A social media game with Arab super heroes at its heart has been launched on Facebook.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe man behind the project, Suleiman Bakhit, hopes that Happy Oasis can create positive role models for children who might otherwise be enticed by extremist views.<\/p>\n
The game launched this week and has already attracted 50,000 followers.<\/p>\n
Newly appointed TED fellow Mr Bakhit spoke about his project at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
Mr Bakhit, who comes from Jordan, was a student at the US University of Minnesota when the 9\/11 attacks took place. Shortly afterwards he was attacked by four men because he was an Arab.<\/p>\n
Magic carpet<\/span><\/p>\nInstead of feeling bitter, Mr Bakhit decided to engage in an education campaign.<\/p>\n
“I realised that you fight extremism by starting with the young. The message was simple – ‘We are not all terrorists'”, he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Armed with a not-so-magic carpet, he began telling Aladdin-style stories in local schools.<\/p>\n
“One day a child asked me if there was an Arab superman and I realised that there wasn’t,” he said.<\/p>\n
So began his comic-book project which aimed to create a range of positive Arab role-models, including a female James Bond and a Jordanian special agent who fights extremists.<\/p>\n
In Jordan, Mr Bakhit has sold 300,000 copies of his comics and came to realise that there was a market for a web-based version.<\/p>\n
“Print media is dying but there are 30 million Arabs on Facebook so I thought about making social games with the same message,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Bakhit wanted to make sure that his characters related to the children he was aiming to reach.<\/p>\n
“I took a peer-to-peer approach, engaging kids to get their ideas,” he said.<\/p>\n
He was undecided about whether to include a character dressed in a burka until he showed the animated character to a focus group.<\/p>\n
“They loved the idea so she was in,” he said.<\/p>\n
The first game featured special agent Element O and while it was, in Mr Bakhit’s words “not very good”, it did show him the potential of such a project.<\/p>\n
“Fans were discussing the games in the forums and arguing about politics. I went on as Element O and the arguments immediately stopped,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Bakhit said he now hopes to take his comic book model to Pakistan, where extremism is a growing problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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