The video game “Fursan al-Aqsa”, available on the Steam platform since April 2022, at its peak only brought together 20 players simultaneously.
Published on 03/12/2024 22:36
Reading time: 1min
He says he does not “no doubt” that this video game “advocates terrorism”. The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau announced on Tuesday December 3 that he had taken legal action for “the offense of glorifying terrorism” in relation to the video game. Fursan al-Aqsa. Already banned in several countries, it makes it possible to reproduce part of the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 in Israel, from the point of view of the Palestinian Islamist organization.
Responding to RN deputy Antoine Villedieu during questions to the government in the National Assembly, the Minister of the Interior said he had “viewed” several sequences of this game. Bruno Retailleau explained having made a “report” to the Pharos platform and entered “the judicial authority for the offense of glorifying terrorism”. The Union of Jewish Students of France, for its part, stressed to BFMTV that it had filed a complaint last week against Valve, the distributor of the game in France, via its Steam platform, but also against its developer Nidal Nijm, based in Brazil.
The United Kingdom, Germany and Australia in particular have banned this game. When it is released in April 2022, Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the al-Aqsa Mosque offered players the role of fighters who attack Israeli soldiers. Last November, the game received an update allowing certain aspects of the October 7 attack to be recreated. According to the SteamDB database, the game only brought together 20 players simultaneously at its peak at the end of November.
