PBS Contributor: Star Wars Could Use a “Muslim Jedi named Mohammed” – IOTW Report

PBS Contributor: Star Wars Could Use a “Muslim Jedi named Mohammed”

Despite the fact that there are no Christians, Jews, Hindus, or Buddhists in the Star Wars universe, Haroon Moghul appeared on the PBS NewsHour and lobbied for the inclusion of a Muslim Jedi in Episode VIII or IX.
Star Wars
In a “NewsHour essay,” Moghul explained, “With tensions between Muslims and our neighbors worse than I had ever known, I asked Abrams to add a positive Muslim character to one of these franchises.”

Maybe “a Jedi named Mohammed,” he suggested.

There are Jewish names in Star Wars, Moghul continued, as well as Christian ones. “We can accept a Ben Kenobi, though Ben’s a Hebrew name,” he argues. “We don’t seem to have any trouble with Luke Skywalker, even though Luke was also one of the 12 apostles.”

Moghul said, “I only wanted us to confront how we treat Muslims. Islamophobia is real, and it’s ugly… Islamophobia is like racism, not because Islam is a race, but because, for anti-Muslim bigots, Islam functions in the exact same way that race does for racists.”

Star Wars is a pop culture phenomenon and could change the feelings of people who hate Islam, if used in a certain way.

“Science fiction and fantasy, whether books or movies, are an astonishingly effective ways to reach huge numbers of people, to reflect us back to ourselves, and to provoke us to think differently,” Moghul explained.

He concluded, “People often ask me, how can ordinary folks fight extremism and intolerance? I tell them, by imagining a world that’s not just different, but better. You don’t fight fear with fear. You fight fear with hope.”

44 Comments on PBS Contributor: Star Wars Could Use a “Muslim Jedi named Mohammed”

  1. Perhaps if they didn’t behead people they don’t like, treat women like slaves, defecate and masturbate in public pools, and sexually assault women for fun, civilized people would respect them. Don’t expect special treatment until they stop behaving like barbaric morons.

  2. I was at a dinner party last month in Miami with a bunch of bloviating, pretentious leftists and euroweenie trash (all colleagues in some form or another). The hostess mentions that one of the guests has big news, which she promptly announces.

    The announcement: A woman at the party was just given $20 million in seed money to make a film that will highlight the Islamic contribution to the golden age of Hollywood (cause you know, Rita Hayworth, in one of her umpteenth marriages, wed the Aga Khan or something).

    The woman, whom I have knows for over ten years, works as a do nothing, highly paid government secretary; did film production work in her 20s, got a film degree in her 50s. However, as she put it. “the time is right for impactful films and I now want to show that muslims are and have always been part of the American fabric (sound familiar?) and a once in a lifetime opportunity has presented itself which will allow me to do that.” She was elusive about how it came about, but we were all asked by the hostess to give a toast to fete the filmmaker’s good luck.

    I wasn’t going to say anything, but for a number of reasons, the hostess insisted, but I was really, really pissed and being the smart ass that I am….

    My toast: “Good luck to C, in her quest to highlight, with the influence of sand dune duckets, the contributions of Islamic women to the golden age of Hollywood. We’re all aware of the tremendous impact and influence of Islam on western art, music, literature and well society in general (gave huge, obvious eyeroll and smirk) and as world events currently show, can expect the gory of islam to influence these areas.

    So, I raise my glass to the extraordinary tales of those beauties who made Hollywood great, and to the film maker who will no doubt tell us why we don’t know them by names like Goata Garbo, Inbred Bergman, BaaBaa Gabor, Sophia Koran, Jihad Crawford, Headless Lamarr, Burka Stanwyck and GIna Blow-up the Bridge-ita. FWIW, I’m pretty sure we’ll find out it has something to do with America being a big meanie, Christianity, white privilege, racism, cis, twis, bi, ki gender something or other.” Finally, I cite one of Hollywood’s most famous movie lines, which no doubt came from an amorous muslim on a farm in flyover country. “Here’s looking a you, kid.”

    The hostess snorted wine from her nose. The film maker hasn’t spoken to me since.

  3. God, where to begin with this?

    “I only wanted us to confront how we treat Muslims. Islamophobia is real, and it’s ugly…”

    1) A phobia is an irrational fear. Being concerned about becoming victimized by a demonstrably violent group of people who show zero respect for the rule of (civil) law is *not* an irrational fear.

