus and Mohammad, they preach not of future rewards for living a just life as Allah promised. Instead, they offer their rewards to those who devote themselves to the genocide of those who they have anointed our enemies. They prefer not to leave Judgment Day to Allah, instead they substitute themselves as a sort of lower trial court.

We are now in the Muslim month of Ramadan, a time of dawn to dusk fasting intended to teach Muslims about patience, humility, and spirituality. During Ramadan, more than a billion Muslims will congregate at their mosques.

TED.com: Comics provide a window into our world.

It is finally time that all of us became more accountable for that which our children will be hearing; tiny differences setting us apart rather than celebrating those positive things that bind all good people together. If we allow small-minded men to spout fear and hate in the name of our religion, we will enable them to brainwash another generation as they did our own. And soon, the next generation will fall into a pit of dissonance. To sit by silently makes us all complicit.

As the father of five sons, I worry about who they're going to be using as role models.

I worry because all around me, even within my extended family, I see religion being manipulated. As a psychologist, I worry for the world in general, but worry about the perception of how people see themselves in my part of the world. Now, I'm a clinical psychologist. I'm licensed in New York state. I trained at Bellevue Hospital's survivors of political torture program. And I heard one too many stories of people growing up to idolize their leadership, only to end up being tortured by their heroes. And torture's a terrible enough thing as it is, but when it's done by your hero, that just breaks you in so many ways.

I left Bellevue, went to business school and started the comic book series "THE 99." THE 99 references the 99 attributes of Allah in the Koran, things like generosity and mercy and foresight and wisdom.

TED.com: Comics of bygone New York.

Fifteen hundred years after the birth of Christ, men representing the Catholic Church poured hot lead down the throats of Muslims and Jews to get them to accept Jesus as their Savior. Fourteen hundred years after Gabriel conveyed God's message to Muhammad through the Qur'an, a tiny minority of self-aggrandizing Muslims are using the lead of bullets to kill untold numbers in an unspeakable insult to name of Islam.

Today, through THE 99, this proud Muslim is using the lead of his pencil to take a stand. For all our sakes, I hope the pencil really is mightier than the sword.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/...wpdMj&wom=true

[T-Rock]

One of the 99 names of “Mo-Alla” is "Khayrul-Makereen" - the greatest of all deceivers.


I wonder if Shariah is the “Justice” those super-heroes bring

[Richard]

The Ted lecture is interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K095wuE_eE

The comic booki's main web-site.

http://www.the99.org/index.php

Richard

[Utah Bob]

I have been informed by a younger, and much more hip fellow, that comic books are now referred to as Graphic Novels.

[Richard]

...comic books are now referred to as Graphic Novels.

Not really - although one can make the argument that all comic books are graphic novels but not all graphic novels are comic books.

For example:

Comic book - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book {Batman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(comic_book) }

Graphic novel - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel {Persepolis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis_(comics) }

And so it goes...

Richard

[Pete]

1. Will it sell?

&

2. Will they read it?

[T-Rock]

THE 99 heroes will be in a joint comic book this fall with Superman and other Justice League heroes.

It’s an interesting concept and his cause is admirable, but the more I read my Qur’an, the more skeptically jaded my view becomes. I’ll be interested to see how “Justice” is portrayed in the series…

American “Justice” has a totally different meaning than Islamic “Justice”

Depending on whether Islamists address Americans or fellow Muslims, the same exact words they use often relay diametrically opposed meanings. One example: when Americans hear Muslims evoke "justice," the former envision Western-style justice, whereas Muslims naturally have Sharia law justice in mind.

Islamists obviously use this to their advantage: when addressing the West, Osama bin Laden bemoans the "justice of our causes, particularly Palestine"; yet, when addressing Muslims, his notion of justice far transcends territorial disputes and becomes unintelligible from a Western perspective: "Battle, animosity, and hatred—directed from the Muslim to the infidel—is the foundation of our religion. And we consider this a justice and kindness to them. The West perceives fighting, enmity, and hatred all for the sake of the religion [i.e., Islam] as unjust, hostile, and evil. But who's understanding is right—our notions of justice and righteousness, or theirs?" (Al Qaeda Reader, p. 43).
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/7650/ground-zero-mosque

Liberals are going to love it. I can see generations of American kids going to great lengths defending “Justice” - our terminology or theirs?

Naif is wrong about the swastika (00:48 - 01:10), it predated Christianity by more than 1,000 years. It also predates the Ankh…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jon7hnQSBcs

Fifteen hundred years after the birth of Christ, men representing the Catholic Church poured hot lead down the throats of Muslims and Jews to get them to accept Jesus as their Savior.

What was the reason those men came to the ME asks Alexius Comnenus…

[Richard]

Fifteen hundred years after the birth of Christ, men representing the Catholic Church poured hot lead down the throats of Muslims and Jews to get them to accept Jesus as their Savior.

