Jesus vs. Mohammed? Video Game Upsets Islamic Group [Internet game 'FAITH FIGHTER']

Fox News ^ | April 28, 2009

[Alex Murphy]

CAIRO — An influential Islamic group branded an online video game depicting religious figures fighting each other as offensive to Muslims and Christians and successfully demanded Tuesday that it be taken offline.

In the game "Faith Fighter," caricatures of Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, God and the Hindu god Ganesh fight each other against a backdrop of burning buildings.

God attacks with bolts of lighting and pillars of fire while the turbaned Muhammad can summon a burning black meteorite.

The Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents most Muslim nations, said it should be removed from the Internet.

"The computer game was incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians. ... The game would serve no other purpose than to incite intolerance," an OIC statement said.

Game designer Molleindustria told the Associated Press the game, which had been around for more than a year and played millions of times, was misunderstood, but had been removed.

"This was meant to be a game against intolerance and against the one-way Islamophobic satire of the Danish Muhammad cartoons," Molleindustria said in an e-mail message. "So if a respectable organization didn't understand the irony and the message, we failed."

Islamic law generally opposes physical depictions of the prophet.

When a Danish newspaper in 2005 printed 12 cartoons showing negative portrayals of Muhammad, Muslims around the world were enraged.

Deadly protests erupted from Morocco to Indonesia, with rioters torching Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products.

The style of the game, with characters jumping, kicking and knocking each other out, mimics the martial-arts arcade games popular in the 1980s and 1990s.

Though the game had been around for a while, the OIC was responding to an article in the online British publication Metro UK, which stated the

[Alex Murphy]

In the game "Faith Fighter," caricatures of Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, God and the Hindu god Ganesh fight each other against a backdrop of burning buildings. God attacks with bolts of lighting and pillars of fire while the turbaned Muhammad can summon a burning black meteorite....

....Game designer Molleindustria told the Associated Press the game, which had been around for more than a year and played millions of times, was misunderstood, but had been removed....Molleindustria's Web site describes the company as "an Italian team of artists, designers and programmers that aims at starting a serious discussion about social and political implications of video games." Other games designed by Molleindustria include Operation: Pedopriest, Queer Power and Oiligarchy, satirizing the Catholic Church, sexual orientation and the oil industry.

From Molleindustria's website:

Today after an official statement by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) we decided to remove the game Faith Fighter from our site.

Faith Fighter was meant to be a game against intolerance that used over the top irony and a cartoonish style to express the instrumental use of religions.

Faith Fighter depicted in a mildly politically incorrect way all the major religions as a response to the one-way islamophobic satire of the Danish Mohammad cartoons.

If a established organization didn't understand the irony and the message of the game and is claiming it is inciting intolerance, we simply failed.

The game has been released more than a year ago, it got international news coverage, it has been played by millions of players on the Internet and it has been exhibited in several artistic venues around the world. Reviews have been generally positive and we only received two letters of complaints by two catholic players.

We suspect that people at OIC never played the game and only referred to the article on Metro UK that successfully manufactured this controversy.

This has happened before with games as Super Columbine Massacre RPG, Virtual Jihadi and our Operation: Pedopriest, works that attracted heavy criticism based on false assumptions spread by mass media.

This phenomenon is related to the still marginal role of the medium: commentators feel authorized to judge a game without playing it and just conforming to the common narrative depicting video game as violence generators (a narrative we tried to make fun of promoting Faith Fighter as a cathartic tool for religious hate).

We knew that this was a risky operation and we acknowledge our failure as communicators.

Taking down the game from this website is a symbolic act: copies and documentation of Faith Fighter can be found all over the Internet.
Hopefully this will help people to make their judgments by examining the actual work and not the sensationalist accounts spread by mass media.

[muawiyah]

Just now climbing back in my chair ~ haven’t laughed so hard in months!

[varmintman]

Do the Christians get to use any of the ammo you’d buy over at crusaderammunition.com??

[Obamageddon]

Where's Moses?

Where's Maimonides?

[muawiyah]

This is right in line with the guy who told them to take Air Force One “up to New York City. Get some new pictures. Buzz around awhile ~ maybe cruise past the Statue of Liberty.”

[Constitution Day]

What DOESN’T offend “Islamic groups”? Ridiculous.

[Jewbacca]

I would assume they fall under the “just plain G-d.”

