Background: Our latest interview is with Muslim American writer G. Willow Wilson which was conducted by Rebecca Hankins. Wilson is a writer and scholar, a convert to Islam whose commentary often addresses Islamic and interfaith issues. An avid supporter of new and alternative media, Wilson has written for political and culture blogs from across a wide spectrum of views. Her official website is at the following URL: http://www.gwillowwilson.com http://www.gwillowwilson.com

R Hankins: Tell us a little about your background.
G. Willow Wilson: I was born in New Jersey and we moved to Colorado when I was a child so I’m sort of a hybrid east coaster mid westerner. I went to college at Boston University, graduated with a degree in history, and I had been kind of a closeted spiritual person for most of my life, you know I say in the book, I tried to be an atheist, and just wasn’t very good at it. I was not raised with any kind of religion, but in college I began to get a little bit more serious about exploring religion and what it meant. I knew that I was a monotheist, but I didn’t know what kind of monotheist I was.   Islam to me, on a theological level, embodied the kind of relationship that I had to God, and the things that I believed about the nature of God.  It was a slow process. I was not enthusiastic at first about the idea of converting because I knew even before 9/11 what kind of hardships would come along with it, and questions, and potential risks from people I loved and I didn’t want that. So I really resisted for several years, the idea of converting, and especially– 9/11 happened my junior year of college and that really pushed back my conversion process because I said “wait a minute I have to go back and really make sure that this religion isn’t actually about terrorism and that it’s not about killing innocent people or hijacking airplanes” so I had to really be firm in that because if that’s what it’s about then it’s not for me. It took a couple years after that to really reassure myself that these people really were aberrations and that there was nothing in the religion that could possibly justify what they had done. I was approaching Islam through a purely textual route. I really didn’t know any Muslims at the time. I had never been to a Muslim country; I had never been inside a mosque. I didn’t know any sort of contemporary issues. I knew that I had a sense and I watched the news; I saw women in Burkas and those kinds of things, but that was– my knowledge was pretty cosmetic when it came to gender relationships within Islam. I thought, well okay I’ll go into it with an open mind and I’ll see, and that’s part of the reason I went to Egypt after I graduated. I got a job in Egypt to teach; moved there a couple of months after graduating college. It’s because I wanted to kind of see first-hand, what the situation was, and what it was like for women in a Muslim country, and come to my own decision that way.

R. Hankins: How did you begin writing in the genre of graphic novels and comics?
G. Willow Wilson: I have been a fan since childhood. I think I was maybe ten years old when I first got a sort of PSA, little six page comic book in school that featured the x-men talking about how bad it was to smoke and how you shouldn’t smoke, so it really had nothing to do with comics as a medium.  It was really to get kids to not smoke, but I was so fascinated by these characters that were in these costumes, running around, they were so strong, and they knew everything that was going on. I started watching, at that time, there was a Saturday morning cartoon show on Fox of the X-men, and I watched it religiously, no pun intended, every Saturday for years or at least a couple of years. So that was really my introduction. I was a big reader as a kid, of all kinds of books. I loved fantasy. I loved the Lloyd Alexander series: The Chronicles of Prydain, The Children of Llyr, and all those wonderful books based on Welsh mythology for children.  My father read me Lord of the Rings when I was two or three and so, I was really sort of dedicated.  I didn’t know what geek culture was at that age of course, I just thought these are what good books look like. Comics kind of stood out to me because they were so multi-sensory; you had pictures, you had words, even at that time a lot of comic books were being adapted into cartoon shows or movies, so it seemed almost like a kind of mythology that crossed the boundaries of media; and the characters were sort of alive in all these different ways and in books, and in movies. I love comics, it was really an X-Men addiction for a long time and then in high school I branched out and started reading a lot of the Vertigo books that were coming out around that time; Sandman by Neil Gaiman, which of course transformed the whole genre. Shade the Changing Men by Peter Milligan, which is another fantastic postmodern, more mature literary oriented comic.  In high school, I figured out if that these books exist then there must people who make them for a living, so I sort of set out on how to do that.

It is true that women are really underrepresented in the creative side of comics and in fact right now there is kind of a big brouhaha, going on because DC is re-launching, DCC is the company that does Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, a lot of those big characters. They’re re-launching a lot of their monthly comic books, and women creators have dropped to one percent of the total number of creators on these new books. One percent of these books are written or drawn by women, and there was a lot of fall-out from that, because lots of people said this is ridiculous, you know, women are underrepresented to begin with and you’ve got a mere one percentage of books are going to be drawn by women. However, there are quite a few women editors in comics, who don’t get the proper credit that they deserve, and who do an amazing job steering and guiding a lot of these, you know, really mythic characters and the stories and that kind of thing. So I have been lucky enough to work with several women editors in the industry. Joan Hilky, edited my first graphic novel Cairo. Karen Burger who is a legend in her own industry and the editor of Vertigo, I did a book with her, Air, that was nominated for an Eisner Award. The first issue of my first Marvel project at Marvel Comics, Mystic, which came out yesterday, was edited by Janine Schaffer. Things are starting to change, and I think more on the editorial side rather than on the creative side where there is still a huge gender gap, but more and more women are filling those positions within the big comic company as editors, so that’s a good start.

R. Hankins:  Have you found that there is any pushback or negative reaction to your writings?
G. Willow Wilson: I think that part of the reason I haven’t is because number one I’m writing in English and that limits your audience somewhat and people who, number one can read and access stuff and would go and pick it out are generally not people who are antagonistic to it.  I think if I were writing in Arabic I’d have a different experience.  But at the same time one of the original works of fantasy in world literature was written by Arab Muslims, the Thousand and one Nights, so I think, there is this discomfort in the community with the idea of magic, that I had some conversations about, but certainly there is so much in the Islamic cannon when it comes to things like the Jin and there are things that we can’t see. There is a belief in most of the parts of Muslims world that magic is quite real, but that it’s very dangerous and that’s it sort of irreligious and you should stay away from it. Ironically I think some of the discomfort with fantasy is the genre that exists in some parts of the Muslim world arises not from a particular rejection of some of the ideas behind fantasy, but it’s because a lot of people really believe that this stuff is true; that you can be hurt for instance by the Jin, by the Unseen, that there is black magic, that it can be very damaging, and so I think it really comes from a belief rather than from disbelief. But I think it’s changing, for example in the Arab world there’s been some; I think I saw a piece on this on NPR, but this is something that I hear also from friends and family. Living in Egypt for example, there’s been a new wave of young authors that are producing more novels that are becoming more popular. A great example is Yacubian Building, which of course is translated into the English Yacoub and was made into a movie. It was the closest thing the Arab world had to bestseller in a while, and it was made into a movie with a bunch of very famous actors. The English title is the Yacoub Building. I’m not sure that it’s too great a leap to say the fact that in the Arab world at any rate people do seem to be reading more and at the same time we have this wave of revolution. I don’t think those two things are disconnected.