    2) If muslims want to receive better treatment from non-muslims, I’d suggest they start by…oh, I don’t know…not attacking, raping, and murdering non-muslims. It might also help their cause if they assimilated into their non-muslim host nations at least to the point of learning and following local customs and courtesies. Such as, not openly molesting women and taking shits in public pools. Ya know, for starters.

    “I think judging every single Muslim by the actions of a few, especially when nearly every Muslim institution and organization condemns those actions, is a problem.”

    3) I can’t say I’ve heard a lot of muslims condemning any attacks. If anything, I hear a lot more praising and being excited about attacks. I suppose he means terror front groups like CAIR, but even so I can say they’ve been very vocal in their condemnations.

    “What someone thinks of Islam depends a lot on whether she knows any Muslims.”

    4) That is certainly true about any group of people, however, with muslims, knowing some doesn’t mean anything. So-called “moderate” muslims can say anything to kafir/infidels, in the knowledge that they, as muslims, are safe from being targeted. Any muslims one might know that are supportive or even active in terror attacks will lie their asses off in accordance with taqiyya. They have moral sanction to lie to advance their cause; nothing they say can be trusted.

    He mentions Jewish (Ben) and Christian (Luke) names in Star Wars, but no muslim names.

    5) These movies were made by an American, for a (primarily) American audience. These names weren’t chosen because they were Jewish or Christian, they were chosen because they were commonly used American names. I would have thought someone with a full set of functioning frontal lobes would have picked up on that; guess I was wrong on that. My bad.

    He mentions wanting to introduce a muslim Jedi character…

    6) A muslim is expressly forbidden by their doctrine to follow any other additional religions. The Jedi are presented IN THE CONTEXT OF THE STORYLINE as a religious order. Therefore muslims are forbidden to be Jedi.

    7) The biggest central tenant of the Jedi belief is that unless one can maintain self-control (particularly of one’s emotional state) then one will slide into the Dark Side and become a Sith…one of the bad guys. Based on the fact that muslims go into mass hysteria over nothing more than a frikkin cartoon drawing, I’d argue that any muslim able to use the Force will become a Sith in very, VERY short order.

    He then tries to rope in Star Trek, talking about the multi-racial bridge crew – black, white, Asian, Russian, alien, etc.

    8) The difference here is that that multi-ethnic/racial group all had one thing that an introduced muslim character would not: A shared moral code. Chekov being Russian, Uhura being black, Sulu being Japanese – none of this gave them an inherent moral code that permits killing, lying, stealing, and rape or anyone and everyone NOT of their particular religion. This is simply not the case with muslims; they have absolutely ZERO moral boundaries when it come to dealing with infidels. Nothing is off-limits, as long as they can make an argument that it advances islam.

    9) I don’t recall Captain Kirk, Commander Spock, Captain Sulu, Captain Picard, Captain Sisko, or Captain Janeway pulling into orbit around a less-advanced planet and saying “convert or die”. Does anyone doubt that a muslim-controlled society would not be doing so?

    My favorite part of his essay: “You don’t fight fear with fear. You fight fear with hope.”

    10) I don’t seem to recall *hope* being the primary strategy used to blow up either of the two Death Stars, defeat the droid army, or take out the Starkiller in the new movie. Seems to me that *fear* was fought with lots of really big guns. Maybe Moghul saw a different Star Wars movie than I did.

  4. We actually need a gay, black, trans-gendered, handicapped, Down Syndrome, Autistic, ADHD, Jeddi Social Justice Warrior.

    On second thought, we don’t NEED this, it should be mandatory. And you’ll be required to buy the Action Figure or be penalized by the IRS.

  5. I might be OK with a Jedi named Mohammad so long as he’s shown being stoned, crucified, beheaded, and/or torn limb from limb by a feral pack of fellow mohammadmen because they believe him to be a blasphemous witch.

    But the Star Wars mythos has nothing at all to do with the real world, so the writers would never think of showing what would certainly happen to a believer in and user of The Force.

  6. Great idea! Let’s digitally insert Muslims into other pop culture phenomenons! We could add Muslim orcs to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Muslim camp guards in Schindler’s List and a few patrons in the cantina scene from the original Star Wars!

  7. So if there is a quasi-religious (basically that’s what the Jedi are) Muslim by the name of Mohammed in a Star Wars film, couldn’t that be seen as a artistic representations of THE Mohammed and therefore be seen as a valid reason for attacking, including physically, the film makers?

    This appears a “do what we want, so we can get even more upset, or don’t do what we want so we can get even more upset” kind of deal. Great. Good luck Hollywood!

