It’s a way to instill “Islamic identity” in the game players, doncha know.
“Salman Rushdie fatwa turned into Iranian video game,” by Saeed Kamali Dehghan for the Guardian, June 26 (thanks to Twostellas):
Salman Rushdie was the target of a notorious fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic of Iran, 23 years ago. Now, the author of The Satanic Verses is the subject of an Iranian computer game aimed at spreading to the next generation the message about his “sin”.
The Stressful Life of Salman Rushdie and Implementation of his Verdict is the title of the game being developed by the Islamic Association of Students, a government-sponsored organisation which announced this week it had completed initial phases of production.
News of the computer game came as Tehran on Tuesday played host to the country’s second International Computer Games Expo. “The organisers considered the event as an opportunity to introduce Iranian culture, value and Islamic identity, and also a way to present Iranian products to international computer games designers and producers,” the English-language state television channel, Press TV, reported on its website….
Little has been revealed about the game but its title suggests players will be asked to implement Khomeini’s call for the killing of Rushdie.
Iranian authorities have complained in recent years that “enemies” have targeted their country in a “soft and cultural war” using illegal satellite channels, western novels, Hollywood films and computer games. Western hairstyles and garments have also been condemned as part of the “cultural invasion”.
Iran has struggled to counter this with a presence in cyberspace. Mohammad-Taqi Fakhrian of the student association said producing computer games was one way to combat the cultural war against Iran. “We felt we should find a way to introduce our third and fourth generation to the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and its importance,” he told the semi-official Mehr news agency….
In February 1989, Khomeini described The Satanic Verses as “blasphemous against Islam”. His fatwa caused international controversy and the UK severed diplomatic relations with Iran for years….