R. Hankins: Do you think there is a general lack of interest in Science Fiction in the Muslim world?  What has been your experience?
G. Willow Wilson: I have been very surprised by the level of interest and support that I’ve gotten. For a long time I thought it was just the American Muslim community, because there is a lot of geek cultures, generally sci-fi fantasy comics, is really big in the Muslim community because it’s an outsider culture. That really resonates with American Muslims who are kind of struggling to reconcile too often conflicting identities. I mean that kind of thinking is at the core of sci-fi and fantasy. You’ve got the kid who’s kind of on the outside, but he has super powers; he discovers he’s got this great destiny or you know, things really aren’t that bad after all, and I think that really appeals to Muslim, especially youth, Muslim youth in America. I had always thought, “gosh it’s a good thing that people abroad, and Cairo, and the Middle East are not reading this stuff because I’m sure I would just get skewered, and then I started, just before last year, I got a message on Twitter from a couple of guys in Cairo who said we really want you to do a signing in Cairo. We love your books and we’ve read Cairo the graphic novel and some of the other stuff and we want you to come do a signing. I said “Oh my God and I was planning to travel there to see family. My husband’s family is Egyptian. We had been planning to travel there anyway, and so I said okay let’s set something up while I’m planning on being in Cairo. The event, which was in an English language bookstore, was packed. There were more people there than at a lot of my US signings that I’ve done. There were probably 50 people in this very small little space, asking very good questions and they were really engaged. One guy actually got up and he had written a little speech about how he’d been studying abroad in the US in the winter, it was snowy and cold, he had never seen snow before, and he was kind of miserable. Reading Cairo the graphic novel had given him kind of a taste of home and made him feel less homesick and had inspired him to do his own comic book, which he had just sort of drawn, written, and laminated on a home computer. He gave me a copy and it was probably one of the best moments for me as a writer ever, to hear that from him, and I thought at that time that “oh my God, this could really work”, I think things are really starting to change. Sure enough six months later, those same kids who came to that signing were over-throwing the government. It was really amazing for me.

R. Hankins: How did you write your graphic novel Cairo? Is this opportunity to breakdown stereotypes where you even include a sympathetic portrayal of a female Israeli Special Forces soldier.  Tell me a little bit more about how you wrote that dialogue and was it difficult to write dialogue for the male voice?
G. Willow Wilson: Yeah it is kind of tough and I did have to think very very carefully about exactly what I was saying. Are people from one side going to be able to attack me about this, and are the other people going to be able to attack me about this stuff. It was tough, I had to think about it very carefully, but I was lucky enough to give part of the early manuscript to one of the original, Refuseniks who had served time in prison for refusing to serve in the Occupied Territory. He read it and gave me some good feedback. It’s a really tough call with anything like that and anytime you try to include a conflict like that you’re really kind of borrowing trouble, and I kind of knew that. I was in Cairo doing a reading and somebody asked me about that; she  said you know this could never happen right, this love affair between an Israeli soldier and an Egyptian guy?  Probably not, but that’s part of the fantasy, you get to write a happy ending.  On the other hand I think people are a little bit in denial, you go to Sinai and you see tons of Egyptian/Israeli couples.

Something that is really important to me is bringing a new perspective, and putting combinations of characters together that would not occur to anyone. That’s really a reflection of my own life.  I’m lucky enough to have a very broad diverse set of interests and they come with a broad diverse set of friends and so the idea of very, very different kinds of people coming together and sort of being forced by destiny to interact and cooperate, is I think one of the biggest themes in all of my books. Certainly it’s there in Cairo, where you’ve got a would be suicide bomber whose sort of on the run, kind of a naïve American girl who thinks she’s going to kind go to Egypt and cut a swath, and everything will be great; a journalist and an Israeli soldier. To me, the thing that I think is so urgent right now in the world is this reminder that there are these core parts of the human experience that really do transcend culture and religion. People get restless and get hurt and fall in love and fall out of love, and in kind of some of the same essential ways even though they express them very differently, and so that’s important to me to communicate through these very varied cast of characters that I put in my books.

It struck me once, and this is partially the inspiration for Tova, even though it has nothing to do with soldiers or anything like that. I was in Sinai at a little beach resort-camping site basically, and there was a little Israeli girl there with her mother; the girl was maybe six or seven. They were sort of keeping things very much on the down low trying not to say where they were from. They were very cagy because they didn’t want to get into it with people, so I could tell the little girl was speaking Hebrew to her mother and the mother would speak back in English trying to get the kid to not speak in Hebrew.  There were eels in the water and the little girl was frightened, the automatic response of the Egyptian guy was to comfort her because it’s a child who is afraid and he needs to comfort a child.

Why an American of Lebanese descent? Number one because I wanted to make him kind of on the down low Shia so that I could have some religious variety within the Muslims that I was portraying. I also wanted to have an Arab character that looked non-stereotypically Arab because there are blonde haired, blue eyed Arabs, Arabs with very dark skin. It’s a extremely diverse ethnic group so I wanted to have one character that was an Arab that didn’t look like what a Western reader would envision an Arab looks like. There wasn’t any sort of deeper stick than that.
(End of Part 1)

(Image Source: Matt Ruff’s Official Website)

About Matt Ruff: Matt Ruff is a well known novelist whose work has won numerous awards inclusing being long-listed for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, winning the 2007 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, Washington State Book Award, two PNBA Book Awards, and two Washington State Book Award. Matt has also recieved the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Prose. He has published five different novels with Mirage bring the latest one. Mirage is an interesting an nuanced take on the Alternative History genre where the roles between the side are reversed in the war on terror.

Matt Ruff’s Official Website: http://www.bymattruff.com/

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: Mirage is set in an alternative world where the sides in the war on terror are flipped, what inspired you to write this novel?
Matt Ruff: It grew out of a desire to tell a story about 9/11 and the War on Terror that wasn’t just a cookie-cutter version of what other writers were doing, but that would explore the issues involved from a unique angle. I wanted it to be an engaging read that also gave you stuff to think about. Other items on my wish list were that I wanted to give a more central role to ordinary, non-terrorist Arab Muslims who typically got short shrift in stories like this, and I wanted to create a more naturalistic portrait of Islam.

And my solution for accomplishing all this was to turn the world upside down: to create a classic 9/11-themed thriller, but with Iraqi protagonists, set in a reality where Arabia was the world’s superpower.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: In many cases the countries, ideologies and even personalities are the mirror images of their counterparts in the real world, do you believe that it is the circumstances that make people who they are or was there some other idea at play when you were writing this?
Matt Ruff: Without giving too many spoilers, much of the mirroring comes from the fact that what I was trying to evoke was not so much a realistic Arab Muslim democracy as the more fanciful version held out by the Bush administration as an enticement for invading Iraq: the one that was supposed to spring forth magically from the ashes of Saddam’s kingdom, without any real effort or concern for historical context.

