I think the best way to introduce myself here is to post a modified version of the introduction to my new book, ProPiganda: Drawing the Line Against Jihad.
Though I was born into a Muslim family, I became interested in Islam only after 9/11/01 when 19 Muslims murdered 2,996 human beings in the name of Islam. Those who always gave a damn for the truth did their homework and found out first hand what Islam really meant before they said one word about it. But then there were the politicians and the ideologues. Even before the smoke cleared, Western politicians and intellectuals who knew nothing about Islam could not wait to exonerate it by uttering the anti-reality check of our time: “Islam means peace.” This ensured that a rational response to jihad by those in power would be sold out in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism. And though we have come to expect most of our politicians to be unprincipled whores, if enough of us were willing to know what must be known about the enemy and his religion, we could pressure these hacks to actually do their job and protect us without apology. Instead, our culture’s willful ignorance about Islam and its jihad has allowed our leaders to do just enough to give us the impression that they’re defending us. It’s as if they’ve decided that, while the protection of America is optional, the defense of Islam is absolute.
My response to all this is my upcoming graphic novel, “The Infidel,” to be released as a series beginning this summer. It’s a story about American twin brothers, Killian Duke and Salaam Duka, whose Muslim background comes crashing to the forefront of their lives on 9/11/01. They end up choosing opposite sides of the war, which breaks their once strong bond. In the fallout of the attacks, Killian rejects Islam and turns his art into a weapon, creating a pigskin-clad superhero, Pigman, who exploits the enemy’s pigotry and becomes the jihadist’s worst nightmare. Salaam’s reaction to the attacks is a diametrically opposite one: he fully submits to the faith he is determined to personify. It’s the Pigman comic book which forces the twins into an escalating conflict that is echoed in Pigman’s battle against his archenemy, SuperJihad.
In a world where men fly planes into towers and are celebrated as heroes by the vile culture that breeds them, we need a new kind of hero that symbolizes our battle against such evil. An icon against jihad who does the right thing no matter how bad it looks, and who brings an unprecedented ruthlessness to the enemy. A hero who is a great villain to all those who had a good day on 9/11/01. Ready or not, here comes Pigman.
During the last few years that I’ve spent researching and creating the book, I posted about it on my blog, creating original images and essays about the ideas and characters within it. After the number of them reached over 100, I decided to collect them into a book I’ve titled ProPiganda: Drawing the Line Against Jihad.
And here’s a little something I put together for my first post at Big Hollywood:
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