Resist!

Resist!
Created by Micheal Lawrence
Download Resist!

Many people have played The Suicide Bomber Game, or at least the amount of press coverage it got would make you think so. When it was released on Newgrounds, there was a bit of controversy.

The game, and it is really only barely that, lacks any sort of depth beyond simple 2D movement and a button press here and there. Now, while I can expect a Flash game to be simple, I realized the game was an accurate portrayal of popular opinion of suicide bombers. The majority of Americans see the suicide bomber as some bearded, Arab with shifty eyes, and nothing else. Rarely does our society encourage looking beyond that stereotype, and not attaching the image of a religious nut bent on martyrdom.

For example, we ignore the fact that despite the recent surge in terrorist activity in Iraq, the leading conductors of suicide bombings are the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist group that openly discourages religion. The fact that the first instances of suicide bombing, seen in Lebanon in the early 80s, were conducted as military operations in response to the Israeli invasion, without any religious implication, is glossed over.

As a society, we need to realize that, while religion is a tool used to fuel suicide bombings, it is not the reason they exist. Historically, suicide bombings are an indicator of an oppressed group attempting to drive out people they view as invaders, whatever that group’s ethnicity or religion. Resist! is my humble attempt at making a game about suicide bombings that does not subscribe to common misinterpretations about the subject.

Download Resist!