Saudi comedian Nasser Al Qasabi has implemented the weapon of humor to fight back against the Islamic State, and he may pay for it with his life.
Qasabi has received death threats since he premiered a sketch satirizing the terrorist organization on the new Saudi TV series, "Selfie," premiered on MBC, the Middle East Broadcasting Center, according to CNN.
One scene lambasted the untrustworthy clerics and extremist religious figures in Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State took greatest offense to a sketch that made fun of their practice of picking out abducted-slave women for sexual relations.
Saudis have split on their reaction between praise for publicly mocking IS and others accusing him of being an apostate. Obviously, the harshest criticism has come from IS fighters on social media. Hashtags trending online include #SlaughterNasserAlQasabi and #NasserAlQasabisheadwanted.
Other militant supporters have tweeted threats such as, "The holy warriors will not rest until they cut your head from your body," and "I swear to god you will regret what you did, you apostate."
Despite the threats, Al Qasabi will not back down from using comedy as a way to fight the extreme militant group.
"God is my protector. I'm an artist, and the artist's essential role is to reveal society's challenges even if he pays a price," he said in an interview with Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV on Sunday (via Reuters). "Warning the people about ISIS is the true jihad, because we're fighting them with art not war."
The Kuwaiti singer Shams praised Al Qasabi for bringing attention to the IS problem quicker than any news report has done over the last year.
"For many years, al Jazeera and al Arabiya have aired ISIS filth and no one reacted against it," she tweeted on June 20 (translated by Reuters). "But in twenty minutes, 'Selfie' gave the Islamic nation a wake up call."
