The folks over at altmuslimah.com have a new article up focusing on Muslim women in mainstream comics. Well, the one Muslim woman. It calls out Grant Morrison for his blatantly tokenist and myopic approach to Dust, and they're not terribly appreciative of other writers' stereotypical approaches to the character either. On a more positive note, CJAD's Peter Anthony Holder just interviewed Tashkeel's Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa about the upcoming The 99/JLA team-up, The 99's theme park, and Islamic comics in general...
4 comments:
Aren't comics by definition not really a Muslim friendly venue? Devout Muslims take great issue with illustrations of the human form (i.e. the Taliban destruction of Buddhist statues and the global backlash after the publication of those Danish Mohammed cartoons). I'm sure quite a few moderate every day Muslims may love comics, but it seems like the medium itself isn't that compatible with Islam.
Aren't comics by definition not really a Muslim friendly venue? Devout Muslims take great issue with illustrations of the human form (i.e. the Taliban destruction of Buddhist statues and the global backlash after the publication of those Danish Mohammed cartoons). I'm sure quite a few moderate every day Muslims may love comics, but it seems like the medium itself isn't that compatible with Islam.
Uh, Judaism has the exact same prohibition against images--and much more exacting history of not permitting deviation than Islam--check out the fine world of Islamic illustrations and paintings from Persia to India featuring the human form from 10th century onwards approximately--nothing like that ever existed in Jewish societies.
Yet you would never suggest that comics are inherently non-Jewish medium (because that would be dumb).
I agree with EH's assessment. I'm a practicing Muslims and have read comics since I was 5. The question of illustrating human beings in Islam is complex. Drawing for education are allowed, we can see this in Muslim medical texts which were the standard centuries ago with no shortage of illustration. The prohibition on drawings is in force when idol worshiping in involved.
The problem with comic books is that they just lack the kind of well plotted stories I was used to reading. Adding token Muslim characters is not the answer. I find G.W. Griffith a far more interesting character then Dusk. Who can forget the ridiculous Arabian Knight floating on a carpet?
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