Muslim Advocacy Group Asks Digital Storefronts To Ban Six Days In Fallujah

A Muslim advocacy group has issued a statement asking Valve, Microsoft, and Sony not to distribute the controversial upcoming game Six Days in Fallujah, saying it glorifies violence against Iraqi civilians and reinforces anti-Muslim bigotry.

The statement issued by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a DC-based civil rights and advocacy group, called on the three major games platform-holders "not to host or digitally distribute" the game. It argues that the battle that the game is based upon killed more than 800 Iraqi civilians, and that the US military's use of white phosphorous has led to birth defects in the years since.

"We call on Microsoft, Sony and Valve to ban their platforms from hosting 'Six Days in Fallujah,' an Arab murder simulator that will only normalize violence against Muslims in America and around the world," said CAIR research and advocacy coordinator Huzaifa Shahbaz. "The gaming industry must stop dehumanizing Muslims. Video games like Six Days in Fallujah only serve to glorify violence that took the lives of hundreds of Iraqi civilians, justify the Iraq war, and reinforce anti-Muslim sentiment at a time when anti-Muslim bigotry continues to threaten human life."

Six Days in Fallujah has been controversial since it was first announced by Atomic Games in 2009, having been based on events that at the time were only five years old. Those plans were ultimately shuttered, but it was revived just recently by Highwire Games. The messaging surrounding the game has been at times inconsistent, though, with publishing head Peter Tamte saying it is not "political commentary" followed shortly thereafter by the game's social media acknowledging that its subject matter is "inseparable from politics."

In particular the game has been criticized for how it appears to treat the deaths of Iraqi civilians, and how it will address the use of white phosphorous. (The US military has acknowledged using it as an incendiary weapon against combatants in the battle of Fallujah.) The first gameplay trailer showed the basics of its procedurally-generated missions, including a brief moment of interacting with civilians, but did not address some of its critics' broader concerns.