Though I’m not an avid gamer of simulations, undoubtedly the Civilization series by Sid Meier is hugely popular. The latest version of the game, called Civilization: Beyond Earth – The Rising Tide Expansion Pack adds an interesting twist, it introduces a new faction – Al Falah. According to Civilization.com website – Al Falah is “a group of nomad explorers descended from wealthy and resilient Middle Eastern states”.
Wikipedia has this to say about the word Falāḥ:
Falāḥ (فلاح) is the Arabic word for success (especially from self-improvement), happiness and well-being.
From the article on IO9 (Civilization – Beyond Earth on IO9) this Middle Eastern faction builds a generational ship, meaning “whole generations of people live an die between the time the ship leaves earth and lands on a new planet”.
To learn more about the game, and expansion pack you can head over to their website.
Oooh, cool!
The leader of the African faction in the game is Somali, comes from a Muslim family, has a devout brother, encourages his brother’s piety, and leads a tolerant society. Civ is doing good with Muslim representation
It is always encouraging to see positive Muslim representation in all media types, especially new media (is that even still a term that’s used) since it gets so much more attention.