Video Game Glorifying Terrorism

"Where are those who carry the explosive belts? Where are them [sic]? Come here, I want an explosive belt to blow up myself over the Zionists!!! It is a jihad, a jihad of victory or martyrdom!" 

"You became a martyr. Rejoice, O mother of the martyr. Rejoice! Prepare your son for his marriage [in paradise], tie the band on all your pain and spread his wedding handkerchief, spread your anger against the oppressor, his injustice must be stopped."

"Allahu akbar. From the river to the sea."

"Today is the Day of Avenge [sic]. I will make you taste the pain and burn you like rats! We are people who never surrender, we either win or become martyrs, and both are victory!"

Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, gameplay

"Fursan al-Aqsa is not a mere 'game', but a display in utter sadism."

"In glorifying the barbaric atrocities of October 7th, the creator is effectively contributing to the recruitment and radicalization of potential terrorists and inciting them to recreate and carry out such gruesome acts of violence."

"This may place both the creator of the game and the distributor Steam, and parent company, Valve, in direct violation of Canada's anti-terror legislation and Criminal Code."

Arson Ostrovsky, chief executive, International Legal Forum (ILF)

"This game does not promote 'terrorism', antisemitism, hate against Jews or any other group, this is a message of protest against the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian lands. Fursan al-Aqsa is a video game about war like many other games here on Steam [Six days in Fallujah, Call of Duty and others]."

"All the Characters, Art and Storylines depicted in this game are purely the work of fiction. Any similarity to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The plot of this game is a fictional history inspired by real facts. Even the political and military groups depicted on the game are fictional. In this game, the player does not shoot Israeli civilians, women, children, elderly, only soldiers."

Steam disclaimer

Steam Website Advert

 

In late 2021, prior to the release of this game, Valve was warned by the International Legal Forum (ILF), a global network of lawyers organized to combat antisemitism, that distributing Fursan al-Aqsa could be a "direct violation of United States anti-terror laws and (be) subject to potential civil litigation". That warning doesn't appear to have impressed the distributor of the game, one whit. The video game glorifying the October attack on Israel remains available on the digital distribution service, Steam.

Originally released in 2022, following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel in 2023, an updated version invites players to recreate some atrocities like attacking an Israeli military base with the use of motorized paragliders, the very tactic Hamas engaged in on October 7. In the United Kingdom, the game was pulled from Steam when the country's digital counterterrorism unit contacted the company. The game remains accessible for Canadian users on Steam, and Black Friday sales saw it heavily discounted.

One of the world's largest online gaming marketplaces, Valve Corp., the parent company of Steam, is not interested in explaining itself. Gameplay footage shows militants chanting "Allahu akbar" and "From the river to the sea" on YouTube. Players can dress as kaffiyeh-uniformed terrorists wearing the Hamas-conventional green headbands. While Israeli forces in the game are identified with an inverted red triangle; the Hams symbol used in its propaganda videos designed to demonstrate by the triangle that whoever is identified with it, is ripe for death.

ILF chief executive Arsen Ostrovsky warned that the company's decision not to remove the game for its Canadian users, may lead his group to "consider pursuing immediate legal action". The game developer, Brazilian-Palestinian Nidal Nijim, claims that Fursan al-Aqsa doesn't encourage antisemitism; as a war-based shooter game, like many others, it merely offers a different perspective on  ongoing conflicts. His disingenuous claim that players do not "shoot Israeli civilians, women, children, elderly, only soldiers", essentially white-washes reality to make the game more palatable to players and immune from criticism.

Before its post-October 7 update, older footage shows opening credits featuring a Palestinian militant with a suicide vest. Abu Ubaida, the name of a recognizable Hamas spokesperson representing its al-Qassam Brigades 'military wing', is the game's narrator. Nijim in an interview with a YouTube game reviewer identifies his "father is a former Palestinian fighter as well" -- with the Yasser Arafat-led terror group Fatah.

"Authorities in Canada should follow the lead of their British counterparts, where police and counterterrorism authorities prohibited its sale across the U.K., due to concerns that such violent and extremist online material may be used as a tool to recruit potential terrorists and incite acts of violence."

Arsen Ostrovsky, ILF

Making An Impression

 

"[Mundfish has] an incredible team ... from ten countries including Poland, Ukraine, Australia, Georgia, Israel, Armenia, UAE, Serbia, and Cyprus [and the tenth?]."

"We apologize if using the vintage cartoon or music has caused hurt or insult. We will edit the parts in question." 

