I said whoa there Ibrahim...I said whoa there dagummit
Dagum camel!
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.
Thank you Larry, it was my privilege to serve
Heh! CAIR, We are all on to you. Screw!
I suspect they want us to forget about that by banning paintball that involves Arabs, even as targets.
I said whoa there Ibrahim...I said whoa there dagummit
Dagum camel!
Once I had a prescription for Arabesque 10mg, while I didn't have insurance. It didn't knock that Mohammed thingy nearly as well as the proven Arabique® 10's that I'm used to.
I hope that Muslims work this out amongst themselves. I am not seeing this happening though. Lock and load, IMHO.
Ping
CAIR is not a legitimate civil rights group. They are the propaganda arm of the enemy. I trust nothing they say.
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