Monday, August 08, 2011

What would those Indonesian/Egyptian Muslims say if they knew those comics were created by Jews?

I found an essay on Hooded Utilitarian, a site mostly about indie comics and cartoons, by a writer named Nadim Damluji, about the Arabic translations of Superman and such that found their way to the mideast and Indonesia. And were there alterations? Well, if the following tells something:
In 1964, an editor at Lebanese publisher Illustrated Publications (IP) seemingly answered this very question in the form of mild-mannered Nabil Fawzi. As catalogued in an excellent 1970 article from ARAMCO Magazine, IP reasoned the Middle East contained a potentially viable market for the same adventure comics that had become popular (and profitable) in the United States; comics like The Adventures of Superman. But instead of creating a Superman-like hero for an Arab audience, IP decided to teach the man of steel himself how to speak Arabic through translating the already abundant English editions of the comic. With these translations we bear witness to the the birth of Nabil Fawzi:

“The first comic strip to be issued in Arabic by IP was Superman. In the guise of Nabil Fawzi, a reporter for ‘Al-Kawkab Al Yawmi’ he swooped into the Middle East from distant Krypton on February 4, 1964, to the instantaneous delight of thousands of young Arab children.”

Indeed, while it has been exciting to find plenty editions of the Arabic Superman (technically pronounced “Suberman”) in my Egyptian book market excursions, it is very weird to see the well known hero recast with the name Nabil in a presumably Arab Metropolis. I say “weird” because all that has changed is the name. Essentially a big eraser was taken to the English text and the editors at Illustrated Publications (after convincing Western publishers to license the material) retold the story of arguably the most famous American superhero to a captivated Arab audience.
If anything was changed, it was the character name, from Clark Kent to "Nabil Fawzi". I have to wonder though, if anything was left out to boot - specifically, was any romance between Supes and Lois Lane and/or Lana Lang also omitted? (Side note: many years ago, I watched TV programs broadcast on Jordanian TV in English, and they often censored kisses, but not violence.)

Before I get to the main question, take a look at the 8th picture featured on that item and also on BoingBoing, a drawing from Indonesia that depicts a number of Marvel/DC superheroes engaged in prayer in a mosque. Hard to believe, but apparently true and ghastly; someone in Indonesia actually drew a "tribute" to those comics but could not leave out religious bias. You'll notice that it's only the male heroes featured; the female heroines were spared the disgust, yet at the same time it does signal how women are viewed as inferior under Islam, and not suited to take part per se.

But now, here's the main question following this: did any of the most twisted public in the Muslim middle east then and now know that the creators of these superheroes they seemingly love are Jewish? And depending on how far indoctrinated they are, would they want to support these Jewish creations by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, etc?

Well it doesn't exactly seem like they're hot stuff in the mideast now, no matter how shamelessly the companies are now willing to pander via whitewash to the Islamic mindset. My guess is that as of today, these comics don't sell in the mideast and it's definitely surprising that once, they did. Well, some of them anyway. I've got a feeling Wonder Woman never did, nor Black Canary, for reasons we can easily guess. If the censors who control trade in the Islamic world know, that's one of the reasons for starters why they may not be seen today in such countries, assuming they're around there at all. But even those indoctrinated enough in the public who know may not touch them either, assuming they don't want to support Jewish creations.

As the riots in Egypt tell, things are not going to get any better, one more reason why known Jewish creations may otherwise be rejected in Islamic dominated countries.

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