I think the big thing with Sooraya was not just that she was a Muslim but she had been tortured by, and killed people and she felt guilty over it. She was controlled by a telepath a one point and attacked her own teachers. She seemed to use her religion and outfit more as a shield to keep people distant because she was aware that she is really dangerous and didn’t want any confrontations.

I thought the above points needed addressing because initially when hearing about Dust, I thought it was great. I do realize certain parts of her story seem to be a bit stereotypical but she is an ever-evolving character. I believe she can be a positive example in the X-men and she is very much human. She doesn’t like violence, similar to the devout Christian character Nightcrawler but she helps the X-men a great deal and is a proponent for the mutant “dream”. For now she isn’t starring in a book (Young X-men was cancelled because of low sales), but she did survive from turning into glass and is said to be appearing in other X-titles soon.

I apologize for the mattress comment, it was an attempt at humor. No, if I see a Muslim woman dressed like Dust I generally think she looks like a ninja. It wasn’t meant to be a condescension of different cultural practices, but I also don’t feel like I can’t ever make a joke about any culture/group not my own. Anyway, it was a poor comment to make on this article and I didn’t mean any offense by it, so I’m sorry.

No, there isn’t anything wrong with a character being defined by his/her religion, but that can’t be the ONLY or primary distinguishing trait. There are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. There are 1.0 billion Catholics in the world. There has to be a LOT of variation in these groups. I want to know about Dust as a person. What’s she like to do? What’s her favorite color? Is she a leader or a follower? Does she hate her hair? How does she feel about superhero morality? You should be able to explain a good character by personality traits, not just by classifying them in a group, hero or otherwise. To hear you tell it, Dust is a “devout Muslim girl.” Now I can say Storm reveres life, is a former pacifist who eventually decided to kill her enemies. None of that mentions or excludes Storm’s religious or spiritual beliefs, but that’s a lot more interesting to me than someone’s denomination.

Thanks for reading and sharing that information about the X-Men. I know now that there are characters, mostly in the Marvel Universe, who are more willing to kill than others.

I kindly suggest that you check yourself on a couple of things though. Why shouldn’t there be an X-Men base in Afghanistan and Pakistan? It’s condescending when you say would rather see an X-Men base in India rather than the other two countries — have you even been to Afghanistan or Pakistan? One could make an argument for how Pakistan has lost more soldiers while fighting the Taliban more than any other nation in the North West Frontier. Surely, an ally of the United States could accommodate for an X-Men base. I have no argument against India having a base; my point was to show how Muslim countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan are stereotyped as opposed to non-Muslim countries like India.

Don’t forget that the hijacker of the Air-India plane was Pakistani. What’s the message here: India is less violent than Pakistan and Afghanistan because it is a non-Muslim nation? Maybe people should be reminded about the Hindu extremists in India and how over 2,000 Indian Muslims were massacred in the Gujarat riots in 2002. I’m glad “Slumdog Millionaire” briefly touched on the issue of discrimination against Muslim minorities in India.

And please refrain from the expression, “she can be something besides the Muslim girl who wraps herself in a mattress.” Um, so if you see a Muslim woman dressed like Dust, do you think she’s “wrapped up like a mattress.” As I mentioned in my post, if a woman chooses to dress that way, she deserves to be respected because that is a decision she made on her own. Such rude expressions about Muslim women only reinforce stereotypes and degrade them into “blind followers” who can’t think for themselves. I heavily criticize the practice of ENFORCING it on people, and although I think the niqaab and burqah is a cultural practice, I will still show respect for those who CHOOSE to wear it.

There’s nothing wrong with having a character who prefers to have his/her religion define her. Nightcrawler is a devout and religious character, but the difference is that Dust’s character is filled with so many cliches and stereotypes. The writers demonstrate a very weak and stereotypical understanding of Islam.

I know other people have commented on the Wolverine killing people thing, but I wanted to give you more info on comic books in general. When you say “superheroes don’t kill people” this is an attributes of /DC/ superheroes. While the Comics Code Authority forbade graphic depictions of violence (as well presenting authority figures in a negative light, homosexuals, blacks as main characters, drug use in any context, etc. etc.), and this affected Marvel as well, DC has always had the more black and white superheroes. Even in present day, DC submits their comics to the CCA, whereas Marvel broke away in 2001.

Due to the nature of comic books and the revolving door of writers, it can be hard to establish consistent behavior, but the X-Men had the same writer for 17 years, so I can say a few things about some of the older characters. Yes, Wolverine kills people. The X-Men in general are more willing to kill their adversaries. Back in the 80s, when Storm was leading the team, not only was she in favor of killing her enemies, she actually told Wolverine she was tired of just responding to threats and wanted to hunt down villains proactively, something Wolverine actually cautioned her against! During the Mutant Massacre storyline, Colossus actually killed Riptide, which shocked everyone because he was so gentle and had never killed anyone before. In the same storyline Storm also ordered Wolverine to hunt down a Marauder for interrogation, and gave him permission to kill the others. In the New Mutants, we learn via Magik’s time travel that Xavier actually killed the Shadow King upon meeting him (the guy is very, very evil), and Magik herself was willing to go as far as torturing the NM’s enemies (the incident with the Enchantress springs to mind).

Also, so far as I know, at that point in time the X-Men had a base in several major cities around the world, but it stretches logic to say they would have a base in ALL of them. Mumbai is not very far from Afghanistan; it seems completely reasonable to me that would be their closest base, most of the rest of the Muslim world is further away, in fact. And I’d put a support base in India before I would Pakistan OR Afghanistan; it has a greater population and is more influential internationally (a good location in the Muslim world would be Qatar or the UAE, I think).

Other than that, I think agree with everything you said. The depiction of women in comics always pisses me off. You should check out Claremont’s original run on the Uncanny X-Men for good female characters, as I said Storm was leading the team for most of the 80s. Other than that I don’t know where else to find them.

But, her being Muslim should NEVER be used as her distinguishing characteristic, anymore than anyone’s religion, gender, sexuality, or physical disability should be their defining trait. If a bunch of white males can all have individual traits that set them apart and make them interesting, she can be something besides the Muslim girl who wraps herself in a mattress and prays all the time. This kind of reminds me of why I hated Wolfsbane, actually. But at least she was a weak female in contrast to all the strong female characters (Mirage, Karma, Magik, even Magma) running around.

Also it sort of gripes me that Marvel has to scream their heads off that they’re being inclusive. She’d be a much more interesting character if there was nothing to obviously tell her she was Muslim; she was just badass and likable and then you find out she just happens to be a Muslim. Instead they took it almost to the most extreme end they could get in the Muslim world, so you don’t forget she’s Muslim, ever. Though again, if she had a personality beyond that, it wouldn’t matter if she was observing hijab or wearing a niqab.

Still, it IS nice to see a female character not in her underwear (or a Muslim as a hero at all). I don’t even mind if some characters walk around in their underwear–some women do dress like that–but you NEVER see men dressed as skimpily as most women are, and then they wonder why they can’t attract female audiences (or decide to do something stupid like the wedding of the Black Panther and Storm, but the racism inherent in ‘hey! These two characters both come from Africa. They must know each other!’ is way too much to get into right now).

Anyway, good blog post.