UK Lord Wants Anti-Radical Islamic Propaganda in Video Games
Ashley Allen / 9 years ago
The UK’s former reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation wants video game developers to help in the fight against young Muslims becoming radicalised by producing video games that show ‘the good guys’ winning in the battle against Islamic extremism. Lord Carlile, the Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords, wants people who “create games on the internet” to “fight fire with the same sort of fire” through interactive narratives that show the terrorists losing.
Lord Carlile, Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme in the wake of 17-year-old Talha Asmal from Dewsbury, UK, becoming the youngest ever suicide bomber last week in Iraq, said that, “The government must sit down with the best brains who, for example, create games on the internet, who write programs for the Internet, and they must try to produce the same methods to show that the good guys sometimes win.”
“That being radicalised and going to fight for Isil is actually a ghastly thing to do, that it destroys families, that actually happiness can be obtained by having an ordinary British life.”
Speaking about Asmal in particular, Lord Carlile said that the boy was “exploited” online by radical extremists who “targeted and befriended” him.
The UK Foreign Office estimates that over 700 British citizens have travelled overseas to fight with radical Islamists, with around half that number returning to British shores.
Of course video games will solve that problem.
The kind of patronising logic that birthed this idea – that kids like video games, so we can influence them through video games – must extend to the point to which these kids also fail to differentiate between fiction and reality, and can’t see through this condescending exercise for what it is: politicians talking down to young people under the guise of being on ‘their level’. Instead of treating these kids as complex individuals, desperate enough to involve themselves in abhorrent acts, understanding their problems, and trying to offer practical solutions, they’re dismissed as ‘brainwashed’ youths who just need to be reprogrammed via pop culture.
Thank you The Telegraph for providing us with this information.
