Muslim Should Not Equal Villain

[Logan Westbrook]

Muslim Should Not Equal Villain

American media has been unfriendly to Muslims for years, and unfortunately, videogames are rarely an exception.

Generic Arab terrorists from unspecified - and possibly fictional - Middle Eastern nations are so common in modern games that they've almost become cliché. Sadly, that's just another example of popular media vilifying the Muslim world. But in Issue 269 of The Escapist, Saladin Ahmed says that the overly simplistic, broad brush depiction of Muslims needs to stop and a more nuanced and honest view needs to take its place.

But increasingly, as games have aimed for more and more supposed realism, the countries and villains depicted are real places where real people live. A truly realistic game would investigate the complexities of the conflicts they depict, and would show that the "hostile levels' of Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc., are in reality countries where the vast majority of the population are civilians - women, children, and men just trying to live their lives without being blown to pieces. The aliens of the Halo franchise are more humanized than the bad guys in America's Army, who are really just endlessly spawning born-to-die vermin with AK-47s and rocket launchers.

Not every game is set on casting Muslims in a bad light however, and Ahmed cites a number of games that offer a more sympathetic view. Regrettably, these games are few and far between, but at least present a first step towards breaking the villainous Muslim stereotype. To learn more, read Muslims in My Monitor [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_269/8044-Muslims-in-My-Monitor].





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[ItsAChiaotzu]

Games don't target the religion of those people though, they're not the enemies because they're Muslims, they're the enemies because they're easily identifiable as different and wrong among the general population.

 

[Risingblade]

I see more as they are shown as the enemy for the part of the world they are in not their religion. Game wise I mean.

 

[ProtoChimp]

It may not be intentionally offensive, but it certainly sends out a bad message. Also, while I'm here I just want to ask people, I'm writing a story and the main character is gay and muslim. Is that offensive to any muslims here and would that seem like I would be pushing it too far for publicity?

 

[subject_87]

I must say, this is one of the best columns I've read on the Escapist in a while. I hope to hear more from you!

Yeah, it seems like with most war games, the villains are a loose collection of extremists from Genericmideastistan, whose only goal is to produce an endless stream of violent psychotics to be blown up; the latest ENN's 'headshot' segment addresses this fairly well.

Also, it's not like we Christians have no blood on our hands (See the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and at least half the popes from the last millennium).

 

[bladeofdarkness]

a few hours before this thread was opened, a bomb went off in Pakistan killing around 60 innocent protesters
this was just one of several attacks of the sort this past week in pakistan
in the last 2 weeks similar bombs have gone off in Iraq, killing around 100 people in several different attacks.
you also had cases of attacks in Afghanistan where girl schools were attacked.
and a Sudanese army attack in Darfur killed 60 people
in all these cases, the terrorists were Muslim, and so were the Victims
thats just these past two weeks...

hell, its estimated that between 2000 and 2010 over half a million Muslims have been murdered by other Muslims in armed conflicts in Iraq, Iran, Afganistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon and other places i'm probably forgetting. (by comparison, the Arab Israeli conflicts in that same time produced less then 10,000 dead)

You ask me, the portrayal of Muslims in Fictional work is the LEAST of their problems.
get your house in order before complaining about being mis-represented in the media.

 

[Broken Blade]

I can only think of one time they've depicted a character from the Middle East who wasn't the bad guy.

Spoiler

There's also Setsuna F. Seiei from Gundam 00, but admittedly he's a bit of an expy of the character you've got there. Former Middle Eastern Muslim child soldier who was basically brainwashed by his leader, and remains emotionally screwed-up to this very day. The show does cover a lot of the ripple effects of actions like that, and how a single act can ruin many lives.

It is a rather unfortunate situation, though. Imagine the shitstorm that would be kicked up if the enemies in a game were an army of CHRISTIAN extremists, running around and shooting innocent people and American soldiers in the name of God.

 

[bladeofdarkness]

a few hours before this thread was opened, a bomb went off in Pakistan killing around 60 innocent protesters
this was just one of several attacks of the sort this past week in pakistan
in the last 2 weeks similar bombs have gone off in Iraq, killing around 100 people in several different attacks.
you also had cases of attacks in Afghanistan where girl schools were attacked.
in all these cases, the terrorists were Muslim, and so were the Victims
thats just these past two weeks...
hell, its estimated that between 2000 and 2010 over half a million Muslims have been murdered by other Muslims in armed conflicts in Iraq, Iran, Afganistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen, Sudan and other places i'm probably forgetting. (by comparison, the Arab Israeli conflicts in that same time produced less then 10,000 dead)

You ask me, the portrayal of Muslims in Fictional work is the LEAST of their problems.
get your house in order before complaining about being mis-represented in the media.

Dude, whatever, it's quite obvious you hate Muslims in general. Keep your racism out of this thread. We don't need racist generalizations like yours clouding serious issues.

is pointing out that there are bigger problems then how they are being portrayed in Video games racist ?

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

You know, it's funny you should mention this article after there was that news story about that Middle Eastern game about killing Americans.

