Dr Naif Al-Mutawa is the founder and CEO of Teshkeel Media Group, where he created THE 99 - the first group of comic book superheroes based on Islamic culture and society.
The ongoing series of stories have been turned into a series of animations that are being screened online exclusively by Yahoo! Maktoob.
Here Dr Naif speaks about his creation and the hurdles he has come up against.
What was your inspiration for THE 99?
What do you think of those who consider THE 99 as being an insult to Islam, because you’re giving your heroes God’s 99 characters?
THE 99 is built on our Islamic and Arabic culture but without promoting any religion in particular.
During the first year of production I had to convince and gather writers in New York in order to rebuff any fears they might have had that this was promoting a religion.
My biggest concern was that some in the west might not welcome the idea even before watching the production itself.
Now I can say we have passed that point of fear to a considerable extent. The comics are being published in 12 languages and the television production was sold in North and South America and even South Africa and Australia among other countries.
The only problem we are still facing is that in every society there are groups of people who act like the body’s white blood cells and give themselves the right to reject any new element or idea in their society.
This happens in the Arab world as well as in the west, and those people are the ones who still show objection to THE 99. But anyone who has seen the content has not rejected it.
An example for the problems we still face is the idea of mixing THE 99 with comics like Batman, where heroes of the two comics can’t get along at the start of the plot.
It’s a metaphor for what happens in the world of differences between the east and west. In the plot, I want to show that such disagreement is directly escalated by the corrupt and extreme from both sides.
At the end of the story, I wanted Batman to unite with heroes of THE 99 and work together for the better of the world.
US President Barack Obama talked about such a project and actually praised it.
But the reaction from some people was negative towards the idea even before reading the comic and that resulted in putting the whole thing on hold.
What were the main difficulties you faced when first bringing THE 99 to the life?
The biggest and first challenge was receiving people’s opinions about the original idea. I had a slight fear of what people would say if I fail.
Raising the finances needed to have the copyright of a product based on our culture, but in a universal manner wasn’t easy to sell.
I can say that if I was crazy to start the comic then those who believed in my idea and funded it must have been crazier, but we now have around 1,000 people working on the project.
We’re working on the Ramadan episodes in addition to a further 29 for after the holy month until we can fulfill the challenge of taking over the spot Spider-Man has as a comic.
The renaissance of Europe in the 15h century was made and built through art and literature.
Art and literature were at the forefront of communication, but religion was always in the background. That’s what I have tried to do with THE 99.
Many of those who claimed to be talking in the name of Islam have alienated many Muslims and non-Muslims from Islam.
That’s why there should have been something artistic and entertaining that could indirectly introduce the values of Islam without contradicting any other religion.
Is THE 99 an attempt to create Muslim heroes who can imitate Superman and Spider-Man?
We are not talking about religion or the religion of other superheroes in other comics.
THE 99 is based on the values that Islam shares with the rest of the world. I wanted to get back to our culture and create characters that can relate to the whole world.
Hollywood has been producing stories taken from the bible for over 100 years. It was never seen as a conspiracy to forcibly spread Christianity or anything of that sort.
These productions were made because billions of people around the world already knew these biblical stories and understood them.
I don’t think there is a problem in importing Superman from the west. But why not import and export our own characters at the same time?
The starting point of THE 99 is in Baghdad when the city was taken over by the Tatars. At the time Baghdad was the cradle and the centre of Islamic and Arabic thought and that is my main point: build characters from this region based on our culture.
How did your background as a clinical psychologist who worked with war victims affect heroes of THE 99?
Of course my experience working for two years with former prisoners of war who were tortured and detained because of their religion or race influenced my writings for THE 99.
Torture is a horrendous thing, especially when people get tortured by their heroes and I portrayed some of the real life experiences I saw and dealt with while writing THE 99.
What is the message that you’re trying to transmit in THE 99?
The main message is that anybody’s religion, race or nationality does not matter. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a boy or a girl, veiled or not.
The most important thing is the power everyone has and what everyone can do to help the world and improve it.
You can see in THE 99 that there is a hero from Egypt, another from Saudi Arabia, a third from China etc...
In the 10th episode, the Saudi muscled hero couldn’t save a situation that was solved by Widad, the hero from Singapore, and that was not because she is stronger than him, but because she used her own power (wisdom and friendliness) before he could use his.
It is the environment that determines the heroism and every person has his own power.
I can say that if I was crazy to start the comic then those who believed in my idea and funded it must have been crazier, but we now have around 1,000 people working on the project.
We’re working on the Ramadan episodes in addition to a further 29 for after the holy month until we can fulfill the challenge of taking over the spot Spider-Man has as a comic.
Are you working on any new ideas with similar Islamic background?
It all depends on what people want. THE 99 can always be developed and I can keep working on it for the rest of my life.
So far we’ve made 52 stories, but there's scope for more. So it all depends on the needs of the market for either new ideas or for developing THE 99 itself.
The ongoing series of stories have been turned into a series of animations that are being screened online exclusively by Yahoo! Maktoob.
Here Dr Naif speaks about his creation and the hurdles he has come up against.
What was your inspiration for THE 99?
I first thought of the idea when I realised there was no positive content based on Arabic and Islamic culture.
I think that was mainly because we didn’t have the market for such a production. Then I thought of creating heroes from Arabic heritage that would sell abroad.
It was an attempt by me, a father of five, to protect my kids from a certain culture that was being imposed on them.
