Islamic Fun (also known as Islamic Fun!) is a 1999 religious and educational video game, consisting of six minigames targeted at children. The game was developed by the United Kingdom-based firm Innovative Minds. The game is notable for its minigame "The Resistance," which allowed players to throw rocks at Israeli tanks upon correctly answering trivia. The game's message was supported by Innovative Minds' "Boycott Israel" page and campaign, which aimed to raise awareness about the treatment of Palestinians in Israel. The mini-games have different themes and stories that progress via correct answers. "The Resistance" depicts the player as a militant in South Lebanon, where answers provide them rocks to throw at retreating Israeli tanks answers. "Building Blocks" involves the construction of a mosque from blocks gained from right answers. The other four mini-games involve helping an animal achieve a certain goal. "Tree Hop" depicts a cat trying to retrieve his ball, "Meow Tiles" has a cat uncovering image, and "Fishing Bear" involves a bear fishing to feed five guests. The game's sole two-player mini-game, "Two Bunny Race", involves two bunny-rabbits attempting to make the finish line first. While the purpose of such games are religious education, some of the context and ideology behind them, which view certain political events through the value-laden prism of a specific group, may prove to be problematic to other faiths.
Release and aftermath
Islamic Fun was released by Innovative Minds, under the direction of Abbas Panjwani, in 1999. It was distributed from his suburban home in Crawley. The game marketed itself as a Muslim alternative to secular video games. The game only became noticed by the Jewish community over three years after being originally produced in December 2001, after Innovative Minds boycotted Israeli goods on their website.
Panjwani noted that as a result of the boycott, his family had received violent threats, abusive phone calls, several hundred hate e-mails a day, and threats against their website's host providers, and commented that "this matter of the game [Islamic Fun] is the latest of a whole series of abuse we have been receiving simply for practising our right to oppose illegal occupation and atrocities committed by the state of Israel". Subsequent to the boycott incident, the game would receive much media attention in the Western World,
Game Revolution noted that as of 2013, the games do not function online.
Critical reception and analysis
The game became controversial due to the perceived anti-Zionism of "The Resistance" game, and for some of the questions themselves, which seemed designed to promote an Islamist world view. It caused critical
reactions in the Western media due to the minigame "The Resistance" and the quotations in other puzzle games.
The document Games: A Look at Emerging Trends, Uses, Threats and Opportunities in Influence Activities argued that these types of games "encourage anti-Semitism and promote terrorism". The book "Global Radical Islamist Insurgency" commented that while game lacked the "overtly violent" nature of other Jihadi games, "The Resistance" minigame "seeks to condition youth to consider violence the appropriate emotional response to perceived injustice". The book deemed the other five minigames "child-friendly amusements".
The Independent thought the game consisted of a series of "simple games" that aimed to teach players about aspects of Islam, and deemed "The Resistance" the game's "standout". In an article entitled The most bizarre religious video games ever, Grunge noted that some of the questions are asked in an "awfully curious way" deeming the game less "fun trivia" and more "shiny, happy propaganda", while commenting that in "The Resistance", "you are now murdering Jews in a supposedly G-rated religious game". Slate thought the title was one of the "War on Terror's least-frightening video games", though noted that the content would appeal to Jihadist gamers. The New York Post deemed the game "sickening" and "shocking", and noted that The Board of Deputies of British Jews had made a concerted effort to pull the self-described "tragedy" from toy stores. In Jihad for Kids : Free Congress Foundation, Robert Spencer wrote that the game “instills ancient Islamic resentments in today’s youth”.