The so-called Islamic State calls out to be mocked... and plenty of comics in the Middle East are happy to rise to the challenge. Some say that they are so brutal, so awful, and cause so much tragedy, that it disrespects the victims to mock these murderers. But, in the words of one Libyan-American, “Sometimes, you have to mock, to belittle. Because sometimes, belittlement is your enemy’s greatest fear.” So in this diary, I offer a short compilation of humor directed at the Islamic State from within the Middle East.
First off, here's a Kurdish music video from a TV show, "We are Daesh, We Milk the Goat even if it is Male". It's subtitled, and I gotta admit, it's a damn catchy tune!
And here's an image from Luay al-Khatib making fun of the "Caliph" and his choice in high-priced wrist watches.
In this
Lebanese spoof, which is in English and well worth the read, the Daesh spokesman, ibn al Jahshein [Son of Two Donkeys] explains why the Islamic State is too confused by Lebanon's "communal co-existence" to know what to do:
“I mean,” Ibn-Jahshein hissed, scanning an organizational chart of the Lebanese state, prominent political parties, feudal families, local bosses, religious leaders, garden-variety thugs, ambassadors, other foreign participants, and pop-up nongovernmental organizations and consultancies. “Who the fuck do we overthrow around here?”
Speaking of donkeys, here's an image of al Baghdadi as a donkey which has appeared as a stencil on various walls and which has been making the rounds. "Jahysh" ("baby donkey" and is pretty insulting in Arabic) is written across his face, and the text below says "The State of Asses in Iraq and the Levant":
And here's a Palestinian spoof on Daesh that... well... has a little tiny bit of Borscht Belt slapstick, even if unintentional. It's also subtitled:
Iraqi TV in Baghdad even has a version of an Islamic State spoof, called "Khirafa" (superstition), a take-off on "Khilafa" (caliphate). One character is a drunk who is passed out on the street when Daesh takes over Baghdad, and is promoted to Minister of Defense. The Islamic State soccer team challenge the world's best soccer players to a World Cup "death match" and then execute the opposing team and beheads the trophy. There is a much darker side to the Iraqi TV version though: al-Baghdadi is portrayed as the love child between Satan and a Jewish woman, reflecting the deep anti-semitism that demonizes Judaism in most of Arab Iraq, as well as the rampant conspiracy theories - one of which is that Israel and America created Daesh in order to destroy the Arabs.
Anyway, these various humorists, actors and twitterati who live in the region and make fun of the so-called Islamic State sometimes have to put up with death threats... but satire may be one of the more effective weapons against the group. In the words of one Syrian writer: “Daesh – May their ‘glory’ be of short duration”