It was a few months after the planes crashed into the Twin Towers that Suleiman Bakhit, a young Jordanian studying in Minneapolis, was set upon by four white youths who cut him up with broken glass.

This terrifying experience left him very angry. It also motivated him to start outreach work teaching  American schoolchildren that Arabs are people and not monsters.

When the kids asked him what Arab children watched on TV and what comic books they read he was flummoxed, however. He realised that his culture didn't have its own  superheroes. He started doodling ideas and went on to teach himself to draw.

On his return to Jordan he launched his own comic book company, Aranim, which now delights Arab kids with tales of noble Jordanian fighter pilots and futuristic Arab teens with superpowers. His plans include reclaiming Aladdin - 'horribly co-opted by Disney' - as an Arab hero.

The fundamental message of all his heroes is tolerance and diversity. 'My goal,' he declares, 'is to fight extremism.'

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