Pacman deemed ‘harmful’ in Turkey

THE Youth and Sports Ministry has prepared a list of digital games that contain “harmful” elements for youngsters, including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Pacman.

The ministry reportedly established a special team to determine criteria, including whether the games contained “content that can harm the youth,” adding that many include “Islamophobia, drug use, pornography and violence.”

The head of the ministry’s Education, Culture and Research Commission, Hüzeyfe Yılmaz, informed parliament on the issue, saying the digital gaming sector in Turkey has been expanding rapidly.

Among the games listed as being Islamophobic are Guitar Hero III, Devil May Cry – Dante’s Awakening, Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Hitman, Counter-Strike, Serious Sam, Muslim Massacre, Bomb Gaza, Pacman and Tekken.

The ministry previously prompted ridicule among some in Turkey for claiming that the classic game Pacman is based around the idea of the central character “collecting veiled Muslim women.”

New national curriculum ‘excludes evolution theory’

DARWIN’S theory of evolution has been excluded from the most recent draft of Turkey’s new national curriculum.

The head of the Education Ministry’s curriculum board, Alpaslan Durmuş, told  educators during an Ankara seminar that the ministry had presented the draft to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has approved it.

Accordingly, the “Origin of Life and Evolution” section, which he described as “controversial,” will be removed from biology classes in high schools starting in 2019.

“We have excluded controversial subjects for students at an age unable yet to understand the issues’ scientific background. As the students at ninth grade are not endowed with antecedents to discuss the ‘Origin of Life and Evolution’ section in biology classes, this section will be delayed until undergraduate study,” Durmuş said.