Arab Association in US protests racism in Hitman 2 Videogame
Regional-USA, Culture, 12/21/2002

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) protests the "highly derogatory, racist and offensive caricatures of Arabs and or Muslims" in the much anticipated videogame Hitman 2 game released in the fall of 2002 by Eidos Interactive.

ADC says, in a communique, that while the company has agreed to edit out scenes that are offensive to the Sikh community and remove all such content from the Hitman 2 website, its repeated efforts to reach an agreement with Eidos Interactive have gone unanswered.

ADC recalls in its communique that the game, as originally created, included a "mission" into India set in an important historic Sikh shrine. This shrine was the setting of a tragic civilian massacre in 1984 and the scenes in Hitman 2 imitated the atrocities that took place in reality.

However, highly derogatory, racist and offensive caricatures of Arabs and or Muslims remain in the game, ADC regrets.

ADC is trying to rally other organizations to obtain the immediate recall of all Hitman 2 copies from retail shelves worldwide, the expunging of all derogatory language and scenes involving violence in places of worship in the video game and the replacement of all outstanding copies of Hitman 2 with an edited version of the game.

It was not clear if the organization intends to lead a boycott campaign against the company, or take further measures.

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