There are so many Muslims acting as if they are the sole representatives and icons of Islam and I was not enthusiastic about these people being the face our culture.What do you think of those who consider THE 99 as being an insult to Islam, because you’re giving your heroes God’s 99 characters?
I’d be at fault if I gave my heroes God’s characters, but I haven’t. God has all those characters in their absolute form, as for heroes and humans, none of them is perfect.
In Arabic we include identifying letters (such as ‘el’ or ‘al’) before each of the names and characters.But if we remove these letters, the names and characters are present in everyday life even before Islam and they are all human characters and words.
I’ve had enough of people claiming this. We have a shari’a board that approves all our writings and work.
Were you afraid that comics with an Islamic background might not succeed in the west?
THE 99 is built on our Islamic and Arabic culture but without promoting any religion in particular.
During the first year of production I had to convince and gather writers in New York in order to rebuff any fears they might have had that this was promoting a religion.
My biggest concern was that some in the west might not welcome the idea even before watching the production itself.
Now I can say we have passed that point of fear to a considerable extent. The comics are being published in 12 languages and the television production was sold in North and South America and even South Africa and Australia among other countries.
The only problem we are still facing is that in every society there are groups of people who act like the body’s white blood cells and give themselves the right to reject any new element or idea in their society.
This happens in the Arab world as well as in the west, and those people are the ones who still show objection to THE 99. But anyone who has seen the content has not rejected it.
An example for the problems we still face is the idea of mixing THE 99 with comics like Batman, where heroes of the two comics can’t get along at the start of the plot.
It’s a metaphor for what happens in the world of differences between the east and west. In the plot, I want to show that such disagreement is directly escalated by the corrupt and extreme from both sides.
At the end of the story, I wanted Batman to unite with heroes of THE 99 and work together for the better of the world.
US President Barack Obama talked about such a project and actually praised it.
But the reaction from some people was negative towards the idea even before reading the comic and that resulted in putting the whole thing on hold.
What were the main difficulties you faced when first bringing THE 99 to the life?
The biggest and first challenge was receiving people’s opinions about the original idea. I had a slight fear of what people would say if I fail.
Raising the finances needed to have the copyright of a product based on our culture, but in a universal manner wasn’t easy to sell.
I can say that if I was crazy to start the comic then those who believed in my idea and funded it must have been crazier, but we now have around 1,000 people working on the project.
We’re working on the Ramadan episodes in addition to a further 29 for after the holy month until we can fulfill the challenge of taking over the spot Spider-Man has as a comic.
Did the timing of the idea and the launch of the comic following 9/11 have anything to do with fighting Muslim extremists who claim to talk in the name of Islam?
The renaissance of Europe in the 15h century was made and built through art and literature.
Art and literature were at the forefront of communication, but religion was always in the background. That’s what I have tried to do with THE 99.
Many of those who claimed to be talking in the name of Islam have alienated many Muslims and non-Muslims from Islam.
That’s why there should have been something artistic and entertaining that could indirectly introduce the values of Islam without contradicting any other religion.
Is THE 99 an attempt to create Muslim heroes who can imitate Superman and Spider-Man?
We are not talking about religion or the religion of other superheroes in other comics.
THE 99 is based on the values that Islam shares with the rest of the world. I wanted to get back to our culture and create characters that can relate to the whole world.
Hollywood has been producing stories taken from the bible for over 100 years. It was never seen as a conspiracy to forcibly spread Christianity or anything of that sort.
These productions were made because billions of people around the world already knew these biblical stories and understood them.
I don’t think there is a problem in importing Superman from the west. But why not import and export our own characters at the same time?
The starting point of THE 99 is in Baghdad when the city was taken over by the Tatars. At the time Baghdad was the cradle and the centre of Islamic and Arabic thought and that is my main point: build characters from this region based on our culture.
How did your background as a clinical psychologist who worked with war victims affect heroes of THE 99?
Of course my experience working for two years with former prisoners of war who were tortured and detained because of their religion or race influenced my writings for THE 99.
Torture is a horrendous thing, especially when people get tortured by their heroes and I portrayed some of the real life experiences I saw and dealt with while writing THE 99.
What is the message that you’re trying to transmit in THE 99?
The main message is that anybody’s religion, race or nationality does not matter. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a boy or a girl, veiled or not.
The most important thing is the power everyone has and what everyone can do to help the world and improve it.
You can see in THE 99 that there is a hero from Egypt, another from Saudi Arabia, a third from China etc...
In the 10th episode, the Saudi muscled hero couldn’t save a situation that was solved by Widad, the hero from Singapore, and that was not because she is stronger than him, but because she used her own power (wisdom and friendliness) before he could use his.
It is the environment that determines the heroism and every person has his own power.
I can say that if I was crazy to start the comic then those who believed in my idea and funded it must have been crazier, but we now have around 1,000 people working on the project.
We’re working on the Ramadan episodes in addition to a further 29 for after the holy month until we can fulfill the challenge of taking over the spot Spider-Man has as a comic.
Are you working on any new ideas with similar Islamic background?
It all depends on what people want. THE 99 can always be developed and I can keep working on it for the rest of my life.
So far we’ve made 52 stories, but there's scope for more. So it all depends on the needs of the market for either new ideas or for developing THE 99 itself.
If I expand my ideas and the shows, then this has to be done through a larger establishment because I can’t keep working on this by myself.