"Founded in 2017 by a team of four like-minded gaming enthusiasts, Mundfish is a video grame development studio headquartered in Cyprus. Mundfish is led by a talented global team focused on creating an original, captivating,  and unique gaming experience with their first title, 'Atomic Heart'."

"[We are]  pro-peace [and] against violence. Guys, we have noted the questions surrounding where we, at Mundfish, stand."

"We want to assure you that Mundfish is a developer and studio with a global team focused on an innovative game and is undeniably a pro-peace Organization  against violence against people. We do not comment on politics or religion. Rest assured, we are a global team focused on getting Atomic Heart into the hands of gamers everywhere."

"Our game and website DO NOT collect any information or data."

"The website's privacy statement is outdated and wrong, and should have been removed years ago. We have shut down the shop to assure our fans of the integrity of our studio and products. We apologize for any confusion on this matter."

Mundfish website and Twitter

As a propaganda vehicle, it is a diabolically clever device. Gaming is big. Big boys and little boys are addicted to it. Make it flash, make it pop with activity and firearms, lots of those. Some explosive devices wouldn't hurt, either. Remember the protagonists, the good guys versus the bad guys. And, in this instance, symbolism, lots of it. If the game itself is derivative of another, previous high-popularity game, that's deliberate; a tried-and-true strategy to grip peoples' imagination and  hook them on the action and the subliminal message, clumsy as it may be.

 

"We are now flying over the majestic Call of the Motherland monument -- erected in 1949 to mark the Soviet Union's victory in World War Two", a female's mellow voice intones as a statue looms through the clouds. An immense statue of a vengeful woman, sword held high in one hand, a gigantic atom cradled in the other. Below her there are monorails of a futuristic city, with suspension bridges and whirring drones. How does that suit the mood?

 

A still from the video game Atomic Heart.  Mundfish

 The statuesque symbol of victory stands 300 feet in height and as you pass it in your pixelated conveyance high in the sky above the Volga River you are deep in the world of Atomic Heart which seems to extol Soviet Russia as a socialist paradise with its triumphalist architecture.  Ukraine is not particularly thrilled with this novel conveyance of slurs against all that is Ukrainian. From the sexy female bots whose silver hair is braided in the traditional Ukrainian coiffe, to the many allusions of Ukraine as deficient in all aspects of its national identity.

 

Game developer Mundfish, based in Cyprus, won't tell you, but its chief executive worked previously at the Russian communication company Mail.RU. Funding reached Mundfish from GEM Capital, a Cyprus-based investment fund that a former chief executive of Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom, established. The game itself is distributed in Russia by VK Play of the social media platform VKontakte owned by Gazprom.

 

Just incidentally Vladimir Kiriyenko, son of Vladimir Putin's deputy chief of staff Sergey Kiriyenko is president of VK Play. Mundfish was said to have been founded in Moscow before it moved its HQ to Cyprus in 2022. During a Moscow launch event for the game the downtown venue reached into the nostalgic past with signs reading "Glory to Soviet engineers", and "Comrade, join the society of tomorrow". 

 

Atomic Heart launched on the first anniversary of Vladimir Putin's formalizing the independence of 'separatist' regions of East Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk, then adding another few provinces for good measure.

Still from video   Mundfish

Mundfish, however, declares itself to be staunchly"pro-peace". Within the Mundfish organization there is one outstanding dissenter, Mick Gordon, who composed the game's soundtrack. "My motivations are solely to support the Ukrainian people affected by the conflict", he stated of his decision to donate his fee to Red Cross Australia's Ukraine Crisis Appeal.

 

According to Mundfish, Atomic Heart is not sharing player data with Kremlin authorities. It had been revealed that the company's Russian website included a clause informing users their data could be collected and sent to the Federal Security Service (FSB) the updated KGB. "Our game and website DO NOT collect any information or data", it insisted. 

 

What cannot be denied, evidently, is the presence of ample insults toward Ukraine integrated into the game. Ukrainian politicians have called for a universal boycott of the game. Sony and Microsoft have been contacted, with Ukraine seeking a ban on the game's sale of digital versions in Ukraine. 

 

Skilled gamers appear not to have been overly impressed with the game's lack of sophistication and juvenile dialogue. Patterning itself after the hugely successful BioShock, it missed its mark.

 

"We also urge limiting the distribution of this game in other countries due to its toxicity, potential data collection of users, and the potential use of money raised from game purchases to conduct a war against Ukraine."

Kyiv Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine