Subscribe by EmailShould “Muslim Massacre” be banned?
September 12, 2008 by Mark O'Neill | 27 commentsBy Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
If you’re a gamer, you’ll know from experience that PC shooters are very common and mostly very enjoyable. Who doesn’t enjoy shooting opponents on the screen? A lot of those games are also available free of charge and online, and one of them is currently causing a huge amount of controversy.
The game is called “Muslim Massacre” and as the name implies, it involves shooting Muslim characters – as many as possible. The premise of the game is that the US has declared war on Islam and it’s your mission to kill as many Muslims as possible. So pick up your high-powered weapons and go for it. You can see right away the potential for an uproar.
The developer of the game is unapologetic and says he loves playing it. Muslims are obviously outraged and are calling for the game to be banned and taken offline. But how do you take a game offline? The short answer is you obviously can’t. If the developer wants the game kept online, he can move it around various online locations and make the download links freely available to anyone that wants them.
So what do you think, GAS gamers? Is this a deeply offensive game or are Muslim people just overreacting?
Via – Guardian News Blog
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I think they are just taking this too seriously … I myself am a muslim from the Middle east , I’m not that religious but sill I think they are taking this out of proportion … Games like this have been around for ages now, some offend Americans, some offend the Jews , Some offend the Israelis , some offend the Palestinians and some offend the afghans … Its just something that comes with freedom of speech and the wide access of the internet … I still haven’t tried it because I’m at work and I Can’t access the site but I can’t wait to give it a test run, at the end of the day it will be just another shooter for me … Don’t think the fuss is worth it
I think it should be banned, not for the racism, but for the idea of massacring people. Weather its muslims, christians or jews, he shouldn’t be making this kind of game. Really, think about what your doing when you make games like this
I can’t believe this… this is an outrage! Banned? Of course it should, but as you said, it would be almost impossible to have the game removed from online distribution sources.
I agree 100%. Games like RE5, postal 2 etc… have raised racial and religious controversy in the past, and I usually side for the game because you can tell how the game is set and played out that there is no racial or religious hate involved in it. But a game like this, that is based purely on that, HATE, is terrible. I think it is wrong for a distribution site to allow this on their servers. However how many of them actually verify every program put on their site for download?
I agree.
I don’t think this should be banned. I don’t really think anything should be banned for it’s content since I believe in free speech.
However, I do think that those responsible are idiots. If we could ban stupidity, I’d be all for that. But as it stands, idiots have the right to do idiotic things.
Now I want to play it xD
It’s only a game… The racism won’t be eradicated by banning a simple web game…
I don’t justify it, but the World-Thing isn’t gonna be a better place without this game…
Everybody, including muslims and the media seem to be missing the whole point about the racism issuue here. Muslim to be specific is a RELIGION and NOT a RACE!! there fore the game cannot be racist in any form! Discriminatory perhaps but freedom of speech allows us that privelege.
well who decided what the definition of racism is ? maybe it should be re-looked at and changed.
secondly until its re-looked its another issue at present its not racist but its very offensive against other people, and freedom of speech should not be to the level of saying i want to kill everyone who belongs to a specific religion. a freedom of something should not be based on the harming of other people. my freedom should stands around my perameters and not stepping over others
I wish someone was against games that are about killing people… But no, we are all fine with killing in general. It’s only when it’s about killing someone like us we suddenly care a great deal. :)
Well said. Killing whites, blacks, indians… the point is you’re still killing sentient beings. That’s more offensive to me in principle than targeting a specific group.
That said? I don’t relate ingame actions/motivations to those of everyday life. I’d be equally unlikely to play a game like this regardless of the races being used because it’s not a gameplay style I enjoy. You could flip the protagonist and victims, and call it “Kill the Infidels” and I’d still want to know just one thing… how is the gameplay?
Is it deeply offensive, yes. Are Muslim’s overreacting, yes. In this day and age, someone is going to be offended by just about anything anyone does. Too bad our world has come to this.
What if all the muslim imagry was changed to nazi imagry instead. And then it’s played in a castle, say in Germany somewhere. Let’s call it Castle Wolfenstein.
Good call. I read through the comments and couldn’t believe there was not one comment on this.
Muslims kill real people in the real world. Remember 9/11 and 4/11 in spain. Thats carnages are for reacting against the muslims but europe and america respect them too much. Sorry for my english.
How about the game some muslim student created, where you kill “infidels”? I don’t remember every non-muslim screaming bloody murder…
Political correctness will be the end of us all.
The game was created purely to BE offensive. Are you not familiar with SomethingAwful.com?
That said, I don’t think it should be banned. It’s idiotic, but it’s harmless. No group should ever be able to restrict freedom of expression based on whether they’re offended or not. There is no fundamental right to not be offended.
Sadly, as much as I don’t agree with the premise of the game, I believe it’s protected speech in the US.
