The Austrian government has banned an online Flash game released as part of an anti-immigration political campaign in the country.
The game, titled Moschee Baba, or ‘Bye Bye Mosque’, charges players with shooting down mosques, minarets and fez-wearing Muslims from a countryside scene and was designed to promote a regional chapter of the Freedom Party (FPO), Austria’s leading anti-immigration political party.
At the game’s conclusion, the following message is displayed: “Styria is full of mosques and minarets! Don’t let that happen: On September 26, vote for Dr. Gerhard Kurzmann and the FPO!”
The game has caused outrage in Austria, with Anas Shakfeh, president of the Islamic Community in Austria (IGGiO), leading calls for its ban, saying: "This hatred of religion is irrefutable and unacceptable.’’
On September 5th, President Heinz Fischer announced the game's ban, criticizing it for being “absolute nonsense” and displaying “a real lack of taste.” UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, who was visiting President Fischer at the time, also denounced Moschee Baba as being “totally unacceptable” and “Islamophobic.”
Visitors to the game’s site are now greeted with a message that reads: ‘‘Dear visitor, due to the political control of our opponents, this game has been banned by the law!’
Following the ban, an Austrian Neo-Nazi site published the game on its own homepage. Alexander Segert, the entrepreneur who sold the game to the FPO, then lodged a complaint with the site's San Francisco-based service provider about alleged copyright infringement. The site temporarily went offline, before reappearing yesterday, displaying YouTube footage of the game in its place.
Following the controversy, a previously unknown Turkish group calling itself 'Black Peace', launched a series of attacks on a service provider linked with the FPO. The group uploaded images of a mosque onto around 50 sites hosted by the provider, including text condemning Moschee Baba.
Moschee Baba appears to be a localized version of a Swiss Flash game, Minarett Attack released in 2009.
While I don't agree with banning the game, I think outing it for what it is would be enough; you have to keep in mind that this "political opinion" is promoting ethnic cleansing, or the removal of a minority population.
Some governments do not tolerate that sort of rhetoric, Canada being one of them.
I'm sure their are developers or games out their who take care of a clean political expression. The game first appeared in swiss as an "answer" on the Minaret debate some people took it as offense and some as irony. So and now comes a right-sided political party and takes the game for a campaign against immigration.
I'm not a Muslim and i really don't care about different beliefs. But what i hate is intolerance against any different beliefs. Christians are allowed to build churches anywhere they want, in most countries everyone is allowed to create his own belief no matter how dangerous it could be but Muslims aren't allowed to build minarets.
Every culture has his black-sheeps no matter in what they believe but since 9/11 every Muslim is a terrorist for us and so we have to ban them from anywhere.
And thats why i think the ban of this game is justified. Transporting a message like that is far from any consistence or justice.
While it's pretty obvious to me that the content of the flash game is complete, unadulterated trash, I can't condone banning it.
A little flash game it may be, but banning any game sets a bad precedent that nobody needs right now; especially with the impending US Supreme Court case (Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Association (08-1448).").
That said, this game is a pretty pathetic and bigoted expression of one's development abilities.
Offend I could care less about. Influence, however, worries me. This game sends a message of hate that is unacceptable. (I'm reminded of the Jim Crow laws/acts in the United States.)
I do believe people have the right to choose their own thoughts, beliefs, and what not. I just know and fear the choices they'll make. It's very difficult to hear a positive, let's all get along, message when it's covered up by ignorant noise. Too bad the good fight isn't easy. :x
Regardless, I agree with Ephraim (always seems to comment before I do). That's like saying they should cancel the Mass Effect or Dragon Age series because I don't agree with same-sex actions.
Canada has laws against hate speech and it would apply in this scenario. Any speech, text, video or any medium promoting hate, ethnic cleansing, etc. would be considered hate speech.
While such laws can be argued as an infringement on rights, you can't compare it to Mass Effect for the reasons you stated.
While I generally approve of Canada's hate speech laws, based on the information presented here I'm not sure that there would be sufficient grounds to bring legal action against its creators. I believe the game would have to *explicitly* promote harming real people in order for it to run afoul of the law. It's possible that this game does, but the article here doesn't give enough info to say.
True, one should reserve judgment until all the facts are in.
Still, the game involves violence to a targeted religion, without any context such as a historical war, to justify it. That targeted violence, combined with a real-world political anti-immigration message, seems on pretty shaky ground.
I'm also naturally suspicious of anything supported by Neo-Nazis.
You are right. In Canada it covers things that promote "genocide" (at best this can be argued as promoting ethnic cleansing) and "hate" (at best this can be argued as promoting intolerance)...so it would have to be a stretch to apply censorship to this in Canada.
But I do think that a message coming from a political party (who may in turn have the legal power to ethnically cleanse) may make it more dangerous.
There are many people out there developing games that would disagree with you and point you to a variety of games that express a political opinion.
Some governments do not tolerate that sort of rhetoric, Canada being one of them.
I'm not a Muslim and i really don't care about different beliefs. But what i hate is intolerance against any different beliefs. Christians are allowed to build churches anywhere they want, in most countries everyone is allowed to create his own belief no matter how dangerous it could be but Muslims aren't allowed to build minarets.
Every culture has his black-sheeps no matter in what they believe but since 9/11 every Muslim is a terrorist for us and so we have to ban them from anywhere.
And thats why i think the ban of this game is justified. Transporting a message like that is far from any consistence or justice.
"Sensibilities" of this kind are dangerous game to play the "i ban ... because this... offends me"
A little flash game it may be, but banning any game sets a bad precedent that nobody needs right now; especially with the impending US Supreme Court case (Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Association (08-1448).").
That said, this game is a pretty pathetic and bigoted expression of one's development abilities.
I do believe people have the right to choose their own thoughts, beliefs, and what not. I just know and fear the choices they'll make. It's very difficult to hear a positive, let's all get along, message when it's covered up by ignorant noise. Too bad the good fight isn't easy. :x
Regardless, I agree with Ephraim (always seems to comment before I do). That's like saying they should cancel the Mass Effect or Dragon Age series because I don't agree with same-sex actions.
While such laws can be argued as an infringement on rights, you can't compare it to Mass Effect for the reasons you stated.
Still, the game involves violence to a targeted religion, without any context such as a historical war, to justify it. That targeted violence, combined with a real-world political anti-immigration message, seems on pretty shaky ground.
I'm also naturally suspicious of anything supported by Neo-Nazis.
But I do think that a message coming from a political party (who may in turn have the legal power to ethnically cleanse) may make it more dangerous.