The Four Color Media Monitor

Marvel's 4-part miniseries featuring the British crimefighter Union Jack, which went to press just a few weeks ago, couldn't possibly have come out at a more inconvenient time. Especially considering their stance on the war on terror, that's why I highly doubt this'll be any better. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if this does involve a lot of moral equivalency, in which you have no idea who's in the right or wrong. In the following synopsis of the first part:

Having spent years fighting vampires in London, Joseph Chapman (Union Jack) has finally destroyed the last three. He is called in by his boss, Gavin, in the MI5, the British Security Service. A terrorist organization, RAID (Radically Advanced Ideas in Destruction) is planning multiple strikes, in less than 8 hours. He has the following allies: Contessa Allegra Valentina De La Fontaine from SHIELD, Sabra from Israel, and Saudi Arabia's Arabian Knight (Saladin). The Contessa and Sabra object to Saladin when introduced, but Chapman reminds them they don't have a lot of time.

Forget that they don't have much time; what I want to know is, why does the writer portray Chapman ever thinking to recruit him in the first place?

And this is where all credibility most likely goes out the window. So far, there is nothing to suggest that RAID reflects reality in any convincing way, and it's more likely that they are some perfectly whitewashed take on a terror group, with no Islamofascists involved. And if not, that makes the inclusion of Arabian Knight, a very obscure character, all the less credible. Because he's from Saudi Arabia and is Muslim, and considering the House of Saud's own record of upholding terrorism and providing funding for it, that makes it an insult to the intellect. Some of Saudi Arabia's worst violations of basic rights include:

The exploitation and abuse of migrant workers.

If you're a Christian in Saudi Arabia, you are forbidden to practice your faith. Jews are virtually forbidden to enter the country, and in time, Christians may find themselves forbidden to enter as well. A State Dept. report (via Dhimmi Watch) found that they are the worst violators in religious freedom.

A Saudi was sentenced to 750 lashes for discussing the Bible and praising the Jews.

A Jizan court sentencing a young woman to 500 lashes for allegedly spending time alone with a young man and marrying him just hours after divorcing her previous husband (also via Jihad Watch).

A man from Kerala may have had...no, I can't say it.

"Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of Jihad"

The jihad even extended to their embassy in Washington, and to Boise, Idaho, as well. And recently, a Saudi student in Colorado was arrested for enslaving and raping an Indonesian maid. He has now been convicted and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers on 9-11 were Saudis, and a 20th Saudi terrorist may have tried to take part in the obscenity too. Senator Bob Graham wrote a book about the hijackers connections to the Saudi government two years ago.

They still pledge to adhere to Shari'a (Islamic) law.

When you look at this miniseries from Marvel in terms of reality, it's hard to take seriously a book where the terror gang featured isn't Muslim themselves, yet one of the law agents combatting them is. And because of the real life bombings in London last year, that's one more reason why it's in poor taste.

The miniseries even has a spat featured between Saladin and Sabra - he makes a sexist crack, and she tells him that he's too soft on terror, and I'm guessing that it's done in so morally equivalent a manner that for anyone without an in depth understanding, it'll be impossible to tell who's right or wrong in all this. I'm sure the script doesn't show him mouthing off with anti-Israel rhetoric in this, but from a real life viewpoint, it's hard to believe he wouldn't harbor such sentiments as well.

Another strike against this miniseries is the current state of Britain itself. Someone should tell the mini's writer, Christos N. Gage, to take a good look at Londonistan by Melanie Phillips. Because, if he did, he'd realize that in England, they're not as understanding of what leads to terrorism as you'd think. Some examples of where Britain goes wrong include:

They've been making it a crime to act in self-defense. Thanks to discriminations like these, England has one of the worst crime rates in all of Europe.

They even mulled scrapping their traditional St. George flag to avoid offending Muslims (via Dhimmi Watch).

In recent years, they've been so lax in dealing with crime that they practically allowed scores of dangerous criminals to abscond from Leyhill prison, many of whom may never be recaptured, and many of whom the police may never even try to track down. A more recent report by the Telegraph shows that these figures have trebled in five years.

A local council in the UK banned Christmas lights for fear of offending Muslims.

Last year in Britain, leftists and Muslims both marched against the Iraq war.

Red Ken Livingstone supported "Islam Awareness Week".

Last December, the Londonistan Metropolitan Police - are you ready for this? - sponsored a jihad conference at the Excel Center (via Melanie Phillips and Dhimmi Watch). Yep, you read that right.

The UK even strengthened "defense" ties with Saudi Arabia.

A poll published in February revealed that forty percent of British Muslims want Shari'a law introduced in the UK. This can mostly be attributed to the bad influence the British media's had on them, the BBC being one of the worst.

During the Danish cartoon protests in February, the following shockers were seen among the picket signs in London: Of all the picket signs seen at any protest anywhere, none can top these jaw-droppers. Not only did the British authorities allow them to be toted around at the protest, but it took them at least 3 months before they searched for and arrested the perpetrators. And when more hate and incitement was stoked against Pope Benedict last month after he quoted the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus's argument on Islam from 600 years ago, this horrific display of contempt for human life was repeated right near the Wesminster Cathedral. A Catholic resident of London who was witness to this horror took several photos revealing more ghastly hatemongering. No reasonable nor logical arguments, just hate.

The Home Office made some recent decisions that toilets in prisons would not face Mecca, but that all gravestones in a Nottingham cemetary, including Christian and Jewish ones, would.

Worst of all: the authorities decided not to conduct any raids on terror suspects without approval from the Muslim community (via Michelle Malkin and Tigerhawk). How many terror suspects could evade the law this way? Which reminds me, could a character like Arabian Knight act as a double agent and tip off the terrorists to let them know about the other crimebusters searching for them?

And don't get me started on the absurdity of a man spending two nights in the clink for offending Muslims by "revving up his car engine in a racist manner"!

Not for nothing has practically the whole of England been nicknamed Londonistan in recent years. And that's all the more reason why Union Jack is most likely to come across looking absurd: because it doesn't reflect the reality of what the country is like. And yet, now that I think of it, if there's anything Union Jack is shaping up to look like, it's a perfect mirror of how incompetant the British authorities are, with the hero being made to look more like a knee-jerk drone than someone who can think for himself and know where to draw the line at whom to recruit for a mission to stop terrorists. Unfortunately, I highly doubt that the writer will tell the audience that what Union Jack is doing is foolish.

So once again, instead of writing something intelligent, Marvel seems to have made themselves out to look like ignoramuses by writing a story in which the hero recruits a would-be crimefighter whose background suggests anything but. I think the following excerpt from Silver Bullet sums it up well enough:

This is a stupid line up. You don’t put a Saudi and an Israeli together on a make believe mission to stop terrorism. Their predictable in-fighting proves to be tiresome and takes up valuable plot time--time that could have been used for vampires, I may add.

Yup. And you don't put a Christian and a Saudi/Muslim together on such a mission either. More than that, you don't recruit or assign a Saudi for a mission against terrorism at all, because they simply cannot be trusted.

Cue Big Ben at 12:00 AM for the sound of doom.

Open trackbacks: Is it Just Me, Stop the ACLU.

Labels: Europe and Asia, islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, politics, terrorism, violence