I Don't Want to Blow You Up is a new coloring book intended to teach a very simple lesson: Not all Muslims are terrorists.

Conceived and written by Ricardo Cortes and Bowman Hastie, who previously collaborated on Just a Plant, another coloring book about the benefits of hemp, I Don't Want to Blow You Up features several Muslim men and women -- some of whom are famous -- a short bio, and the simple declaration that they don't want to blow you up.

The book found itself under fire even before it got published, and one of its main subjects -- basketball icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- demanded to be omitted from its pages. This set back its publishing date by several months, from November 2007 to February 2008. We caught up with Mr. Cortes to ask him about the book, its arduous journey to print, and the message he hopes it will send to the increasingly xenophobic, anti-Muslim West.

What led you from a book about marijuana to one about Muslims?

I found a lot of similarities between the "War on Drugs" and the "War on Terror" that is our current obsession. Both have created a culture of fear based on false and inflammatory propaganda, and both involve children in how they perceive the world around them as they mature.


When did you begin working on the book, and what was your primary motivation?

My co-author Bowman Hastie and myself were hanging out at the edge of a pier on the Hudson River, some time in late 2006. Neither of us can remember the exact conversation, but it must have had something to do with life in post-9/11 New York City. We might have been discussing the color coded "Terror Alert" system developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or the growing political concern over "immigration reform", or the added security measures we've all had to endure at airports. We might have been talking about our own suspicions and fears, and possibly recounting some personal instance of catching ourselves scrutinizing a person on the subway because they appeared to be Arab or Muslim. We might have been trying to imagine what must go through the minds of people who have taken the brunt of these fears and suspicions, and even hate, in recent years. The title of the book derives from our imagined sentiment of someone who is absolutely innocent yet still must face this sort of distrust and hostility from so many people they encounter, day in and day out. The statement, as we imagined it, is incredulous and defiant: "I don't want to blow you up!"

What is the book's basic message?

The basic message is: in the face of fear and hysteria that saturates much of what we hear in the media about people who are of a different culture, religion, etc., give someone the benefit of the doubt that they are in fact an interesting and peaceful person.

How do you think the form you chose -- a coloring book -- helps communicate that message?

Storybooks can often come across as didactic or romantic, two things we wanted to avoid. We didn't want to burden the reader with too much text, but we wanted the book to be reality-based, which is why we chose to offer this selection of mini-biographies. By making it a coloring book, we're gearing the book to kids, and also to adults who might appreciate exploring this serious topic without all the grim statistics and tales of injustice that so often accompany it. A coloring book also invites the reader to interact more with the book. To spend more time ruminating, not just reading.

Is the book really for kids? Please feel free to explain/contradict/qualify/etc.

Sure! The book is for kids, although I won't deny the ability of an incendiary book title like ours to be able to crack into the adult public's eye or even into media queries such as this very interview. What's important to us is that once we engage adults with the conversation and spark that debate, we simultaneously provide their children with an authentic and intelligent story that stands on its own. While it's great to be able to pierce the zeitgeist with a shock, once the smoke clears there's still a child reading the story, and we hope we've created a book that is fun, and can educate in a manner that runs much deeper than mere provocation.

That said, this is a book dealing with a complex set of issues; parents would be encouraged to read the story with their kids.

Did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's reaction surprise you?

Controversy is bound to come up when dealing with such a serious issue. It's difficult to deal with incendiary issues without pushing the bounds of comfort. Terrorism and war isn't a comfortable issue in the first place, and feathers are sure to be ruffled. For example, Mr. Abdul-Jabbar is an impressive man with a very positive history and could be an excellent role model for children. We described him in the book for these reasons. For whatever reason, he wanted to be taken out of the book. He won't be featured in the second edition. End of story.


Do you think the book is affecting change and educating people the way you hoped when developing it?

We know there are children in the U.S. and other western countries who are called "terrorists" and "Osama bin Ladin" simply because they look Middle Eastern or have an Arabic name. We hope those kids might feel empowered when reading stories of other inspiring and impressive people like themselves. Similarly, the children out there who have fallen into the role of perpetuating the terror myth might be able to learn something when seeing some of their heroes in a different light, or by discovering new heroes in unexpected places. We don't necessarily think we'll be able to open too many adult minds that are already closed, but we did want to provide a tool that more open-minded adults may use to address this difficult subject with their kids.