I think it's a fairly petty reason to get upset over. After all, the games never portray all Muslims as evil, you're not shooting down "The Muslims", you're shooting down "The Terrorists",

 

[Sworm]

Muslims are not to blame, at all. Religious Zealotry, is. Most religions have proven that their most fervent believers are capable of unspeakable atrocities, it isn't just a Muslim thing.

No it's not, but the point is that currently it seems to be. I mean let's look at how other religions fare in games (I'll leave other mediums to people who use them more often):

Christianity: I personally haven't heard about any (recent) depiction of christian zealotry in video games so I can't really say.

Judaism: It seems like Judaism is sort of "untouchable" these days, and I'm guessing any depiction of it in a negative way will immediately brand you an antisemitic and outcast you from society, but I'm probably a bit exaggerating there. None the less there is almost no (to say not at all) depiction of Judaism in a negative way in any form in video games from my experience.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism: I haven't even heard of a game where it was depicted

and so on.

I Agree with you on the fact that it's not just a Muslim thing, but it just seems like that's what the current trend is. And also, they seem to fuse the terms "Arabs", "Extremists" & "Muslim" in one single entity.

I can only think of one time they've depicted a character from the Middle East who wasn't the bad guy.

Spoiler

out of curiosity, who is that?

 

[Romidude]

Something I've noticed in my life being half Arabic when travelling back to the Middle East is that: All Muslims I've known are intelligent and friendly, and I have not known a Christian who hasn't hit me or called me a fag.

*EDIT* I know that's just personal experience but it does say something about who really is the big bully on the playground.

 

[bladeofdarkness]

I can only think of one time they've depicted a character from the Middle East who wasn't the bad guy.

Spoiler

out of curiosity, who is that?

sagara souske
the protagonist of Full metal panic

 

[Rakkana]

I just don't care anymore. It's impossible not to be racist these days.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

Can someone, please, PLEASE inform the rest of the world that Arab =/= Muslim?

Just because companies like to target the Middle East - a largely unstable area to begin with - for sites where armed conflicts take place doesn't mean that everyone hates Muslims by proxy.

That said, in general I can see how the media DOES do a crappy job of differentiating between the two, and the coverage of the mosque-controversies popping up all over the place isn't exactly helping that matter either. If people would be willing to remove their heads from their own asses, this problem might just go away.

 

[tzimize]

It seems extremely stupid to worry about muslims in games, when there are very real REAL life situations to worry about.

Muslims are not depicted very nice in media (real media, you know, outside computers, like the news). Sometimes this is their own fault, sometimes it is simply the media.

If you worry about how muslims come off, then worry about real life first, games later. Its not like people start to hate Germany because wolfenstein was made..............

 

[Phoenix09215]

I rarely see bad guys in games who are Muslims. Even in films, I think that over the years there have been more British baddies then Muslim. But you can understand it in a way. If we look at people like Saddam and Osama, who made a big impact in the press and have been portrayed as "monsters" worldwide, then people will begin to create a stereotype.

Personally, I have no problem with Musilims, but then again I don't compare them to Osama Bin Laden. To be honest, in my opinion you could make a bad guy from any religious background or country because theres always going to be people who are murderers and rapists etc...

 

[Jack_Uzi]

Before people are starting to get angry on my arse, please hear me out: Though I do not agree with any form of violence taken, I (think) I do understand why some muslim cultures being angry for the way things are going. While we here in the western society are squabbling whether or not to build a new mosque somewhere, we are planting our 'shrines' of fast food chains, soda factories and what not in their yard. It's a bit like forcing something in our (tunnel) vision of how to be, and then blame them for obstructing our sight.
Though any ideal, from a football club, religion or political signiature you are willing to die and/or hate for, is one that is not healthy. If we could just all stop putting eacht other in labeled boxes, this could be a better world for all of us.

 

[Broken Blade]

I can only think of one time they've depicted a character from the Middle East who wasn't the bad guy.

Spoiler

There's also Setsuna F. Seiei from Gundam 00, but admittedly he's a bit of an expy of the character you've got there. Former Middle Eastern Muslim child soldier who was basically brainwashed by his leader, and remains emotionally screwed-up to this very day. The show does cover a lot of the ripple effects of actions like that, and how a single act can ruin many lives.

I thought about Setsuna, but I thought Souske was a better example because he is from a county that actually exists. Although, I did think that Setsuna's story was somewhat of a political statement (or something).

Well, there is that. Though 00 is set about 300 years in the future, so it makes sense that there's been some political shakeups in the middle east. And yeah, 00's story is basically an extended allegory, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a political statement. Or it was them trying to avert the Japanese Protagonist trope. The big central message of the show seems to be how important communication is between people, and how a lot of problems are caused by misunderstands and such. Besides the usual "war is bad" message. It's complicated. The GN Particles don't help in the understanding of it at all.

 

[Oskar K]

Games don't target the religion of those people though, they're not the enemies because they're Muslims, they're the enemies because they're easily identifiable as different and wrong among the general population.

What he said
(Btw im listening to queen right now )

 

[Sworm]

Oh I definitely agree, labeling Muslims in general as all terrorists, and extremists, seems to be the 'in thing' these days. At the same time, had gaming been around during the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Abortion Clinic Bombings etc... we may've seen seriously critical games regarding Christianity also.

It all depends on WHO's making the games... but what you say may have been possible.