On the level of individuals, I think we’re bounded and shaped by circumstance, but ultimately the kind of person you are is up to you. One of the rules I devised for the mirage world is that people’s basic characters wouldn’t change, only their job descriptions. So Saddam Hussein is still a wicked man, but since he can’t be a dictator, he becomes a gangster. Osama bin Laden is a warmongering politician. And my protagonist Mustafa al Baghdadi struggles to be a good man, as he would in any world, within the limits of the choices life has handed him.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: What kind of research did you do in writing the novel?
Matt Ruff: I read up on the history of the region and on the famous personalities involved, so that I’d know just how much my alternate reality was changing things. I read first-person accounts and reports of life in Iraq during and before the war, and other material that I thought might provide useful anecdotes. With Islam, I tried to be careful about getting specific points of theology right, without falling into the trap of confusing religious orthodoxy with the diverse ways religion is actually practiced by members of the faith, particularly in a free society.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: What is the main lesson that you want your readers to draw from this novel?
Matt Ruff: I’m reluctant to spell out specific lessons or messages. What I try to do in The Mirage is show readers a world and people they think they know from a very different perspective, and trust them to draw their own conclusions from that.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: Do you believe in the inherent goodness of humankind and the capacity of speculative fiction to highlight or even bring it out?
Matt Ruff: I’m temperamentally an optimist—sometimes naively so—but I guess what I believe in is the inherent humanness of humankind. Which is to say, the ability of all people to commit both good and bad acts. I’m pleased by the former, disappointed by the latter, and not especially shocked by either.

And yes, I think speculative fiction can portray human nature as well as any kind of fiction can, and perhaps inspire people to do better.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: The world of Mirage seems very ripe for an expanded universe, any thoughts on this?
Matt Ruff: Well, my original idea was that The Mirage would be a TV series. But at the time—this was late 2006/early 2007—the concept was simply too controversial for any American TV network to want to touch, so I decided to do it as a novel, which was actually OK, because it meant I had much more control over the story.

With the passage of time I think the subject matter has become at least somewhat less radioactive, so who knows, if the book does well enough, maybe a TV series could still happen. Certainly you could expand the basic arc of the story to allow side trips into other parts of the mirage world and a much deeper exploration of the characters.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: What are you favorite Science Fiction and/or Alternative History authors?
Matt Ruff: My favorite alt-history novel would probably be Robert Harris’s Fatherland. Philip K. Dick also looms large, though if I’m honest I usually like his ideas more than his execution of them. Other writers in the broader speculative fiction field who I feel a close kinship to would include John Crowley, Shirley Jackson, and Neal Stephenson.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: Mirage is very different from the previous work that you have published, are there common threads that link the various works that you have written?
Matt Ruff: I think the two most persistent themes in my work are seeing the world through other people’s eyes—including people we may not like very much—and figuring out how to get on in a world where people will always disagree but have to coexist anyway. Both of those themes are very well represented in The Mirage, I’d say.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad: After Mirage, what is the next project that you are working on?
Matt Ruff: My most likely next project is a novel called Lovecraft Country. It’s set in the Jim Crow era and concerns an African-American travel writer and pulp-fiction geek who drives around the U.S. reviewing hotels and restaurants that accept black customers. So, another attempt to view a familiar reality through a different set of eyes—and have some adventures along the way.

Sophia Al-Maria, who also goes by the nom-de-plume Sci-Fi Wahabi, is a Qatari artist and a writer. Her work is mainly fused with futurism in the Gulf region. In the past she has curated a tour of Doha by Dhow called “Future Tents” and has also performed  ‘tours from the future’ at Art Dubai. Part of her is also about fusing American and Arab pop cultures. She is also the Gulf Collection Curator at the Arab Museum of Modern Art. She is currently writing a book for Harper Perennial. More information about Sophia’s work can be obtained from here, here and here.

The Orion’s Arm Universe Project is an online collaborative project focused on world building. Recently I received an invitation letter from the creators of the project. These folks have been around for sometime now and the projects has been praised by the likes of Cory Doctorow. The invitation is not just to our website but to the reader of Islam and Science Fiction. I encourage the readers to take up this offer and contribute to the Orion’s Arm Universe. Here is  the letter:

The Orion’s Arm Universe Project is an open source collective worldbuilding and fiction writing project that seeks to depict a plausible world set 10,000 years in the future.

Orion’s Arm (OA for short) is a big place with nearly a decade of history and hundreds of contributors.  But we’re always happy to welcome new friends and new ideas.

From time to time, the members of the project have discussed the fact that although we seek to depict the future of the entire human race, we have little information on the site regarding the future of cultures that don’t have their origins in Europe or the America’s. This is primarily due to the fact that the bulk of our membership comes from those parts of the world and also because we are reluctant to attempt to write about cultures and parts of the world we know little or nothing about beyond what we might find on Wikipedia or the like, which would likely not be fully correct or realistic.

Recently we came across a blog from a Muslim SF fan that included a link to your project.  After looking at your site, we discovered that you actually have a link to us in your site archive, specifically related to one part of our website, the Stellar Umma, which can also be found here.

Based on this, as well as the quality of your website and project, we’d like to do the following:

First, we’d like to return the favor and add a link to your website to our Links and Extras page.

Second, we wanted to extend an invitation to any authors or artists associated with your project to pay us a visit, explore the OA universe and its fictional future history, and possibly contribute ideas, stories, or artwork to the project.  In particular, we were hoping you might be able to help us expand our depiction of Muslim and possibly non-European cultures and ideas within OA.  Any such contributions would need to fall within the bounds of the Canon of the OA universe but in general we’ve found that the setting is large enough to accommodate just about any idea.

So please, check us out, explore the Orion’s Arm setting, and consider joining one of our discussion groups, where everything in the OA setting gets started.  If you have any questions or concerns regarding any of the above or just on general principles, please don’t hesitate to contact us, either via the discussion groups or using the link on the OA homepage.

Abdourahman Waberi’s Aux États-Unis d’Afrique was published in 2006, and the English translation, In the United States of Africa, came out in 2009. It’s a brief, lyrical and pointed satire that imagines our world in reverse: Africa is a region of stability and prosperity, united by a single government, with the desperate multitudes of the impoverished West begging for its aid.

In the United States of Africa is science fiction only in the loosest sense, in the way that Gulliver’s Travels is science fiction: it’s a social commentary that creates an imaginary world in order to critique the world we know. Waberi is not interested in exploring how technology might have developed differently in the United States of Africa, or in inventing new socio-political systems. His interest is in images: “the moon, polished by Malian and Liberian astronauts” (p. 4); a “shelter for destitute Caucasians, with their straight hair and infected lungs” (p. 5). It’s his exuberant prose, laced with just enough irony to sting, that gives these images the destabilizing force of the best science fiction.

