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The sheikh's batmobile : in pursuit of American pop culture in the Muslim world / Richard Poplak.

by Poplak, Richard, 1973-

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Berkeley, CA : Soft Skull Press : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2010.

Popular culture -- Islamic countries.

Popular culture -- United States.

Islamic countries -- Civilization -- American influences.

United States -- Foreign public opinion, Islamic.

9781593762926 (pbk. : alk. paper) :

351 p. : ill., map ; 23 cm.

"In The Sheikh's Batmobile, pop culture commentator Richard Poplak sets out on an unusual two-year odyssey. His mission is to see what becomes of his and America's obsessions--pop songs and sitcoms, Hollywood movies and shoot-'em-up video games, muscle cars and punk music--when they make their way into the Muslim world. Over the course of his journey, Poplak gets body-slammed by WWE fans in Afghanistan, hangs out with hip-hop artists in Palestine, headbangs to heavy metal in Cairo, discovers a world of extreme makeovers in Beirut, bowls with the chief of police in small-town Kazakhstan, and encounters a mysterious Texan who builds rocket-propelled Batmobiles for a clientele of sheikhs. With uproarious humor and keen cultural insight, Poplak asks some vital questions: How is American pop culture consumed and reinterpreted in the Islamic world? What does that say about how we are viewed by young Muslims? And can Homer Simpson bridge the divisions that are tearing our world apart?"--P. [4] of cover.

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