Posted on 08/02/2005 5:19:21 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
Paintball game featuring generic Arab raises concern Terrorism-themed game features Arab caricature
Stroll a county fair this summer and you might find Freedom Bunker, where the staff wears military fatigues and American flags flutter.
Players shoot paintballs at stationary targets, including a likeness of Osama bin Laden -- and at a man dressed in typical Middle East garb. Some players shout at him, "Die, terrorist!"
Is this good, clean, patriotic fun or a crude caricature that encourages violence against Muslims?
"We consider ourselves paintball enthusiasts and patriots," said Terry Kirby, 41, of Enola, one of the game's creators along with Joe Pavucsko of Harrisburg and Carson Burnett of Lemoyne.
Freedom Bunker, which debuted at the Lycoming County Fair last month, is not intended to demean any ethnic group, Kirby said. "But if their religious beliefs are tied to terror, maybe we are trying to make a point."
Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Council on American Islamic Relations in Washington, had not heard of Freedom Bunker but recalled reports of similar caricatures.
"With Osama bin Laden, no one's going to debate people shooting at a picture of him," she said. "Our concern is when they see a figure that's very generic, that's sending a dangerous message that anyone of this skin type or that dress or that religion is a terrorist."
Freedom Bunker is being played as Americans react to recent terrorist attacks in London and Egypt and continued suicide bombings in Iraq.
At the same time, American Muslims have been calling attention to their abhorrence of terrorism. Just last week, CAIR and more than 120 other Muslim groups endorsed a fatwa -- a religious edict -- calling terrorists criminals and not martyrs.
CAIR released a public service announcement, "Not in the Name of Islam," with a similar message two weeks ago. No Pennsylvania TV stations have picked it up, Ahmed said.
Samuel Newland, a history professor at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, said Freedom Bunker reminds him of World War II-era artifacts he's seen: an ashtray, for example, with a picture of Hitler and the words "Snuff your butt out on this dictator."
Germans and Japanese "were subject to all kinds of caricatures at the time," Newland said. "Now, is it right? I'm not saying it's right ... but it is understandable how these things happen" when passions run high.
Umar Farooq, the secretary of the Islamic Society of Greater Harrisburg, has not seen the game but said it sounded like something that "would offend us."
Like Ahmed, Farooq had no qualms about targeting bin Laden; what bothered him was targeting a generic Arab. It's wrong to portray an entire community as the bad guy, he said.
Many Muslims are not Arabs, and many Arabs are not Muslim, but an image of an Arab has become for many people shorthand for Muslims, the world's second-largest religious group.
The game, as described by a reporter, troubled Charles Myers, a religion professor at Gettysburg College, because he saw in it stereotypes of Islam.
"It's like judging Christianity by people who blow up abortion clinics," he said. "You have fanatic fringes in all religions, I believe."
Freedom Bunker has been the talk of the Lycoming County and Troy fairs and will appear at the Allentown and York fairs, said Kirby, a co-owner of a computer software company being developed in Enola.
Dereck Wolf of Hampden Twp., who gets paid to be the paintball target, said, "I don't mind being a terrorist. Kids are ready to light me up with paint balls."
To avoid injury, Wolf wears protective hockey and baseball gear under a sheet and holds a shield in front of his head that is covered with an Arab headdress. Players pay $5 for 50 shots or $10 for 120 shots.
The idea for the Freedom Bunker came from an attack-the-insurgents game Kirby said the creators saw in Wildwood, N.J. "We came up with the idea to put a patriotic theme into it," he said.
Uh, that should read CAIR alert.
Children's pinata of Generic Arab causes concern...
Now in Virginia not long ago, would-be Jihadis were training in Virginia with paintball; where was CAIR's outrage THEN?
Mr. Wolf best be careful, someone may just pull out a 9mm if the paintballing doesn't go so well.....
Oops, repeated myself, sorry!;)
Umar Farooq, the secretary of the Islamic Society of Greater Harrisburg, has not seen the game but said it sounded like something that "would offend us."
Islam sounds like something that "would offend me."
I am really sick of hearing this.
When was the last time an abortion clinic was bombed and since then how many people have been blown up by muslims?
Ditto that...
MythBusters rename crash test dummy "Akbar, the Generic Arab," CAIR concerned...
I don't know why but "Generic Arab" is really making me laugh...
Good first step, if a little late. Maybe about four years late, or maybe about 30 years late depending on how you choose to count.
Now lets see CAIR declare publicly that they are on our side. Or is that a bridge too far?
The Muslim terrorists are not a "fringe", they are the mainstream of the "religion of peace".
Agreed, OXEN. The decent people in the pro-life movement do not support this kind of thing and that disapprobation has put a stop to it.
But but but...uhhhh...witches yes those nasty Christianses used to burnses the witches...nasty Christianses.
How about the BIG difference?
Christianity does not TEACH murder. Islam does.
So of course it is unfair to judge Christianity by those DISOBEYING it, and precisely fair to judge Islam by those who are OBEYING it.
So much for Gettysburg College....
Is a 'generic Arab' just as effective as an Arab from a reputable pharmaceutical company? Only more affordable?
I'm pretty sure, from what I have read here at FR, the so called fatwa said nothing of the sort. Deception, repeated often enough becomes truth (Hitler or Stalin).
The last rodeo I went to they used a dummy dressed up as an arab and let loose one of the BIG horned bulls! You shoulda heard the crowd! And the rodeo clown really got into it too! He was originally from India!
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