"The 99" Characters

Twenty years ago, the digital revolution was beginning to transform our global society. We have become increasingly reliant on pictures rather than words, said researchers Duncan Davies, Diana Bathurst, and Robin Bathurst in their 1990 book The Telling Image The Changing Balance between Pictures and Words in a Technological Age. This shift has continued apace, and visual literacy has increased accordingly. Not surprisingly, our image-saturated environment is conducive to the graphic novel, which has experienced a resurgence in the past decade. Sales in the U.S. and Canada rose over 800% from 2001 to 2009, according to ICv2 (Internal Correspondence version 2), which tracks pop culture. Themes of graphic novels range from the serious to the humorous, or should I say "comical." A relative newcomer to the scene, "The 99," was singled out by President Obama for its creation of what he characterized as "superheroes who embody the teachings and tolerance of Islam" (April 27, CNN). Eboo Patel, director of the Interfaith Youth Core, sums up the message of the comic book series as "reframing the Us and Them -- from America vs. Islam to Heroes We All Admire vs. Violence We All Deplore" (April 28, The Huffington Post). I've read the first issue (which you can download for free at www.the99.org), and it is deserving of all the hype. Visionary comic book creator Naif Al-Mutawa is to be commended and supported, especially when the extremist religious voices seem to be winning the propaganda war with all of the free media attention garnered by their violent activities. Putting these comics into the hands of underprivileged youths in areas vulnerable to al-Qaeda incursion would go a long way to fending off extremist expansion.

The Boniuk Center will contribute to this international effort to present an alternative portrait of Islam with its May 20 program, "Houston's Many Faces of Islam." We are privileged to have Prof. Dina al-Sowayel moderate this diverse panel of Houstonians from a variety of Muslim communities. (See below for more details.) We are also partners of the ground-breaking exhibit beginning May 16 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston "Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam." Performances, talks, and film are scheduled throughout the period of the exhibit. This display of Sufi artifacts is not to be missed!

Get psyched for our upcoming "Feast of Faiths" June 10 Gala! The response has been tremendous, but there are seats still available. We are thrilled to have five of Houston's outstanding chefs representing five different religious traditions cooking what promises to be an exceptional meal with a dazzling array of dishes. Join us!