  8. You started off with the correct word! This is all truly amazing. I never thought the world could spiral down the drain so quickly. I fear our children are doomed. I’ll likely not have to see it happen.

  9. I agreed with your post until you mentioned “special treatment”. If they stop acting like animals I will afford them the same treatment I give to anyone doing what normal people do.

  10. Premature sendage…


    “With tensions between Muslims and our neighbors worse than I had ever known, I asked Abrams to add a positive Muslim character to one of these franchises.”

    Gee, why do you think tensions are worse than ever? And what makes you think you’ll ever find a positive moslem chharacter??

  11. Some enterprising IOTW-er could make a buck on a compilation of comments like this. The #OscarSoWhite goes to Rhett’s Girl for best shock toast at a smug dinner party, evah!

    What the heck does one do after that? Did you ask for the salt?

  12. More proof that the Civil Rights era was just a Madison avenue gimmick to control White People! If that’s not the case, then why does everybody assume the “White Man” owes them something? After the obama presidencey, you whiners get nothing.

  13. where to start, where to start ….. lol
    a mooselimb cannot become a Jedi …. “…there is no god but Allah, & MoeHam Mad is his messenger.” …. fit that into the Jedi beliefs
    ..that’s it! … Taqiyya Jedi ….see? the fucktards really are evil

  14. What about the character of Admiral Ackbar, where ‘Akbar’ in Arabic means ‘greatest’ (as in the muslim war cry, ‘Allahu Akbar’)?

    Personally I thought that the Stormtroopers were maybe Arabs. Their inability to shoot properly, firing ‘from the hip’ is a big giveaway combined with . I might have guessed they were female, since they are covered up more than a burka, but the evidence is against this as they would then be operating without a male relative guardian and you can still discern body shape under the white armour.

    And then there’s the Sand People (Tuskan Raiders)….

  15. “In a Mosque far, far away….”

    EPISODE 8
    (No Roman numerals; Arabic numbers only, please)
    It is a time of confusion & turmoil.
    The Galaxy has been invaded.
    A horde of millions of young men,
    Raping, pillaging, killing in the most barbarous forms
    In the name of their religious fanaticism
    In mindless devotion to their Moon God
    They pledge destruction of Civilization
    To replace it with subjugation, injustice & barbarity.

    One hope emerges……
    MoeHamHead Taqiyya
    Armed with a powerful Light Scimatar
    And his trust bot ‘Interbred 8’
    Flying through the Galaxy on his Magic Carpet
    The Farce is strong smelling with this one

  16. Didn’t this all take place “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away?” Why the hell would there be Moslems? I always just thought the names were to make it easy to understand. It’s not like they’d actually be speaking English, either.

  17. Why would there be Moslems?
    Well, according to Islamic theology, Islam has existed forever – even before their prophet Mohammed recited the Qur’an to scribes to be written down. Supposedly their prophet was able to recite the words in Arabic since the Qur’an had always existed in the current form since the beginning of time, written in a language that was yet to exist later in Muhammed’s time.

    According to Islam, all the Judeo-Christian figures in their respective theologies were actually Moslems, and practiced the religion of Islam long before the Islamic prophet Mohammed was born. Islamic scholars believe that the Jews and Christians have edited out the essential Islamic nature of Judaism and Christianity for their own religious purposes. Thus the Moslems claim Adam, Moses, Elisha, Job and Jesus as practicing Moslems.

    So a Moslem would see the “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” as an argument that Moslems would not be involved as heresy, since that would artificially limit Allah, who might have created Moslems at any time in the past, at any place in the universe or beyond this. Since Allah is supposed to be all-knowing, and all-powerful, it would be an insult to Allah to suggest that Allah could not have created Moslems anywhere and in any time and also provided them with a copy of the Qur’an for them to follow.

  18. They should rename everything! Santa Mohhammed, planet Earth should be planet Mohammed, this country should be the United States of Mohammed, in the Mohammed galaxy. Then the bitter clingers would start being nice to the goathumpers!

  19. I’d love to see an honest biographical film about Mohammed. Complete with the pedophilia, the raping of the women he had left widowed and the girls he left fatherless after attacking for “persecution”, because “persecution is worse than slaughter”. How he encouraged his troops, who had a tendency to keep dying on him, that if they die they get the 72 virgins in paradise, and if they don’t then they can rape as many women as they want (as long as Mohammed gets his 25% cut).

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