At the center of the novel is Malaïka, called Maya: a white girl adopted by African parents and raised in comfort in Asmara. The book describes Maya’s life and her development as an artist, but it’s also addressed to her: “You were an angel, Maya,” declares the unnamed narrator, “both light and vigorous. You were as fresh as a newborn butterfly in the pure air” (p. 29). This creates a curious mirror effect: Maya is shown, but she is also told about her own image, so that she is present both as an actor and as the observer of her own story. Mirrors figure prominently in the novel: “[I]s the person you see every morning in the mirror—that double, that twin—so familiar? Or is she already taking up too much space?” the narrator asks (p. 38). Maya’s mirror-twin is a sinister, threatening figure, but its disappearance later in the novel is even more disturbing: “You are…absent from your own dreams. You really are invisible, there’s no doubt about it. It happens at night, when you take your clothes off before going to bed: you look at yourself in the mirror and you can’t see a thing” (p. 82).

Maya’s alienation is caused by her status as a privileged young woman who nevertheless bears the white skin of “the wretched of the earth” (p. 15). To find herself, she sets out to seek her birth mother in the decaying slums of Paris. “You put on a calm face as you drag two suitcases stuffed with clothes to fight the cold, medicine against the thousand microbes they have in Europe, not forgetting small presents for the people you’ll have to deal with. You were told many times never to leave empty handed” (p. 95).

Maya’s journey provides plenty of opportunities for Waberi to frame Europe in the terms commonly used to describe Africa. There’s a certain amount of glee in this reversal of stereotypes, but the novel is more than just an extended joke. It is, itself, a mirror. In its pages, a reader of any background will see herself or himself reflected in the body of the other. The insistent address of the narrative voice, the repeated you—you are seeing this, you are doing this—underscores the urgent call for self-examination that lies at the heart of the book.

Often, science fiction imagines the future; In the United States of Africa re-imagines the present. Yet it also gestures toward a future in which Maya will find peace, a peace that the reader is called to seek as well. In that future, the narrator declares, “the world will refuse to turn into mud.” This future must grow from the quiet reflection of the present, but it is far less static, less dependent on the image in the mirror. “You will convert the blue sky to palpable works, you will wave azure handkerchiefs in farewell” (p. 123).

Islam in Science Fiction has joined the 21st century, we have a page on facebook - one more place where the users can interact with us. If you have any questions about the site, information that is relevant to this website but which has not been covered then you can post it on the website. Be sure to click the like button. Here is the URL:

Islam in Sci-Fi Facebook Page

I would like to welcome a new contributor to the website Sofia Samatar. Here is a brief bio for Sofia.

Sofia Samatar is a PhD student in African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she specializes in twentieth-century Egyptian and Sudanese literatures. Her poetry has appeared in Stone Telling, and her debut novel, A Stranger in Olondria, is forthcoming from Small Beer Press in 2012. She blogs about books and other wonders at sofiasamatar.blogspot.com. She joined the project in 2012.

We think that Sofia would be a valuable contributor to the website, so again - welcome Sofia!

I will be part of a panel on Islam and Science Fiction at the Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association annual conference. The three of us will be discussing science fiction themes especially in the context of Islamic cosmological doctrines and beliefs. If you happen to be in Albuquerque then be sure to stop by at the conference. If there are any media queries then they can be directed to the following e-mail address: mahmad@cs.umn.edu

Conference February 8-11, 2012-Albuquerque, NM

Panelists

• Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad (University of Minnesota)
• D. Waheedah Bilal (Indiana University, Purdue University)
• Rebecca Hankins (Texas A & M University)

Panel Info: Science fiction and fantasy literature is experiencing a “revival” in modern day Muslim communities with Muslim and non Muslim writers use of the faith of over a billion adherents to enhance and often drive the narrative of their creative output.  Historically Muslims have had an impact on speculative fiction from the fantasy stories of the Arabian Nights to the time-travel stories of the 19th century Egyptian, al-Muwaylihi, to the obvious borrowing of Islamic themes by contemporary writers, movie scripts, and music. The Islamic advances in science created conditions that encouraged creativity and adventure; a belief in the dynamism of the universe arguably provided the incubation for early stories of time travel and outer body transport. The early interconnectedness of science fiction and fantasy to scientific inquiry in the Islamic world are similar to the elements that are spurring the revival of both areas in current societies.  This panel of presenters will explore the influence that Muslims and Islam has had in the past and continues to have on the current literary output in the Americas, Middle East, Europe and Africa.  The panelists will discuss the depiction of Muslims by non Muslims and Muslim writers of science fiction and fantasy, comics, manga, graphic novels, and other speculative fiction.

Panelists Bio:

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad:

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad is a researcher in Computational Social Sciences with emphasis on Behavioral Analytics, Gaming Analytics, Analysis of Clandestine Behaviors and networks. He is also the founder and editor of Islam and Science Fiction, a resource and an academic look on the representation of Muslims and Islam in Science Fiction and also Science Fiction written by Muslims on this subject. He also co-edited the first anthology of short Science Fiction stories with Muslim characters called A Mosque Amongst the Stars.

Rebecca Hankins:

Rebecca Hankins is an Associate Professor, certified archivist/librarian at Texas A&M University, College Station TX.  Her previous employment included 12 years as senior archivist at The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans, the premier research repository on Africana historical documentation, and two years as Assistant Librarian at University of Arizona Library, Special Collection; Tucson, Arizona.  Her expertise includes building collections and scholarly resources for the study of the African Diaspora, Race & Ethnic Studies, and Arabic Language and Culture.  She has published in library, archival, and other peer-reviewed journals and her latest publication is on Islamic science fiction and fantasy in the international journal Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction out of the UK.

D. Waheedah Bilal:

D. Waheedah Bilal is an Assistant Librarian at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis; she is new to the field of Islam and Science Fiction. Her interests include African American studies, women in Islam, and world literature. She will be discussing the image of Muslim women in Science Fiction.

As most “Star Wars” fans know, director George Lucas took spiritual elements, which are common in most major world religions to create his epic saga of good vs. evil.  As a Muslim, I always thought of the “Jedi” as what a true follower of Islam should be like.  Never mind the fact Jedi masters with their North African style cloaks and scruffy beards look like Sufi Sheikhs, but they way they are taught to respect a greater power, fight for the defense of the innocent and honor a code of morals and ethics in order to bring about peace and justice to their society, is basically what Islam teaches all Muslims to strive for.  So what really is the connection between these similar Islamic principles and the fictional “Jedi Order” of the Star Wars saga?