They did the same thing to the natives of the Americas - even used silver and gold when lead wasn't available - all to save their souls "In His name..."

And so it goes...

Richard

[nmap]

I note, with considerable disappointment, that the Noora wallpaper depicts a woman committing a sin against God - she has no scarf! No burka! And this during the Holy Ramadan season! Oh, the humanity! Will no righteous believer give that woman a scarf? Infidels!

On a more serious note, popular media is a powerful tool for social control and behavior modification. The youth, often with malleable beliefs, are a good target. Done the right way, deep change might be insinuated into the religion.

Information, nicely crafted, can be a more effective way of destroying group B (however defined) than most alternatives. YMMV, IMO.

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by T-Rock

It’s an interesting concept and his cause is admirable, but the more I read my Qur’an, the more skeptically jaded my view becomes.

How much time are you spending with Muslims?

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Sigaba

How much time are you spending with Muslims?

There is a Muslim family that lives across the street from me. As far as I know they are the only Muslim family in the neighborhood. Nobody messes with them, calls them names, etc, etc, etc. They are treated just like everyone else.

If another family moved in I would guess they would also be treated the same.

But if every non-Muslim but me moved out and everyone that moved in was a Muslim would my family and me be treated the same?

Would my girls be taunted by youths because of their dress?

I think a good Muslim reads and follows the Koran. We should all read it.

[T-Rock]

How much time are you spending with Muslims?

I know a Muslim, his name is Muhammad. Hands down he can beat your Muslim neighbor on any issue of doctrine contained in the Qur’an and Sunna.

A nice Muslim neighbor does not invalidate Islamic teachings that advocate intolerance and violence towards the Kafiroon.

[Richard]

Seems to me as if it's all in how it is interpolated and the purposes behind its being taught in the manner it is to the audience at which it is directed by whomever does the teaching.

Richard's $.02

[Don]

“Fifteen hundred years after the birth of Christ, men representing the Catholic Church poured hot lead down the throats of Muslims and Jews to get them to accept Jesus as their Savior.”

This seems to be a very popular little quote making it's rounds in the left side of cyber-space. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my google-fu has not produced any verifiable sources to back up this story. I am only a yellow belt, so maybe if one of the resident google-fu grand masters can point me to a site (other than the Drudge Retort or Rachel Madow) that tells more of this horror, I would be grateful for the learning experience.

Here is a little story… just days before deployment to Kosovo in 1999, an old German guy said to me, “Sarge, you know what them Serbs are doing to the Albanians? I saw on the news how they took a pregnant Albanian girl and cut the baby out of her womb and replaced it with a dead cat and sewed her back up.”

Disgusting, right? Cut to three weeks later, in Gjnilane Kosovo, an Albanian kid was nabbed for beating a Serb guy down in public with a metal pipe. When asked why the hell he did that he said, “That guy killed my pregnant sister and cut the baby out of her stomach and sewed in a dead cat.” No Shit. I am not telling a second hand story.

A rumor repeated twice is a fact in some parts of the world, and really bad ones are sometimes exploited to make a target look really bad. Since Christianity has been made a target of the left, and almost all of the sites I saw were left leaning, I am gonna need a little Missouri "Show-Me" on this.

BTW…the Albanian kids sister was discovered alive and well at home.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by Don

“Fifteen hundred years after the birth of Christ, men representing the Catholic Church poured hot lead down the throats of Muslims and Jews to get them to accept Jesus as their Savior.”

This seems to be a very popular little quote making it's rounds in the left side of cyber-space. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my google-fu has not produced any verifiable sources to back up this story. I am only a yellow belt, so maybe if one of the resident google-fu grand masters can point me to a site (other than the Drudge Retort or Rachel Madow) that tells more of this horror, I would be grateful for the learning experience.

Here is a little story… just days before deployment to Kosovo in 1999, an old German guy said to me, “Sarge, you know what them Serbs are doing to the Albanians? I saw on the news how they took a pregnant Albanian girl and cut the baby out of her womb and replaced it with a dead cat and sewed her back up.”

Disgusting, right? Cut to three weeks later, in Gjnilane Kosovo, an Albanian kid was nabbed for beating a Serb guy down in public with a metal pipe. When asked why the hell he did that he said, “That guy killed my pregnant sister and cut the baby out of her stomach and sewed in a dead cat.” No Shit. I am not telling a second hand story.

A rumor repeated twice is a fact in some parts of the world, and really bad ones are sometimes exploited to make a target look really bad. Since Christianity has been made a target of the left, and almost all of the sites I saw were left leaning, I am gonna need a little Missouri "Show-Me" on this.

BTW…the Albanian kids sister was discovered alive and well at home.

Excellent point Don,I totally agree..............

Big Teddy