-Adam
This game does need to be preserved; as a result of, the need to preserve the right to, free-speech. Those people which desire to murder those people which share my viewpoint, as a result of secret-meetings meant to determine the guilt of people like myself, need to know about those secret meetings meant to hinder-them.
That United States Constitution which is meant to stop the creation of a theocratic-dictatorship, does justify the active-extermination of those people which desire to force the United States to become, a theocratic-dictatorship. I’m a celebrity on Weblo under the category of Politician, my content is supported by sewage-related advertisements.
Well… if this gets banned, why have all the nazi shooting (cod series, wolfenstein, any other ww2 game) and the killing of black people (crysis, farcry, pretty much anygame set in similar surroundings) get banned…
Political correctness gone wrong… Maybe the choice of name was not the most apt but …
Really, the games must not contain any representation of any country, religion, etc. similar to the real world, for example, the usa games say the URSS are bad or COLOMBIA its really bad and if you go to a town avery one have a gun and can shot you even the children would do it, and you are the USA-Hero and most kill them all and win, that WRONG representation keep on the mind of the Gamer and let bad fellings about his countries, even use the real flag of the countries, that is bad.
Dont ban the game! Ban the terrorists.
REMEMBER 9-11
Banning it would be a far worse sin than the game is. Freedom of speech is about protecting unpopular speech!
I think not. Because if THAT should happen, then ALL the games involving racism to cultures should be banned. Plus, like always, people make a fuss for a notice that not even they know what it means. I’m a geek, i understand what’s a shooting game, i’ve seen it’s evolution, i’ve played A LOT of this games, and almost on every single one i’ve seen some kind of discrimination for something, for politics to religious, from colour to the way of thinking.
C’mon, don’t do they have something more important to do, than just banning one thing that is on the net, at which EVERY SINGLE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD can get his hands at it? If that is to happen, no one dies, and everyone shall end happy.
But don’t blame the games if some smartass takes a copy of a FREE GAME and puts it to circulate in internet again (that which of course will cause a polemic, AGAIN).
I’m religious, and i don’t feel a thing when someone puts a game that insult my religion or my beliefs, because i know it’s not true and i tolerate it, and in fact, i play it, because it’s only a game.
It’s true that games this years have been degenerating a lot, but, if it wasn’t for that degeneration, we will never have the chance to play magnificent games, such as GTA, Doom, and all kin dof related games.
Please, we all know about WW2 related games. For example C&C (Command and Conquer who doesn’t get it)on Red Alert tells the history of Russia invading USA and winning WW2, why has no one ever told something about it?. Also, C&C on the next gen it brought Generals, telling the history of terrorist against the chinese and american forces (does it ring some bells?), and all kind of games that whit time has evolved to what they are now.
Videogame world has been always and shall be always criticized for it’s contents, but there is something to remember: non of this thing is real, it’s just a game. So dont think too much on it, it’s just not real, so don’t pis off for something that doesn’t happen.
If someone feels insulted, it may tell it to the whole world and we will tell him to stop playing it or viewing it, but it won’t change the fact that all other people liked the game for ALL OVER DIFFERENT THINGS and care a monkey-ass for it’s religious and age envolved content, because there is people who like twisted games, like we see in Muslim Massacre.
It’s true that the name is VERY offensive and for avoiding problems it should be changed, but not banned.
But if they thing that by putting “CHRISTIAN SLAUGHTING” and change every pixel to look like Jesus will change something? Well, the answer is no, becasue it’s just a game, and another people should feel offended.
To make it simple, this will no end untill every game is censured to the point the blood will be invisible, when someone explodes it will shoot flowers, or instead of the death angels, the Power Puff Girls shall appear.
I ask a question. Is it good enough to censor something which i don’t know how it works, or what it means, or what does it does? Tell some muslim what is a game, then explain him what is Muslim Massacre, then explain why there is so people in the world that doesn’t care about this things on a videogame. And to finish, don’t say again the thing of 9/11, why do you bring it to the fry, if it’s not neccesary? There is a bunch of terrorist in Middle Asia who did all this attacks, but this doesn’t mean all the people there are guilty for this.
I think the game shall have a little “makeover” on its name, just to avoid this kind of problems. In fact, for the picture i saw of the game, just change the name and i think i’ve benn playing COntra all the time, just with more blood and some guys with bandanas on their heads and dynamite on a hand.
Does it make a change if i call it muslim, jew, nazi, yanki, indian, and all kind of names? I think not, it’s just how you see it. I just play the game…
If asked if the computer game called muslim massacre. What about when muslims using a disney charater and teaching hatred and violence to their kids towards jews, christians and other non muslims. Whats the difference in that and what these radical muslims are doing using a cartoon charater to promote hatred and violence?
So my question is where was the outrage among muslims when this disney was used to teach their kids hatred and violence towards jews, christians and other religions and other non muslims..
The guy hu made the game is an hus probably a jew
Just change the name to: “help the muslim get 72 virgins”