I decided to look into this question more deeply.  What I came across from my research off the internet and talking to other Muslim “Star Wars” fans was not only surprising, but also a bit scary.  For example it was reported in a National Australian magazine that more than 70,000 Australians identified their religion as Jedi, Jedi-Knight, or Jedi-related in the country’s 2001 national census!  Don’t these people realize that the “Jedi” are make-believe?  There may be some truth in fiction, but instead of looking for the truth, people get caught up with the fiction.  In this paper I hope to reveal where some of the truth of the “Jedi” and “Star Wars” comes from: Islam.

Back when “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” first came out, “The Muslim Magazine”  had some interesting pieces on the connections between Islam and the content of the Star Wars films. One was an interview with Dhul-Nun Owen who talks about how George Lucas had contacted members of the “Habibiyyah Sufi Order” in Berkeley, CA in order to do research for “Star Wars.” There was also a piece by Mahmoud Shelton about how Sufi ideas of spiritual chivalry (“futuwwat”) have parallels in the Jedi teachings.

Surfing the internet, I came across an interesting article entitled “Eternal Jihad: The Way of the Mystic-Warrior” from a Sufi website:

“We are at the core a Movement of Jedi; masters of Futuwwat (“the Way of the mystic-warrior”). We encourage adherents to train both physically AND spiritually, for their own personal edification and to enhance their knowledge and abilities in the STRUGGLE. The Real does not lie alone in contemplation, prayer and meditation; nor does it lie alone in action and revolution. Both of these are notions of “one or the other” and Allah is not “one or the other.” “Allah” literally means “the One[ness] which manifests from Nothing.” As we have stressed before, this “Nothing” is not the “lack” of all, but rather, it is Nothing in the sense of Totality of Being, which is symbolized by the numeral zero – this number itself originated with Sufis. Allah is neither the positive alone, nor the negative. Allah is the perfect balance between the two. The direct center of two polarities is always zero, Pure Nothing, from which the Totality, the Tawhid (Unity), the Oneness of ALL becomes manifest. For it is out of zero that all subsequent positive and negative numbers reel. That is Allah.”

Notice the Arabic term “al-Jeddi” (master of the mystic-warrior way) along with another Islamic term not mentioned, “Palawan” (similar to Lucas’ “Padwan” for Jedi apprentice) which were actual titles used by Muslim Knights!

The Force

“The Force” is the common thread between all six movies and is defined as an energy field, which binds all living things together  (i.e. Allah, God, a Supreme Being or Power that most religion’s adherents worship, follow and/or yearn to become a part of).  According to Star Wars mythology, the Jedi “are a noble order of protectors unified by their belief and observance of the Force.”

George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars films, has attributed the origins of “The Force” to the film 21-87 (dir. Arthur Lipsett) which used samples from many sources.”One of the audio sources Lipsett sampled for 21-87 [a film that had a great influence on Lucas] was a conversation between artificial intelligence pioneer Warren S. McCulloch and Roman Kroitor , a cinematographer who went on to develop IMAX. In the face of McCulloch’s arguments that living beings are nothing but highly complex machines, Kroitor insists that there is something more: ‘Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of force, or something, behind this apparent mask which we see in front of us, and they call it God.”

In Islam, Allah has no image, body or form that humans can imagine or even comprehend.  Allah is a supreme being of positive energy and goodness which was there before time (in the understanding of human beings), and will be there at the end of time.  According to the teachings of Islam, Allah blows his spirit into all living things and thus, we humans are inherently good in nature.  Because human beings have free will to do good or bad, we have the potential to be a medium of positive energy and goodness, or we can succumb to our animal desires (“Nafs” in Arabic) and suppress this inherent goodness we all have inside of us, to do evil instead. This is similar to the description of the Force given by Yoda in “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”, where he says: “It’s [The Force] energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we…(Yoda pinches Luke’s shoulder)…not this crude matter [Flesh]. You must feel the Force around you. Here, between you…me…the tree…the rock…everywhere!”

Apprenticeship

The “Jedi” study and train under the apprentice-master relationship similar to how many religious students study under a priest or religious scholar until they have learned enough to teach and train the next generation of students. From a Muslim perspective, the similarities between the Jedi and the Islamic traditions of instruction are strikingly similar.  For example a Muslim scholar usually trains under a Sheikh for a number of years before they are given the right or permission (“Ijazah” in Arabic) to professionally teach others about Islam.  “In Islamic Sufism Sheikhs will have “silsilas” that list the chain of teachers going back to the Prophet Muhammad (S). A “silisia” indicates a Sheikh’s lineage of mystical learning from which he draws his spiritual authority.”

Similarly in the “Jedi” tradition of Star Wars, each “Padwan” (apprentice) is taught the same tradition and skills their Jedi masters were taught by their previous masters.  “Star Wars” fans know the lineage of Jedi instruction starting from “Yoda” to “Count Dooku” to “Qui-Gon Jinn” to “Obi Wan Kenobi” to “Anakin Skywalker.”
In the first Star Wars movie, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” Luke Skywalker, like his father, Anakin, live in the desert (The desert planet of “Tatooine” was actually filmed near the real desert town of “Tataouine” in Tunisia).  From among this remote desert area with no roots of a civilized urban society, a “Chosen One” (i.e. a Prophet) arises who brings a hope of peace and justice to their society.  Anakin is the “chosen one” in the latest Star Wars films, and Luke can be considered the “chosen one” from the original Star Wars trilogy.

Similarly, the Prophet of Islam, lived in the desert where there was no true rule of law or justice and people followed the tribal system of blood vengeance.  Prophet Muhammad (S) brought Islam to the Arabs, which completely changed their way of thinking and the way they lived their lives.  Instead of living for the present and for themselves, as Muslims they live for the hereafter and are taught to take care of the poor, orphans, those less fortunate than themselves and to fight for social justice and well being for the whole community.

Thus the Jedi too is taught to be selfless and not selfish like the “Sith” (An ancient order of Force-practitioners devoted to the dark side and determined to destroy the Jedi).  Just as “Yoda” taught young “padwans” not to give into fear and be tempted by the “Dark Side” (i.e. temptations of the devil or “Shaytaan” in Arabic), Muslims are taught not to be attached to the “Dunya” (life in this world) nor to fall prey to the diseases of the heart (jealousy, envy, fear, hatred, etc.) as they lead to evil and sin.

As well known American Muslim scholar Shaykh Hamza Yusuf states: “Every criminal, miser, abuser, scoffer, embezzler, and hateful person does what he or she does because of a diseased heart. If hearts were sound, these actions would no longer be a reality. So if you want to change our world, do not begin by rectifying the outward. Instead, change the condition of the inward. Everything we see happening outside of us is in reality coming from the unseen world within. It is from the unseen world that the phenomenal world emerges, and it is from the -unseen realm of our hearts that all actions spring.”

