Two or three trauma warnings | Press

There is a new superheroine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (famous MCU). She is 16 years old, her name is Kamala Khan, she lives in Jersey City and has Pakistani origins. Will she be – Trigger warning, As young people say – Muslim? Yes.

Her superheroine name is not a Muslim woman, Ms. Marvel. She was the headliner for the six-episode miniseries of the same name that hit the Disney + platform on Wednesday. She is a scattered high school student, a geek at the bottom, who is more interested in superhero fan meetings than math or biology exams, much to the chagrin of her parents, who are conservative immigrants.

I watched the first episode Ms. Marvel With Fiston, Obi-Wan Kenobi became less interested in the adventures of this young man his age. “So the girl?” I asked him. “No, because she’s a Muslim!” “, He replied with an extra layer of sarcasm tit for tat. At the beginning of the episode I understood that he had, for good reason, identified her as a hackneyed, clichd teenager who had been abused in front of the locker.

Fortunately, Ms. Marvel, A fascinating series with animated elements, not limited to itself. It is the story of a young Sassy boy who adores Captain Marvel, alias Carol Danvers, a key character in Avengers. She is her goddess. One day when she discovers a mysterious bracelet sent by her family from Pakistan, Kamala accidentally transforms herself into a superheroine.

Ms. Marvel Although it adopts codes, it is not limited to series clichs for teenagers. And this is not limited to the caricatures that Christian or atheist extremists want to create. This week, Christian Against, a private Facebook group of some 16,000 members Ms. MarvelHe poured his gall into the Disney + series because it depicts a Muslim family.

Others are outraged at what they call the first intrusion of religion into the universe, the first intrusion of superheroes, which has so far been excluded from it. One detail: this is wrong. You do not need to know anything about culture Comic books Americans and their television and film derivatives consider its characters to be gods and not religious.

The latest superhero in the Marvel Disney + series, Moonlight, is as Jewish as the Magneto and Kitty Pride from the X-Men. Captain America Christian, also Daredevil. What does it have in common that can bother anyone or inspire any history?

Can’t put a finger on how much thought. Stay tuned! No, it does not have to be that way, it’s very easy. Could it be that none of them are Muslims?

Two pieces of a robot as Tony Stark or Iron Man said. Mrs. Marvel is a Muslim. There is very little mention of it in the first episode, but – another tragic warning to those who see religion in their soup and those who stare at the wheel – the young man prays at the mosque in the trailer for the series. They recite a hundred Praise Mary (In Latin) to exorcise the picture I just described. With a little holy water, it should pass. The word of the pastor.

I think it’s delicious irony in their speech that a superheroine can recognize Islam – almost 2 billion like her co – religionists – as a beam of the cross they have never seen in their eyes. Jesus once said.

Deliberate blindness must be practiced with apostolic zeal without realizing how many MCU movie scenes have been filmed in churches or cemeteries that have Christian religious rites. I know, I’ve seen all the MCU movies and series.

A columnist was shocked to see a prayer scene in a mosque, but not praying in a church? God only knows what the difference is. I wish, I wish. Can the columnist consider her religion, Catholic secularism, cultural heritage rather than religious practice? Could it be a form of religious neutrality for her? Which of my points do you disagree with?

Kamala Khan, who played Iman Vella of Toronto, maintained no bias about the obedient Muslim woman that some like to portray. Unlike her friend, who does not wear a mask except in the mosque, he chooses it. She is a sensitive rebel who challenges the strict traditional values ​​of her parents, who protects and nurtures her more than her brother because she is a girl, she believes.

She dreams of Manhattan and a handsome dark man, listens to the weekend and admires the Avengers. She does not deny her ethnic heritage, however, enjoys choosing a new saree and going to her neighboring Pakistani grocery store with her mother.

“We’m going to see children of immigrants who are proud of their culture,” Iman Vellani explained to my colleague Pascal LeBlanc this week.

Ms. Marvel lives in Jersey City, but the young actress may have lived in Markham, her hometown, or in the Park-Extension District of Montreal. Performing white, male, and non-Christian characters is not political correctness or “diversity.” It is very often a testament to hidden facts, to break out of its majority roots, to more faithfully describe the society in which we live.

I’m talking about it this week with young ambassadors, members of the Group of Thirty, of Montreal’s ethnic and cultural diversity who still do not identify themselves well enough on our television and in the movies. Fortunately, although things are changing, they are still right.

The last tragic warning to xenophobes this time around: According to the 2016 census, more than a third of Montreal’s population was born overseas and more than half are immigrants. You have to make a habit of looking at young dark haired women in life and on screen.