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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.
What else would a terrorist look like?
The generic ones are of unproven efficacy :)
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There is no comparison between a Christian who blows up an abortion clinic and the terrorism carried out in the name of Islam.When was the last bombing of an abortion clinic anywhere in the world?Islamic terrorist are cutting off heads and blowing up innocent people every minute of every day.If Islamic terrorism mirrored Christianity ,terrorism wouldn't exist.
What a Dhimmidiot
Charles Myers, a religion professor at Gettysburg College
"You have fanatic fringes in all religions, I believe."
Surely, he was quoted out of context.
I printed hundreds of Pictures of Saddam, Bin Laden, Kerry and both Clintons and used them to pattern my shotguns.
Sounds like fun to me...lol
I guess the whack-a-mullah game is also offensive ?
I wonder why the Amish don't have to object to folks confusing defense of America with shooting Amish. Could it be because the Amish are peaceful ?
Sounds like a fun game. I think I'll join.
BINGO!
I just shot him an e-mail w/ my question.....
I'll let y'all know if he responds.
No, justice is though.
At the risk of getting flamed, I'm going to go out on a limb here; respectfully.
I was in Iraq as a soldier on OIF2 and the Kurds I worked with were also Muslims and they risked their lives on my behalf many times. The fact that I was a professing Christian did not deter them nor did they treat me as anything less than a friend. They showed gratitude at every opportunity for setting them free from Saddam.
The Kurdish children would bring me flowers and say "I love you Amriki". Kurdish men would risk their lives to help us, their Peshmerga were very brave fighters who had opposed Saddam at the peril of their own lives. I can't go into a lot of detail lest I possibly violate OPSEC, but please understand what I'm saying.
It is wrong to paint all of Islam and all Muslims as terrorist sympathizers. Some of these Muslims are in fact our allies right now and although I don't agree with their religion, I learned to differentiate and sincerely hope that you will also.
I've sent an abuse report to the Department of Redundancy Department.
lol:)
Welcome to FR and thanks for your service. Not having been in Iraq I'll defer to your experience. I think you'll find concurrence here with your view of the Kurds.
True.
The Bible speaks of peace, "prince of peace", turning the other cheak, and conversion without blood (just by decision).
compared to lying as a virtue, conversion by sword, institutional killing of all non believers, treating non-believers as less than human, (nobody compares that to Dredd scott decision), and no one call cair and islam on the fact that their religion states no non-believer can possibly be an innocent. (thus no innocents have ever been killed because non-believers are guilty devils and the faithful who get in the line of fire are "martyrs")
CAIR is a tool of the terrorists and useful only to give the blame america first crowd emotional validation of their own lunacy.
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