The Green One

There is an interesting connection between the Jedi master “Yoda” (a short, green skinned creature first seen in “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”) and Islamic traditions.  “Al-Khidr” means “the Green One” in Arabic. Qur’ânic commentators say that al-Khidr is one of the prophets; others refer to him simply as an angel who functions as a guide to those who seek God. And there are yet others who argue for his being a perfect wali meaning the one whom God has taken as a friend.

So in other words “Yoda” (which means “Wise One” in Hebrew) is like an angel or spiritual mentor who guides the young Jedi in the ways of the force and to be strong enough to resist the temptations and evil inclinations of the Sith and other Dark Forces.

In “Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”, the Emperor tries to influence Luke Skywalker to give into his feelings of Anger and Hatred (As we all know Luke’s father Anakin, did fall prey to the Emperor’s whispers and joined the Dark Side). Because the Jedi (as Muslim warriors) are taught that one’s intentions in battle must be pure and that it’s wrong to kill out of anger, even when is outwardly justified.

‘Ali (RA) the nephew of the Prophet Muhammad (S), was faced with this situation at the Battle of the Ditch, the noble Imam ‘Ali had knocked an enemy soldier to the ground and was raising his sword to kill him, when the unbeliever spat in his face. Imam ‘Ali at once stood still and refrained from killing his enemy. Hardly able to believe his own eyes, the unbeliever asked: “Why have you spared me, O gracious one?”

To this, the noble ‘Ali replied: “Your property and your life have become sacrosanct to me. I am not authorized to slay you. I can receive permission to kill only in holy combat, in fighting commanded by Allah. Just a few moments ago, I had overcome you in battle, knocked you to the ground and was on the point of slaying you. But when you spat in my face, my selfish anger was aroused against you. If I had killed you, I would have slain you not for Allah’s sake but for my own selfish reason; they would then have called me not a champion warrior, but a murderer. When you spat in my face, my selfish passion threatened to overwhelm me, so instead of striking you with the sword for my own sake I struck my passion for the sake of Allah, Exalted is He. There you have the reason for your escape.” The unbeliever was of course in awe by Ali’s noble character, and immediately accepted Islam and became Muslim.

Muh-Jedi-Deen

The Jedi could be considered “Holy Warriors” (or “Mujahideen” in Arabic) as they fight for truth, justice and peace.  They meditate (i.e. “Dhikr” – remembrance of Allah) as much as they can, to become “one with the force”, even in the midst of battle.  Just as in “Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, the Jedi master, Qui-Gon Jinn (The term “Jinn” in Islam is one of the forces of the “unseen”) begins to meditate in the middle of his battle with “Darth Maul”, while he waits for a force field to go down.

Islamic History is filled with stories of Muslim Warriors who also stop in the heat of the moment of battle to give their prayers to Allah.  Hussein (RA) the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (S) stopped to do his Asr (mid-day prayers) at Karbala.  There is even an account of ‘Ali (RA), known as the “Sword of Light” (light-saber?),  who completed his “Salat” (Arabic for prayers) while he had an arrow stuck in his leg or foot!

“The lack of fear for death exhibited by Jedi Knights Obi Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, Luke Skywalker (particularly in Episode VI: “Return of the Jedi”) resembles the Muslim warrior’s creed that states that the Muslim loves death more than the un-believer loves life.”

Just as Jedi’s who fight and die in battle are still alive in spirit form, as evidenced with Obi Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: A New Hope and the Phantom Menace, respectively, Muslim warriors who become Shaheed (Martyrs) are not considered dead.  As stated in the Holy Quran:

“And say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah: ‘They are dead.’  Nay, they are living, though ye perceive (it) not.  (The Noble Quran, 2:154)”

There are even accounts in Islamic history where noble and pious Muslims, speak to the living from the grave, similar to how Obi Wan Kenobi guides Luke Skywalker from the spirit world after his death.

Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes:

“Zaid ibn Kharjah was one of the pious that talked after his death. When he died and was placed in his coffin, he started to talk and said: ‘I bear witness that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah and his name Ahmad was mentioned in the previous scriptures (Old Testament and New Testament); and Abu Bakr and ‘Umar were two caliphs and now it is Usman’s Government. Four years have passed and there are two years to go and conflicts will come and Muslims will become weak.’ A lot of scholars verify this narration including Imam Bukhari and Imam al-Bayhaqi.3
There is another saying in Islam, which is “Life in this world is Paradise for the Un-believer and a Prison for the Believer.”  Some reasoning behind this saying is that if one puts all their faith in this world (the “Dunya”), then it is very easy to fall off the straight path and be tempted by Satan (i.e. fall prey to the “Dark Side”).
This is shown very clearly in “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” which is all about the Chosen One’s (Anakin) fall into the dark side.  Lucas, himself stated in an interview that the he chose the final battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan to be on a planet with flowing molten lava and fire, which represents the fires of Hell.  The ultimate showdown between good and evil.

Anakin falls victim to the dark side because he loves power and the Dunya (as he wanted to have the power to live forever and save his loved ones from death – i.e. his wife from dying during childbirth).  He has excessive anger and arrogance (as he felt he was the most powerful Jedi and no other Jedi was better or stronger than him) and distrust for those who are his righteous guides (as he felt Obi-Wan was jealous of him and thought the Jedi Council was against him, which lead him to follow other sinister forces for guidance).  Lastly he had hatred in his heart (he admitted to hating the “sand people”)!9 Everything that Islam teaches the Muslim to avoid!

The Sand People

The “sand people” or the “Tusken Raiders” could be considered a metaphor of the Arabs and other people of the Middle East, since they live similarly to nomadic Arabs in the desert.  In “Episode II: Attack of the Clones”, the Tusken Raiders kidnap and torture Anakin’s mother, Shimi, which eventually leads to her death.  Anakin then proceeds to kill all the “sand people” in vengeance, and as he told “Padme,” that he “killed all of them [sand people], including the women and children.”  But this did not relieve him of his anger and hatred.

I believe Lucas was trying to make a point about the continuous spewing of hate and evil against the Arab and Muslim people, which has been continuing to get worse and worse in mainstream Television and Films out of Hollywood (i.e. “Executive Decision”, “True Lies”, “The Siege”, etc.) and of course after the attacks of September 11th, 2001 – the cat came out of the bag and many more films, television programs and radio shows started to generalize, stereotype and attack Arabs, Muslims and the religion of Islam. This lead to a lot of hate crimes against anyone that even looks like an Arab or Middle Eastern (including some Non-Muslim Hispanic and Latinos).  Many innocent people, specifically women and children, have been harassed, attacked and sometimes even killed, because of this hate.  CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) received 1,717 complaints of hate crimes and attacks on the civil rights of American Muslims within the first 6 months after Sept. 11th.

