By Chloe Lake, Technology Editor

September 12, 2008 05:30pm
Article from: NEWS.com.au

A VIDEO game made by an Australian man that encourages players to massacre Muslim people has caused international outrage.

Muslim Massacre is promoted as taking place after the US "declares war" on the religion of Islam and encourages players to wipe out followers.

"The United States of America has declared war on Islam!" the Muslim Massacre website says.

"Take control of the American hero and wipe out the Muslim race with an arsenal of the world's most destructive weapons."

The targets appear as bearded men wearing normal clothes or characters in black outfits with facemasks. Later levels include suicide bombers and a "boss" opponent resembling Osama Bin Laden.

Mr Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the UK Muslim youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, said the game was unacceptable, tasteless and deeply offensive.

"When kids spend six hours a day on violent games they are more likely to go outside and commit violence," he said.

"If it was the other way around, with a game featuring Muslims killing Israelis or Americans, there would be uproar and rightly so."

Muslim Massacre was developed by Eric Vaughn, known online as "Sigvatr", a 22-year-old from Brisbane. He first released it online in January this year.

The game begins with audio from George Bush speeches, edited together to sound like a condemnation of Muslims.

The graphics are similar to 1990s arcade shooter games, with a bird's eye view showing the protagonist, a tiny pixelated US soldier, running and shooting other characters.

Mr Vaughn's website links to other projects such as a fictional sporting league for real-life massacre shooters and a webcomic.

Muslim Massacre bears a resemblance to two other independently-developed "shock" games released online: V-Tech Rampage (2007), which recreated the Virgina Tech shootings and Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (2005), which was a recreation of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings.

Those who have played Muslim Massacre provided mixed feedback to Mr Vaughn.

"I think it’s brave, because it’s the kind of satire that many people will misunderstand, especially in America and in Islamic countries," said a comment posted on Mr Vaughn's website.

"Still, you can’t be misunderstood any worse than the ‘super columbine massacre’ guy."

The Ramadhan Foundation has asked the British Government to conduct an inquiry into the game and urged internet service providers to block access to it.

I agree Abu, it is sick.
We do not need muslims to feel as if they are being targeted, as it only helps the extremists recruit more confused people to accept violence as a solution.
We already saw the sick puppies from evangelical christian churches indoctrinating kids to believe that a war against Islam was their duty, in that "Jesus Camp" doco.
I dislike extremism from any quarter, and anything which promotes violence as the answer is wrong.

Thanks for being straight down the line mozzaok and not afraid to speak against something that's wrong and extreme even if it's coming from your own camp. Too bad we can't say the same for jordan, who couldn't resist mocking this, just to get his last brownie point in against  Islam.

Yeh I doubt it will be.

And I'm not surprised you aren't disturbed by this extremist media. When Phil put a mushroom cloud as his avatar and "Mecca's future" under it, and death to all Jews and Muslims in his signature, you thought it was quite acceptable.

Where can i get a copy?

jordan, I generally don't go around making fun of incitements to genocide, in case you hadn't noticed. There's a bit of a difference, just in case you're devoid of the moral fibre to understand that.

Nah mate i'd really like a copy. It sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.
Kinda like that game where you are an Islamic guerilla and go around killing Israeli terrorists.
I'd like to play that one too.

Care to elaborate?

Looks like he's offering an apology now, for being misunderstood. He was actually feeling sympathetic with Muslims, and thought he'd mock US foreign policy by creating the game, but it was taken the wrong way, apprently.

-----

An Apology

I would like to make a public apology for any offense that I might have caused through releasing this game, and to Muslims in particular. My intentions when releasing this project were to mock the foreign policy of the United States and the commonly held belief in the United States that Muslims are a hostile people to be held with suspicion. I would like to make it clear that I have never shared such a belief and my intention was to mock those who actually do believe these things.

It quickly became obvious to me that releasing this game did not achieve its intended effect and instead only caused hurt to hospitable, innocent people. I believe removing this game and website will do much more to attain my desired effect than leaving it on the internet, so I am doing just that.

I would like to ask for the forgiveness of Muslims around the world and to make it clear that I did not release this game with ill intent. So without further ado, I would like to say that I am truly apologetic for what I have done and will take full responsibility for all offense that has been caused. I can only hope that any further misgivings can be laid to rest.

Sincerely,
- Sigvatr

Yeh I guess he mighta been feeling a little Rushdie-ish.

Yeh kinda like the West's motto "We are the free world, and anyone who says otherwise will be abducted by men in balaclavas and flown to countries like Egypt and Syria to be locked in dungeons & tortured".

Classic Liberal wrote on Sep 29^th, 2008 at 11:24pm:


OR those jewish kids shown writing messages on missiles which were dropeed on Lebenon last year.

"To Lebennon...from Israel with love. "

tallowood wrote on Sep 30^th, 2008 at 9:24am:


Israel a good country? Its  THE CAUSE of Islamic terrorism son!