[Jewbacca]

“What DOESN’T offend “Islamic groups”?”

Dead infidels.

[RC one]

that was fun. I’m sure if I was caught playing it in Afghanistan or Pakistan, I would be dragged out into the street and shot.

[Constitution Day]

Good point.

[Frantzie]

Why not Obama? I mean he is bigger than Jesus and Mohammed!

I was joking with a friend last night that if you combined Jesus, Spiderman, Batman and Superman they would still not be as great as Obama.

Also how have little children been brainwashed on Obama? He is like a cereal product, PokeMon and an iPod combined.

[Mercat]

Notice, no response to the Catholic objections but took it off the internet in response to one objection from the muzzies.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Moses could bash everybody over the head with his stick.

[cups]

Ugh they removed it form their site!

I wanted to play it!

I love the statement. The game was about fighting intolerance, but it was the intolerance of the muzzies that made them remove it...ironic, no?

[Constitution Day]

LOL!!

Oh, and it's been removed from the original site, but you can still play it here:

Faith Fighter

[Constitution Day]

It’s still here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/421199

[Frantzie]

It looks really funny. I like the elephant.

[Charles Martel]

Who marked up the “Select Your Fighter” screen capture? I’m pretty sure Buddha is bottom center; the character on the top right looks like a Hindu deity. I forget which one is usually shown in that blue color - Vishnu, maybe.

[OneWingedShark]

>Also how have little children been brainwashed on Obama? He is like a cereal product, PokeMon and an iPod combined.

Download your copy of Count-Chocula: ObaMon Edition for your iPod now!

[Constitution Day]

I just played it and had Jesus whoop Muhammed’s butt.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster hovering in the background was a nice touch! LOL!

[SpinnerWebb]

i’m alright with it, if only God gets the God-mode cheat.

[Constitution Day]

He definitely should!

[hosepipe]

Muslims HATE cartoons.. Cartoons trump language and dialect.. and even culture..

Even a moron or one that cannot read can understand a cartoon..
Even the brain wash that most all muslims go through in their youth is eclipsed..

CARTOONS are pictures of ten thousand words.. or more..
Political religious and cultural PORN...
Muslims HATE THAT..

[Charles Martel]

Moses could bash everybody over the head with his stick.

Oh, there are many possibilities here. Moses could also call down swarms of locusts, rivers of blood, flaming hailstones - good stuff.

Maybe they'll plug that character into the game and delete Mad Mo, thereby alleviating the Muslims' concerns.

Yeah - just treat Mohammed as though he is nonexistent... irrelevant. Surely the mooselimbs wouldn't mind *that*. < rolls eyes >

[cups]

THANKS!!!!

IM CRACKIN UP!

[Grizzled Bear]

Gotta have it!

[Centurion2000]

You can play it here.

FAITH FIGTHER

[Centurion2000]

Thanks for posting that site. Never knew I could get bacon laced ammo ... LOVE IT :)

[edweena]

“The game would serve no other purpose than to incite intolerance. . . .”

No place for just plain fun in the Islamic world, I guess. Probably why the Taliban forbids music too. I wonder if they prohibit hot bubble baths as well?

[varmintman]

What our military really needs is the S (Slamnation) bomb which would amount to compressed air and flash-dried pork ground 1000 times finer than the flash powder used for flintlock rifles i.e. something which would ensure that nobody in a 100 mile radius could take a breath of air without having pork in their bodies.

[Alex Murphy]

What our military really needs is the S (Slamnation) bomb which would amount to compressed air and flash-dried pork ground 1000 times finer than the flash powder used for flintlock rifles i.e. something which would ensure that nobody in a 100 mile radius could take a breath of air without having pork in their bodies.

Forget carrying mace in your purse - we need some kind of personal security device that sprays pork fat!

[RichInOC]

Does it have to be one or the other? Why not both?

[SkyDancer]

Mohammad: Do you kill children and innocents?

Mohammad: Yes.

Jesus: Do you kill children and innocents?

Jesus: No.

Game over.

[Morgana]

Okay.....I needed a good laugh today! thanks!

[Longdriver]

thanks for the link! My original reply was understandably deleted. I apologize to the mods - I’m just tired of these people getting offended over everything on earth.

[Joan Kerrey]

Muslims HATE THAT..
____________________
Wow, if they hate that I hope they don’t see the X-rated version of Muhammed and the Camels