This wasn’t the only example of Lucas getting political, since after Episode III debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, many Europeans were saying that Anakin represents Bush and his Neo-Con cohorts currently in power.  One couldn’t help but notice the very overt examples in the last and final installment of the “Star Wars” series.

An example that sticks in my mind is when the Emperor was taking control of the Senate.  Senate Palpatine (aka the Emperor) was calling for war against the “separatists” (i.e. read as “insurgents”, “terrorists”, etc.) and the Jedi, all the while the whole Senate erupted in agreement.  Padme (aka Queen Amadala) then says “..So this is how Liberty ends, with thunderous applause”!

Of course the most obvious example was when Anakin tells Obi-Wan before their final duel, “Either you’re with me, or against me”, which is basically straight out of Bush’s mouth when he said “Either you’re with us [i.e. America], or you’re with the terrorists” immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11.

This reminds me of a very funny take on the whole Bush Inspired U.S. “War on Terror” transposed into “Star Wars” mythology I came across on the web.  Here is an excerpt:

It’s believed that Skywalker [Luke] was specifically trained by infamous terrorist O bin Wankanobi. Wankanobi, occasionally called “Ben” and easily recognized by his bearded visage and long, flowing robes, achieved near-martyr status among the Rebels after his death last year during a spy mission. His more fervent followers believe that Wankanobi lives on within them today, some even claiming to hear his voice during times of duress.

The attack on the Death Star came shortly after the Empire’s destruction of Alderstaan, a planet whose government was known to harbor terrorists. Responding to criticism over the total annihilation of the planet, [Darth] Vader stated, “There is no middle ground in the War on Terror. Those who harbor terrorists are terrorists themselves. Alderaan was issued ample warning. The fight for continuing Freedom is often burdened by terrible cost.”

In other words, the Emperor, Darth Vader and the Empire are equivalent to Bush and Company and Luke Skywalker, the Jedi and the Rebel Alliance are referred to as “terrorists” (or “separatists”, “insurgents”, etc.).

The Jedi Arts

The most popular aspects of the “Star Wars” films are the exciting light-saber duels and swordsmanship (Lucas is an admitted fan of old Samurai films) and martial arts style fighting (which of course originates from the East).  As a former student of “Eskrima Serrada” (Stick and Blade fighting developed by Muslims of the Philippines) myself, I see a lot of similarities in the fast-moving and short-range fighting I studied for about two years, and the “invented” art of the Jedi masters.
When Anakin fights Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) at the beginning of the last “Star Wars” film, at end of the fight, Anakin applies a disarm and cut that is a technique from Eskrima to Count Dooku’s arm. Going back into history, the technical differences between the Japanese/Chinese arts and the Muslim arts of Southeast Asia regions of Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia:  The Muslim arts of “Pentjak Silat” and Eskrima are based on paying attention to the Limb of the attacker and not an immediate strike to the attacker’s head or torso.

Ray Park, who plays “Darth Maul” in “Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, studied Kung Fu (very similar to the empty hand techniques of Serrada) and Wushu and frequently traveled to Malaysia (a Muslim country) to refine and develop his skills.
The spiritual basis of the Muslim arts of Southeast Asia is very immense. This is the
local Sufi expression of Islam, through martial arts practice, rather than through poetry or music as otherwise done in India and Turkey, etc. Traditional Indonesian/Malay folklore attributes initial design of these arts to Muslim saints in the region of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in the 7th Century. The Silat system is attributed to nine main Wali or saints, also called the Wali Songo in Indonesian language.

Here another example of the Sufi and Jedi connection.  As Jedi’s study the force and train in the “Jedi Arts” under the apprentice-master relationship, so do the Sufis.

“What I term the more Sufi exercises include breathing exercises, means of meditative contemplation, and physical exercises. This last activity is practiced within the Qadiri-Rifai Sufi order through the Indonesian martial art of Pencak Silat Gerakan Suci. Here is a prime example of the Order’s growth. Extending beyond its originally Turkish character, the Order has adopted a Muslim practice from a far corner of the Islamic world.”

Conclusion

From my brief amount of research and study into the “Star Wars” saga, I found many examples connecting the ideals and principles of Islam to that of the fictional Jedi Order.  Some of the similarities were clearly visible (as with the relations between the Jedi master, apprentice and the Force to that of the Sufi Sheikhs, students and worshipping of Allah), while others were a bit more hidden and surprising finds (such as the term “Jeddi” and “Palawan” for Muslim knights and the story of “al-Khidr” – the green spiritual guru which has an uncanny resemblance to the Jedi Spiritual master “Yoda”)!

Even though Lucas himself is not a follower of any specific religion, he has used elements of Islam (as well as other world religions) to convey the universal understandings of good and evil.  Combining that common thread of humanity with a futuristic space-age setting and exciting martial arts swordsmanship, came a creation that has inspired many, no matter their race, religion or culture.  There is something about the “Star Wars” saga that everyone can relate to and enjoy.  And I hope that those people who are searching for a “truth” within the mythology of “Star Wars”, will look a little deeper behind the fiction and find Al-Islam: A true way of life which emphasizes peace, justice and brotherhood for all humanity.

Author Bio: Irfan Rydhan is an Architectural designer by profession (B.A. Architecture, 1997 U.C. Berkeley), but a passionate enthusiast in media arts and activism. Irfan is currently serving as the Public Relations Director for Illume Magazine and has his own featured blog about Architecture, Islamic Art, Media Activism and Halal Food called: Al Mihrab: The Place of War (http://almihrab.wordpress.com)

Official Website: http://www.dootdootgarden.com/

(Image Source: WikiMedia)

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: What inspired you to write comics?

Craig Thompson: I grew up in a working class family with little access to arts or literature, other than the most accessible of visual mediums - the Sunday Funnies in the weekend newspaper. It was a religious household, so all the media were censored by my parents - movies, television, music - but comics, because they were “for children” were below the censorship radar, so it was the medium my little brother and I were able to access the most edgy storytelling. During adolescence, I fell out of love with comics. In a Biblical sense, I attempted to “put aside childish things”. But then found that comics was a medium that was growing up alongside me. When they imprinted on my childish self, comics were a form of escapism - of escaping the confines of my sheltered life. But as an adult, comics are a form of connection and interacting with the real world.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: Blankets is your well known work and is autobiographical in nature, what inspired you to write it?

Craig Thompson: Blankets, at first, was a reaction against the typical storytelling that comics were known for — the explosive fantasy epics that unfold and resolve in 24 pages. Instead, I wanted to make a huge comic book (almost 600 pages) where absolutely nothing happens. At least nothing explosive or epic. The drama is emotional and internal and the setting is the quiet, intimate space of a bed. That was my goal — to capture the experience of sharing a bed with someone for the first time. When I meditated on my own experiences, not only a coming-of-age high school romance, but the bed my little brother and I shared through early childhood, a narrative began to fall in place. The autobiographical elements emerged reluctantly, but gave BLANKETS the vital sense of authenticity and vulnerability.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: Who are your main influences, in your life as well as your work?

