A U.S. Islamic advocacy group Tuesday called on the country's largest retailer to stop selling a video game it says glorifies religious violence and could negatively affect interfaith relations.
The game, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," is described on the game's website as a real-time strategy game based on the best-selling book series "Left Behind."
It allows gamers to "join the ultimate fight of good against evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances" - a reference to the end-time rapture.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which says it received complaints about the game, charged that players are rewarded for either converting or killing people of other faiths.
In a letter to H. Lee Scott Jr., CEO of Wal-Mart, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said the game was promoting a message of "religious intolerance."
"The game's enemy team includes people with Muslim-sounding names," Awad said, urging Scott not to sell the game.
"In the post 9-11 climate, when improving interfaith relations should be a priority for all, this type of product only serves to dehumanize others and increase interfaith hostility and mistrust," he said.
"We also believe that as a company that prides itself in hiring and offering services to a diverse group of people, it is Wal-Mart's corporate social responsibility to take into account the potential social impact of its decision to sell this harmful game."
CAIR isn't alone in calling on the retailer to stop selling the game.
The Campaign to Defend the Constitution, which describes itself as "an online grassroots movement combating the growing power of the religious right," is also urging supporters to put pressure on Wal-Mart.
On its website, the group says that over the past week, Wal-Mart had "received over 25,000 letters demanding that it remove the religious right's violent and hateful video game ... from its shelves."
Jeff Frichner, president of Left Behind Games, disputes the claims that the game encourages hatred of Muslims.
"That's impossible, because the game itself is you're fighting against the anti-Christ," he told Cybercast News Service. "There's no other religion in the game."
Frichner said CAIR's stance was "based on hearsay."
He acknowledged that in the "Left Behind" book series the Tribulation Forces are Christians but said that was not mentioned anywhere in the game.
Frichner said the game encourages players to avoid conflict, because "if you end up having to defend yourself ... you actually are penalized as well."
"So it's really just the complete opposite of what people have written and reported about."
On the "convert or die" allegation, Frichner said there was no element of people of other faiths being forced to convert to Christianity or die.
The game called for people to join the Tribulation Force rather than die at the hands of the anti-Christ. "You're trying to save other people from that and ultimate judgment by God," he said.
Consumers who have bought the game love it, he said, because they can play it with their kids instead of "all the yuck that's out there."
Frichner charged that there was a "religiously motivated bias" in calls to boycott the game. Those pushing for a boycott were not boycotting other games - even though there were "some terrible games out there."
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Marisa Bluestone told Cybercast News Service Tuesday the retail chain has no plans to pull the game from store shelves.
"Wal-Mart is selling the PC game 'Left Behind: Eternal Forces' in select stores and online," the company said in a statement.
"We chose store locations where we anticipated customer demand for the product, and the product has been selling in those stores. As always, the decision on what merchandise we offer in our stores is based on what we think our customers want the opportunity to buy."
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