Muslim Superheros Are an Alternative to ISIS and Terrorists

For Muslim children in the Arab world, ISIS can be an attractive alternative and viewed as the heroes of the Islamic world fighting against the oppressive Assad regime in Syria. For decades, these children lacked a “good” hero to ward off evil, until the creation of superheroes by one remarkable innovator.

A Man With a Vision

Suleiman Bakhit is a short, stocky man with dark eyes, no hair and a faint red mark down the left side of his face. The Jordanian creative and innovator offers the youth, or shabaab in Arabic, an alternative to violence.  Once a student at the University Minnesota, where he pursued a Masters in Human Resources Development, Suleiman returned to his home country in Jordan to embark on a new venture that would transform the Arab world.

The creation of Muslim action heroes (and heroines) began when Suleiman realized that the youth lacked the Arab equivalent to Batman or Superwoman. He said:

Yes, there’s Aladdin and Sinbad, but no one has ever done an animation or comic book based on the actual mythology from within the culture.

After years of reading ancient texts and learning Hebrew, the young artist-to-be began to teach himself to draw.

I came up with some characters based on my knowledge of Arab culture. It was a journey towards discovering my own culture more than anything else…[I wanted to] create characters and stories based in Arab tradition to spread the culture of tolerance.

To realize his vision, Suleiman left his program in the U.S. and returned to Jordan to create Aranime–the name is from the two words, ‘Arab’ and ‘animation.’ In his home country, he was attacked for being a voice of moderation. At that moment, Suleiman said he became more convinced that he had to erase the shame (the scar on his face) by fighting back with positive images and heroes for the younger generation.

The greatest heroic journey in our culture is the journey of the Prophet Muhammad, who left his village to go meditate in a cave in the middle of the desert…He was meditating, and there the archangel came down and gave him the message of Islam. He came out of that cave transformed with a new vision of Islam and united all Arabs around that vision.

“What’s interesting is that Bin Laden emulated that journey to the letter,” he continued. “Bin Laden left his life of wealth and aristocracy in Saudi Arabia, went to the caves in Afghanistan and emerged from these caves a new leader, with a new vision to cleanse the shame of the Muslim nation through violence. Similarly, this is the same message, the heroic message, that they push to all the terrorists in Western Europe who go join ISIS. And this has such a huge appeal for a lot of these youth, unfortunately.”

He continued. “Terrorism described as heroism is the real problem in the Middle East.”

Developing a positive narrative of resilience is his goal, which he accomplishes through the use of comic books.

To restore his honor and to shame the men who scared his face, Suleiman used comics to tell the stories of the “hero,” a powerful concept he discovered in Joseph Campbell’s literature. He calls this “heroic imagination” — using the weapon of hope and inspiration to fight ISIS–the Rocky VI of terrorism.

“[My goal is] to entertain but more importantly to inspire Arab boys and girls to believe that real opportunities to be leaders are well within their grasp.”

In 2012, he invented an iPhone game that combines the Arab Spring and Animal Farm.

His stories are deeply rooted in Middle Eastern history, legend, and mythology. Other characters and comics are based on contemporary or futuristic themes, such as the creation of Jordan’s all-female counter-terrorism team designed to empower young Arab women.

In the comic, there is a character named Element Zero, a special agent who fights bad guys locally.

With one comic (or hero) at a time, Suleiman believes he can redirect the youth and devalue ISIS’s narrative of hate.