The Four Color Media Monitor

Frank Miller's bold new venture focusing on jihadism has come out, and as expected, there are some on the left who more or less despise him for that. And if there's any leftist review I find that's really biased, it's this one at leftist AOL-owned Comics Alliance, which begins by making the mistake of using the headline, "A Propaganda Comic That Fights Faith Instead of Evil". And it doesn't get any better from there. Next problem:

Partway through the story, Miller realized that he'd "taken Batman as far as he can go," and moved the story outside the DC Comics Universe.

I'm afraid that's distorting. Miller argued with Paul Levitz earlier that he'd taken the Masked Manhunter as far as he could think of working on him, and when Levitz basically put the kibosh on the project, Miller decided to change it to an indie comic.

Holy Terror is tough for me to wrap my head around, because propaganda is a tricky beast. It requires convincing everyone of the righteousness of your country's cause, turning your enemy into something other than you, and simplifying matters to an almost absurd level. In World War II, propaganda was easy. There was a clear enemy, notably the Nazis, who had committed clearly hateful crimes. And even then, the otherizing aspect of propaganda gave rise to a metric ton of racism and bigotry, which was nonetheless seen as justified or even acceptable in the face of the atrocities that had been committed.

So, a propaganda piece about Al-Qaeda, an entity that is fractured and spread all over the world, is a strange and possibly (probably) terrible thing. The conversation about terrorism and Al-Qaeda in the United States has too often drifted into a critique, or worse, of Islam itself. How do you define your villains as being Al-Qaeda first and Muslims second? Their beliefs are an integral part of their motivations and actions, but they don't represent Islam as a whole.

Did it ever occur to them that they happen to be part of the problem today - that is, making an effort to obscure today's enemy, Islam? And what's this about their actions not representing Islam "as a whole"? Challenging question: is this not a hateful crime too, which "prophet" Muhammed committed against the Qurayza Jews in Medina during 627 AD? As told:

In AD 627, Muhammad committed an atrocity against the last remaining major tribe of Jews in Medina: the Qurayza.

He beheaded the men and the pubescent boys and enslaved the women and children. In doing this, he wiped an entire tribe "off the map" to use the language of the President of Iran, recently.

The purpose of this article is full disclosure and straightforward analysis about early Islam. How and why did this atrocity unfold?

Which can be read about at the link. And, what about the "Suras" Muhammed and his army of darkness concocted, which include as many as 164 verses of violence? Including:

...make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. Sura 8:012

So just what's their little game, saying that their actions don't represent the so-called religion as a whole?

The Comics Alliance writer goes on to use the following to defend his positions:

I personally benefitted greatly from the guidance or teachings of Muslim men and women as I grew up, so I'm always wary of conversations that are framed as "Us versus Them," where "Us" is a nebulous notion of "Americans" and "Them" equates to "Muslims," because that is a false divide.

If he received guidance from Islamists, how come he hasn't provided any info from the Koran itself or the history of its violent founder? Including one of Muhammed's most horrific acts, which was to marry a 6 year old girl, Aisha, whose own parents practically betrayed her to him. He also took other women like Safiyah, Rayhanah and Juwariyah as slaves and concubines. Was the Comics Alliance writer ever provided guidance about history like that?

The constant bashing of Islam as a throwback to the Dark Ages is stupid, ugly, and tiresome. It's also factually incorrect. While Europe was in the midst of the so-called Dark Ages, the Arab world was in the middle of what was essentially a golden age of enlightenment. They made vital discoveries and advances in science, math, medicine, art, architecture, and several other areas that had a profound impact on the rest of human civilization.

And the use of moral relativism is stupid and tiresome. And using a Wikipedia page as his source? I'm sorry, but even I usually ponder that Wikipedia, as a site anyone can edit and is far from the most honest source of info one can find, isn't exactly worth using as a backup. And as Robert Spencer once said, he finds the claim that the Islamic world has any achievements exaggerated at best.

Then, Comics Alliance says that:

Al-Qaeda is treated in the text as something that is representative of Islam, rather than something that is a twisted, rotted off-shoot. Conversely, the Ku Klux Klan are terrorists are nominally Christian, but they're never portrayed as representative of Christianity or whites.

Well duh, that's because in Christianity and Judaism, you don't have the kind of vile verses that examples like I've provided from the Koran above happens to contain. Biggest problem with the Comics Alliance article then is how they can't seem to get it into their heads that there's such a thing as good and bad religions, the latter which could even describe Scientology. Is that not possible for them to consider? I guess not.

Let's also note that Miller made it clear earlier that he was going to be as politically incorrect as possible, and clearly, he was. And I appreciate him for that. Without guts - which the fools now running DC certainly don't have - it wouldn't be possible to make a meat-and-potatoes story, and I'm glad to see Miller's shown some. I hope this'll do well, and I'll certainly be trying to buy a copy. Too bad some on the left just can't appreciate Miller's courage, or recognize that he's got what to go by in addressing the subject.

Also, as this blog notes, the graphic novel is dedicated to Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who was murdered for making a film with Ayaan Hirsi Ali about misogyny in the Muslim world. That's another thing to appreciate from Miller: he's let a victim of Islamofascism know he won't be forgotten.

Update: and coming the week that terrorists like Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were taken out by the US military, this could be a very good time for Holy Terror to debut.

Labels: good artists, good writers, indie publishers, islam and jihad, terrorism