Michelle's corner

Normally, I'm all up for treading on eggs, and Marvel are taking the bit between their teeth in introducing a muslim superhero among other diverse characters - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/books/marvel-comics-introducing-a-muslim-girl-superhero.html - as reported by the NT Times and other agencies.

This strikes me as being potentially dangerous while we have the likes of ISIS, Boko Harem, Taliban, etc. running around causing considerable death and destruction of historical and religious artefacts on a scale that has not been heard of for some time in human history. They have even forced people to wipe out massive works that are critical to their cultures; these people will have to live with the heartbreak that they destroyed their cultural heritage with their own hands; the fact that they did it under the threat of a gun probably won't assuage their pain much.

Marvel are potentially lining themselves up for serious trouble here. I've read the qu'ran and some hadith and if Marvel are really planning to give this superhero such torment then they risk lining themselves up between two different sets of society cross hairs here. Two different legal systems, American and sharia; which does the character choose?

Also, I wonder if they have misinterpreted the depth of family honour such as this case where the family concerned had such contempt for those outside their little circle that they told the boyfriend of their son, the wrong time for the funeral of his own partner - http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/21/my-boyfriend-killed-himself-because-his-family-couldnt-accept-that-he-was-gay

I really fear that Marvel could be setting themselves up for such a hard task here that the character will be facing so much inner turmoil and tough decisions that I think The NY Times is perfectly correct to conclude that fighting criminals may actually be an escape for the character.

There's treading on eggs, and then there's making an omelette out of the hen house. I fear that Marvel are about to do the latter with this one, as there is a strong conservative muslim presence which has no plans to shrug off their culture and embrace the values of the West; heck, some of them hold sharia law above the law of the land in which they live.

I don't hold the figures here to be entirely accurate, but these are indicative that there is sentiment out there on both directions...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/many-british-muslims-put-islam-first/

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-qa-sharia-law-uk/18486

The BBC reported that the Home Secretary in the UK is intending to clamp down on Sharia courts in the UK, whatever that means because they are only used to settle disputes between consenting parties that don't want to engage the UK legal system...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32014049

Marvel are playing with dynamite here. Let's at least get the terrorists under some form of control first and get a bit more cultural harmonisation under way before creating a heavily tormented character like this in such raw times, eh?