Keshish Barou: Games have capacity to embrace religious content

Keshish Barou, a monk from Romania, presented his article on video games entitled “Playing the Gospel of video games”, in which he explained the role games can play in spreading religious teachings.

“I was a gamer before becoming a monk. I was with a group of gamers. Games, roughly described, are a set of stimulating images which most are derived from religion”, he said.

The Romanian monk then explained about different generes of games which can be divided into 14 main generes and many other subgeneres. After that he continued to explain the relation between games and religion, and said that games are filled with religious imagery and stories, most of which are secretly put into the main story of the game. He stated that there are numerous religious symbols and characters in games today.

“video games and generally entertainment are one of the best means to spread and teach religious ideology to the youth for they have the element of entertainment. This way the youngesters can get familiar with religion through their daily hobbies. They have the capacity to embrace religious content more than any other entertaining tools people nowadays use”, Barou stressed.

He then explained that as far as Islam goes, video games are not Haram, provided that they meet the Islamic doctrines and do not harm people.

It is noteworthy that the two-day conference ended on Friday, October 20th, with international scholars delivering speeches and presenting their papers.



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