Middle East Online 13 Settembre 2008

Computer game urging players to ‘wipe out the Muslim race’ released amid rising Islamophobia
 
LONDON - British Muslims condemned as deeply offensive Friday a computer game called "Muslim Massacre," which trumpets itself as a "game of modern religious genocide."

The game, which can be downloaded for free on the Internet, urges players to "wipe out the Muslim race with an arsenal of the world's most destructive weapons."

"The makers of this 'game' and the ISPs (Internet service providers) who are hosting it should be quite ashamed of themselves," said Inayat Bunglawala, spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain.

"Anti-Muslim prejudice is already on the increase and needs to be challenged and not reinforced through tasteless and offensive stunts like this."

Players in the game -- the aim of which is to "ensure that no Muslim man or woman is left alive" -- control an "American Hero" wielding a machine gun and a rocket launcher parachuted into the Middle East.

In a series of levels, they first kill Arabs before progressing to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Prophet Mohammed and finally Allah (the Arabic word for God).

The creator of the game, known as Sigvatr, described it as "fun and funny". Writing on a discussion forum website, he said: "Don't whinge about how offensive and 'edgy' this is."

"Don't be a liberal pussy! Download this game now!" adds the frontpage of the game.

The letter ‘M’ of ‘Muslim’ is draped in the American flag, and the exclamation marks take the shape of a cross.

The Ramadhan Foundation, a British Muslim youth organisation, voiced "deep condemnation and anger" at the game, accusing it of "glorifying the killing of Muslims in the Middle East."

"Encouraging children and young people in a game to kill Muslims is unacceptable, tasteless and deeply offensive," said the Foundation's chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq.

"If it was the other way around, with a game featuring Muslims killing Israelis or Americans, there would be uproar and rightly so," he said, urging ISPs to block the site.

"We urge ISPs to take action to remove this site from their services as it incites violence towards Muslims and is trying to justify the killing of innocent Muslims."

Touching on the impact of computer games, Shafiq noted: "There is an increase in violence in this country and some of it comes from video games", adding that "when kids spend six hours a day on violent games they are more likely to go outside and commit violence."

Observers say the tolerant attitude towards such dangerous notions against Muslims today resembles how many Germans (and indeed many Europeans for that matter) acted as accomplices in the murdering of six million innocent Jews during Word War II, after the rise of Nazism and fascism.

Source >  Middle East Online