A prominent Saudi comedian who mocked the Islamic State group and Islamists on his satirical sketch show has said he will not be deterred after receiving death threats.

Selfie, a sketch comedy show which debuted last week on Saudi-owned pan-Arab satellite channel MBC, has won praise from influential voices in the Middle East for daring to mock the hardline militant group.

Nasser al Qasabi, the show's star, has hit back at online threats, saying that he has "the right to express an opinion".

"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.

"Warning the people about ISIS is the true jihad (religious duty), because we're fighting them with art not war."

On the show, Mr Qasabi plays a Saudi father who pretends to want to join the militants in Syria in order to bring back his jihadist son.

In sketch, Mr Qasabi's character faces executioners after his cover is blown, only to find his own son demanding to be the one to behead him. The bit was lauded as "heartbreaking" on social media.

In one scene of Selfie, a group of buffoonish holy warriors at a "girl market" picks concubines from a line of chained women abducted from the battlefield.

"Come on guys!" interjects a naive character Nr Qasabi. "This is forbidden by Islam, these are just children!"

"God forgives!" the ringleader snapped back.

As one fighter picks a slave "wife" of a moustachioed man in a woman's black robe, a friend points out the apparent mistake.

"No problem!" the first fighter says. "If he's an infidel, he deserves this!"

Mr Qasabi's character is shown protesting at the flogging of a young man being punished for listening to music and faints when ordered to slit the throat of an "infidel" captured by the extremists.

Biting satire attracts death threats and fans

Several supporters of IS militants have threatened Mr Qasabi, some with beheading.

In a typical response from a supporter of the militants, a Twitter user named Jalabeeb al-Jizrawi wrote to Mr Qasabi: "I swear to god you will regret what you did, you apostate."

"The holy warriors will not rest until they cut your head from your body, in just a few days hopefully," he wrote in a post that was retweeted over 3,000 times.

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But other media figures in the Middle East have declared themselves fans.

"For many years, (news networks) al Jazeera and al Arabiya have aired ISIS filth and no one reacted against it," Shams, a Kuwaiti singer, tweeted to her almost half a million followers.

"But in twenty minutes, Selfie gave the Islamic nation a wake up call," she said.

A wave of support has hit social media networks, including Arabic hashtags on Twitter saying "we are all Nasser al-Qasabi" and "Qasabi mocks Daesh", the Arabic acronym for IS.

Locals have praised the show as deep, brave, funny and truthful.

AFP/Reuters