Craig Thompson: HABIBI, specifically, was influenced by Karen Armstrong’s incredible compendium of monotheism HISTORY OF GOD and Arundhati Roy’s examination of dams in India: POWER POLITICS. In life, I often look to my friend Pegi Christiansen as mentor. She was my English teacher in art school. I only stuck with art school for one semester before dropping out, but appropriately it was English class that inspired this cartoonist far more than any visual discipline. And just to round out all this feminine energy, I absorb a lot of motivation from my dear friend and peer - painter Dan Attoe. Dan and I have known each other since we were young, both guys from humble working class roots who went on to have careers in the arts - and his no nonsense attitude towards creativity has pushed me through some of my whiney, neurotic moments.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: What inspired you to write Habibi?

Craig Thompson: After BLANKETS, I was sick of drawing high school renditions of myself and mundane midwestern landscapes. I wanted to craft something outside of myself, something bigger than myself, and was considering two trajectories — the classic fantasy epic with dragons and elves and whatnot — or a nonfiction piece of political/social relevance like the comics journalism of Joe Sacco (FOOTNOTES IN GAZA). HABIBI ended up meeting in the middle. On a personal level, I’d always wanted to do a book about sexual trauma, and the characters of Dodola and Zam - two escaped child slaves - were the perfect roles to unravel this story. They arrived in my sketchbook almost fully realized - a gift - but I didn’t know what sort of world they inhabited. I found a home for them in the fantastical landscapes of A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. I became excited for the latter as a fantasy genre (much like super heroes or crime noir, etc.) and savored the stories for their adventure and bawdiness and humor, but questioned whether these elements were intact from the original arabic folk tales or imposed by a British colonialist Richard Burton. At which point, I sought a deeper reading of these tales in the Islamic arts.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: What kind of background research did you do in writing Habibi?

Craig Thompson: The core of research around HABIBI was simply conversation. I must shamefully confess that before the book, I didn’t have any Muslim friends! Such is the limiting nature of social circles. But HABIBI motivated me to seek those connections/friendships and greatly enrich my life.  These meditation on Islam and the arabic language was born directly out of my new friendships, especially exploring the vivid connections with my Christian upbringing.  The visual fuel for HABIBI was from book reference - on calligraphy, ornamentation, geometric design, architecture - all these art forms that evolved so profoundly because of a supposed prohibition against representational imagery. Nothing in the book is specific to any geography or time period. Rather it borrows fast and loose from all over the world, Most of all with HABIBI, I trusted my imagination. The backdrop is a dreamscape. The story is a fairytale. The characters of Dodola and Zam are as I described, a gift, that arrived fully realized from outside of me, but that I felt a parental bond to - and a responsibility to explore their stories on paper.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: Arabic Calligraphy also features prominently in Habibi, what was your inspiration behind that?

Craig Thompson: Arabic calligraphy has been described as “music for the eyes” which sums it up perfectly. The cartoonist Chris Ware talks about comics as sheet music - because the reader needs to know how to interpret the symbols, like notation, to unlock the musicality of the page. Ware describes comics as “pictures you READ”. Whereas, calligraphy is words you LOOK at. You can savor arabic calligraphy for its surface aesthetics, as beautiful as any painting, and its fluidity. That fluidity is key. I have great envy of the arabic written language, because Romanized letters are so clunky and abstracted. The fluidity in a language must influence fluidity in culture and worldview. And this is the core thread in HABIBI - when the fluidity dries up or is blockaded - environmentally, emotionally, sexually, and spiritually - how to you restore that flow?

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: Is there a common thread between Blankets and Habibi?

Craig Thompson: Both books explore religion, spirituality and sexuality. BLANKETS is quiet sparse and breathable - like a stark Wisconsin snowscape - while HABIBI is dense and swirling and epic, like the Islamic arts it draws fuel from. BLANKETS has an innocence and naivety to it, while HABIBI is necessarily more dark and expansive - at times apocalyptic. But in any case, both books are love stories.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: Elements of Islamic art like Calligraphy and Geometric designs as well as the prophets permeate Habibi, and you have mentioned influence from Impressionists also. Have you looked into the work of the Muslim impressionist - Ivan Augeli?

Craig Thompson: Before you mentioned him, I hadn’t known of Aguéli. But I appreciate very much his paintings. A bigger influence, perhaps, is Kahlil Gibran, whose work also crosses over into multiple worlds. I love that he both wrote AND drew - like William Blake, but perhaps with more sensuality and poetry. Other influences are the calligraphy of Lassaâd Metou, the poetry of Nizar Kabbani, and the very accessible Sufi beauty of Rumi.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: How would you describe your experiences with Muslims in general? Did your interaction with Muslims changed some of the perceptions that you may have had before having Muslim friends.

Craig Thompson: It’s impossible to generalize any group of people, but the Muslims I know are generous and brilliant and fun. And I can only speak for my friends, but they’re far more open-minded and eager for dialogue than the religious communities (evangelical Christianity) I grew up in. It’s not that I had preconceptions or prejudices before, as much as I was socially-lazy. I already had an intimate group of peers, and was too sheltered to extend and diversify that social circle. Thankfully, creative projects have a way of piquing your curiosity and prompting you out of your established ruts.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: Do you have advice for people who would like to enter the domain of comics?

Craig Thompson: 1) It’s easiest if you can both write AND draw. For me, that’s what comics are, the synthesis of both disciplines. Many creators that went on to focus exclusively on writing initially drew their own work, like Alan Moore and Brian Michael Bendis. 2) Start with baby steps. First, a one page strip. Then a short story. Then a short “graphic novel”. Then a big 600 page book. But don’t leap into the latter first. 3) FINISH something. It’s the best way to learn - to see a project through to completion. It’s the only way the story can have a life OUTSIDE of you. And it’s also the only way you’re going to get a publisher to bother checking your work out.

M Aurangzeb Ahmad: You just came out with Habibi, what new projects await Craig Thompson in the future?

Craig Thompson: Finally returned home from two and half month long tour, and am just beginning to dig into three new projects. Each of them is entirely different from HABIBI and from each other. One is for all ages, including kids, a playful spaceship epic - an opportunity for me to have fun again and to speak to the child in me that first discovered the medium. The second project is not for children at all - it’s an erotic book. Because though BLANKETS and HABIBI both explore elements of sexuality, I’ve yet to do a book that is directly about sex. Finally, the third book is nonfiction, a long form essay of sorts. The comics medium has barely been tapped as a vehicle to delve into nonfiction topics, though Scott McCloud’s self-referential UNDERSTANDING COMICS is the best example I can think of.