LIBYANS sing along to Lionel Richie’s “Hello”, Iranians jam to Django Reinhardt, and Indonesian teenagers favour the post-punk stylings of Wire, a British cult band. Who knew? Richard Poplak, for one. Mr Poplak is the author of “The Sheikh’s Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop Culture in the Muslim World”, a tour through 17 Muslim countries in search of local interpretations of American culture, from cheesy reality television to Metallica. The chapters are organised by country—Libya, Indonesia, Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan, etc—with each section prefaced by religious statistics and venerated local pop-culture icons. The result is packed with surprises, five of which More Intelligent Life has chosen to highlight.
On heavy metal:
Egyptian heavy-metal fans call themselves Metaliens and, like America’s native metalheads, they prefer long hair and black T-shirts. On January 22nd 1997, Egyptian police conducted a series of raids on the homes of Metaliens, confiscating metal posters, CDs and instruments, interrogating about 100 suspects (“Do you participate in pagan rituals?” “Do you spit on graves?”) and jailing many of them for weeks. “Metal is far from an anomaly in the Muslim world,” Poplak points out, citing the massive Dubai Desert Rock Festival.
On video games as propaganda:
In 2003 Hezbollah developed a video game called "Special Force", with the aim to “create an alternative to similar Western games where Arabs and Muslims are portrayed as terrorists,” according to Hezbollah spokesman Bilal-az-Zein. Hezbollah officials later admitted “'Special Force' was not meant to be played—we know it isn’t good enough. It was meant to get media, to show the problems of American games. And to recruit.” For his part, Poplak questions the effectiveness of such games, noting that over the course of his experience in over 30 cities in the Muslim world, “most kids don’t give a Nintendo Wii whether they’re the American hero or the Bangladeshi hero so long as they get to blow heads off the bad guys, whatever religion, creed or species they may be.”
On vanity:
Beirut is the “Muslim’s world’s plastic surgery polestar,” Poplak writes. “For a Saudi woman, getting plastic surgery in Beirut is like eating a Swiss roll in Switzerland—it’s what they come here to do,” a local tells him. A popular "Extreme Makeover"-style reality TV show called "Beauty Clinic" performs full-body transformations on participants. Due to their religious beliefs, they appear in “before” pictures in tight-fitting opaque one-pieces with tights, not swimsuits. The host insists that the show has never broken a taboo. “I don’t talk about people’s country or problems,” she tells Poplak. “I don’t show bodies.”
On punk rock in unexpected corners:
“Islam is Islam. And punk is punk,” a Javanese Muslim named Ika tells Poplak. “It’s not easy here.” Slayer, she explains, was banned from Malaysia because, according to authorities, they spread dangerous messages. The band Anthrax was banned from performing in Java because “their name refers to a disease of the cow.” Nonetheless, punk thrives. Indonesia’s punk scene is the second-largest in the world, per capita, after Brazil, according to Maximumrocknroll, a San Francisco-based 'zine.
On Palestinian video games:
"Under Siege", a video game produced by Radwan Kasmiya, a Syrian game developer, is “the first Arabic 3-D real-time strategy game that follows the sixth-century rise of the House of Islam.” A player chooses one of four “races”—Muslim, Christian, Persian or Bedouin—and takes part in violent battles and sieges that take place in a twilight-zone Gaza. Poplak notes that the game is classified as a terrorist training tool in some circles.
On heavy metal:
Egyptian heavy-metal fans call themselves Metaliens and, like America’s native metalheads, they prefer long hair and black T-shirts. On January 22nd 1997, Egyptian police conducted a series of raids on the homes of Metaliens, confiscating metal posters, CDs and instruments, interrogating about 100 suspects (“Do you participate in pagan rituals?” “Do you spit on graves?”) and jailing many of them for weeks. “Metal is far from an anomaly in the Muslim world,” Poplak points out, citing the massive Dubai Desert Rock Festival.
On video games as propaganda:
In 2003 Hezbollah developed a video game called "Special Force", with the aim to “create an alternative to similar Western games where Arabs and Muslims are portrayed as terrorists,” according to Hezbollah spokesman Bilal-az-Zein. Hezbollah officials later admitted “'Special Force' was not meant to be played—we know it isn’t good enough. It was meant to get media, to show the problems of American games. And to recruit.” For his part, Poplak questions the effectiveness of such games, noting that over the course of his experience in over 30 cities in the Muslim world, “most kids don’t give a Nintendo Wii whether they’re the American hero or the Bangladeshi hero so long as they get to blow heads off the bad guys, whatever religion, creed or species they may be.”
On vanity:
Beirut is the “Muslim’s world’s plastic surgery polestar,” Poplak writes. “For a Saudi woman, getting plastic surgery in Beirut is like eating a Swiss roll in Switzerland—it’s what they come here to do,” a local tells him. A popular "Extreme Makeover"-style reality TV show called "Beauty Clinic" performs full-body transformations on participants. Due to their religious beliefs, they appear in “before” pictures in tight-fitting opaque one-pieces with tights, not swimsuits. The host insists that the show has never broken a taboo. “I don’t talk about people’s country or problems,” she tells Poplak. “I don’t show bodies.”
On punk rock in unexpected corners:
“Islam is Islam. And punk is punk,” a Javanese Muslim named Ika tells Poplak. “It’s not easy here.” Slayer, she explains, was banned from Malaysia because, according to authorities, they spread dangerous messages. The band Anthrax was banned from performing in Java because “their name refers to a disease of the cow.” Nonetheless, punk thrives. Indonesia’s punk scene is the second-largest in the world, per capita, after Brazil, according to Maximumrocknroll, a San Francisco-based 'zine.
On Palestinian video games:
"Under Siege", a video game produced by Radwan Kasmiya, a Syrian game developer, is “the first Arabic 3-D real-time strategy game that follows the sixth-century rise of the House of Islam.” A player chooses one of four “races”—Muslim, Christian, Persian or Bedouin—and takes part in violent battles and sieges that take place in a twilight-zone Gaza. Poplak notes that the game is classified as a terrorist training tool in some circles.
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