An Iraqi video artist’s ”Virtual Jihadi” exhibit is stirring controversy at the Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute campus in Troy, New York.

The artist, Wafaa Bilal, a faculty member at the Art Institute of Chicago, modded an Al Qaeda propaganda video game, Night of Bush Capturing, in order to craft a report about his views on the inhumanity of the ongoing war. From the RPI website:

Bilal casts himself as a suicide-bomber in the game (left). After learning

of the real-life death of his brother in the war, he is recruited by Al Qaeda to join the hunt for Bush.

This work is meant to bring attention to the vulnerability of Iraqi civilians to the travesties of the current war and racist generalizations and stereotypes as exhibited in games such as Quest for Saddam; along with vulnerability to recruitment by violent groups like Al Qaeda considering of the U.S.

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