The 99: Islam inspires a comic-book series | Philadelphia Inquirer |

Posted on June 17th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Youth culture (as a practice).

Islam inspires a comic-book series | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/16/2008

the99.jpg

By Faiza Saleh Ambah

Washington Post
KUWAIT CITY – Naif al-Mutawa was in a London taxi with his sister when she asked when he’d go back to writing children’s books. Mutawa, a Kuwaiti psychologist with two doctorates and an MBA from Columbia, said the question sparked a chain of thoughts:

To go back to writing after all that education, it would have to be something big, something with the potential of Pokemon, the Japanese cartoon that was briefly banned by Saudi religious authorities. God would have been disappointed by that, he thought; God has 99 attributes, or names, including tolerance.

“And then the idea formed in my mind,” Mutawa said. “Heroes with the 99 attributes.”

He mixed his deep religious faith, business acumen and firsthand experience with other cultures – his childhood summers were spent at a predominantly Jewish camp in New Hampshire – to create The 99, a comic-book series about superheroes imbued with the 99 attributes of God. Those traits represent one of Islam’s most recognizable concepts. (more…)

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The 99: Islam inspires a comic-book series | Philadelphia Inquirer |

Posted on June 17th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Youth culture (as a practice).

Islam inspires a comic-book series | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/16/2008

the99.jpg

By Faiza Saleh Ambah

Washington Post
KUWAIT CITY – Naif al-Mutawa was in a London taxi with his sister when she asked when he’d go back to writing children’s books. Mutawa, a Kuwaiti psychologist with two doctorates and an MBA from Columbia, said the question sparked a chain of thoughts:

To go back to writing after all that education, it would have to be something big, something with the potential of Pokemon, the Japanese cartoon that was briefly banned by Saudi religious authorities. God would have been disappointed by that, he thought; God has 99 attributes, or names, including tolerance.

“And then the idea formed in my mind,” Mutawa said. “Heroes with the 99 attributes.”

He mixed his deep religious faith, business acumen and firsthand experience with other cultures – his childhood summers were spent at a predominantly Jewish camp in New Hampshire – to create The 99, a comic-book series about superheroes imbued with the 99 attributes of God. Those traits represent one of Islam’s most recognizable concepts. (more…)

0 comments.