A pro-Palestinian shooter has been removed from sale in the United Kingdom at the request of the country’s counter-terrorism authorities.
Eurogamer reports that UK players can no longer purchase Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a title that explores the conflict between Israel and Palestine from the latter’s perspective.
According to the report, Steam sent an email to Nidal Nijm, the Brazilian-Palestinian developer of the game, saying that it had “received a request from the UK authorities to block the game and have applied such country restrictions.”
Nijm asked for more details on the reasoning behind this, noting that his game is “not much different from any other shooter on Steam, like Call of Duty.”
Steam responded: “We were contacted by the UK Counter Terrorism Command, specifically the Counter Terrorism Internet Reference Unit (CTIRU). As with any authority in a region, [sic] monitors and governs what content can be made available, we have to comply with its requests.”
In statements to 404 Media, the CTIRU stated this “[does] Not to comment on specific content or any communications we may have with specific platforms or providers.”
Speaking to the same site, Nijm said: “I don’t blame Valve or Steam, the blame lies with the UK government and the authorities who are angry about a video game. For its flawed logic, the most recent Call of Duty Black Ops 6 should be banned too, since you play as an American soldier and go to Iraq to kill Iraqis. What I can say is that we clearly see the double standard.”
Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of Al-Aqsa Mosque remains on sale in other markets, including the United States, although it was banned in Germany and Australia for failing to go through those nations’ classification processes.
