Tekken 7’s New Arab Character Shaheen Makes the Newspapers in Bahrain

There aren’t many characters from the Middle East in video games, so it’s not so surprising that Tekken 7‘s newly announced Arab entry Shaheen is causing quite a buzz in the local community.

[DarkOcelet]

That is really good news. Lets hope he is a badass and about damn time they put Arab people in games.

[TheTimeDoctor]

there are butt loads of arabs in video games. headshots all day

[ion666]

That was cold....but funny as hell LMAO XD!!!!

[MRMagoo123]

I want an Australian character that wears thongs (aka flip flops for us uk) a blue singlet and blue work stubbies and he glasses you in the face with a vb bottle as a special.

[DragonKnight]

'bout time?

Dude, Prince of Persia man. Most well known Arab in gaming history.

Or, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. Second most well known Arab in Gaming history.

There've been Arabs in games. Where have you been?

[paradigmfellow]

@DragonKnight Persians are not Arabs. Persians are Persians.

[paradigmfellow]

I cannot believe that there are people disagreeing with the fact I said. People are stupid.

[NewMonday]

Persians get ticked off whenever people can't tell them from Arabians. The cultures are interlocked so can't blame for the confusion, not many can tell between a Greek and Italian, or between a Russian and Ukrainian

[Lenrulesdaworld]

roflmao, the tears awwww man that was cold blood and funny as shit. its just a jk people

[NewMonday]

@Lenrulesdaworld

a guy saying he enjoys killing people of a certain ethnicity is NOT funny

[Anthotis]

Only a racist would concern themselves with a characters race.

[DarkOcelet]

Lol i am from Egypt. So how does that make me a racist?

[telekineticmantis]

Yeah like how they go crazy over a Black lead protagonist in "Star Wars the force awakens", a Black God in Thor, The Falcon taking therole in captain America, and the little girl from hunger games "rue" was Black, of which they proceeded to say, "not gonna lie, when I found out rue was Black her, death seems, NOT AS SAD", "Eww rue is Black I'm not watching.

Yet they can make movies like "Son of God", Passion of the Christ", and Noah, portraying them as white (even though it's proven they are Men of Color, In fact they were Black ), for decades now, and they don't have a problem with it. It's not racist to represent a race(culture) in a game it's called adding versatile, demension. For some reason Americans believe white is so superior, we shouldnt acknowledge the existence of anyone elses race/culture, and if they must be included let the assimilate to blend in, so we can be flattered by their imitation.

[CorndogBurglar]

@ telekineticmantis

Your comment might have actually sounded halfway educated if you hadn't turned right around and shown how prejudice you, yourself, really are when you classified all Americans as believing white is superior. You realize not all americans are white, don't you? There are black Americans. Hispanic Americans. Asian Americans. And yes, even Indian Americans. I mean seriously, could you have made yourself sound any more ignorant than you just did?

Let me pull a quote right from your comment:

"For some reason Americans believe white is so superior, we shouldnt acknowledge the existence of anyone elses race/culture, and if they must be included let the assimilate to blend in, so we can be flattered by their imitation."

Good job showing us all your true stereotypical, prejudice nature by saying ALL AMERICANS are this way. Idiot...

[guitarded77]

@ Anthotis

That's one of the most ignorant things I've ever read on this site. We should all be aware of race, and have a cultural understanding of each other. There is nothing wrong with being aware of race. It is important for those of different races to get on, and also celebrate our differences. The idea of "color blind" is an unrealistic idea.

@ telekeneticmantis

Generalizing Americans is prejudiced. If you're from America, you know we are a melting pot. All colors are afforded the same opportunity. Yeah, there are racists here... just like everywhere, but the majority of Americans aren't. It is a vocal minority which makes it seem like there is more. Just like religious zealots.

[telekineticmantis]

@corndogburglar

NO NO NO Corndog... The problem is your mind is limited, and you immediately jumped to thinking i'm judging a race, but the modern day definition of Americanl is a citizen of the country America. For example we have black, hispanic, asian, indian women who try to mask their ACTUAL GENETICS, to colortheir hair blonde, red head, perm their hair with acid to straighten their hair, get blue hazel contacts, lighten their skin etc. And it really extends beyond America, in Japan Japanese businessmen actually hire white people to associate with them, so they can be seen as legitimate businessmen, in Brazil, Honduras, anc India, a majority of the people are brown skin, yet they most advertise their countries with the lightrr skin models. This is the power of white imperialism, and white supremacist iconoclasm.

P.S. I don't sound educated, I am educated.

[telekineticmantis]

@guitarded77

To add to my last comment, i'll provide more evidence. There have been 2 Black doll/White doll experiments in America. This is the expeiment where they take a black doll and a white doll, place it infront of black nd white chidren, and ask things like, which is the good doll, which is the evil, which is beautiful, which is ugly. All the positive responses were adressed to the wbite dolls. 77% of whites say darren wilson shouldn't be charged for murder. In the OKCUPID research they showed a majority of people prefer to date/marrh white people rather than their own people.

As I said before this is the power of White imperialism, sand white supremacist iconoclasm.

[MRMagoo123]

@ telekinetic

Noah wasn't real neither was jesus therefore none were black white or green.

[DragonKnight]

@Anthotis: It's not racist to concern yourself with race, but it is pointless to be concerned with the race of a non-existent being.

@telekeneticmantis: You're racist and you sound like Tommy Sotomayor from Youtube.

@guitarded77: It's not unrealistic to view all people as humans rather than black, white, brown, or whatever. It's idealistic and more correct than labeling and calling it awareness.

@MRMagoo123: The existence of a person known as Jesus Christ is not a fiction. You mean to say that someone who can perform miracles the way Jesus is attested to have performed may not have existed, but you have no proof to claim that someone like Jesus Christ as a person who could be considered a prophet never existed. Same with someone like Noah. Don't confuse literary embellishment with the non-existence of historical figures.

[telekineticmantis]

@Mrmagoo

Most historians believe "jesus" (that wasnt his real name) was a real person, and they believe in the much of the history in the bible. Read the work of Dr. Adam Zertal chairman of the department of archeology university of haifa, a former atheist, who through archeological findings has opened a church, and teaches. Many of the temples the bible say were built in certain areas shortly after the exodus of egypt exist, and in pretty much exactly where they said it was. Matterfact there are two mountains where the israelites(who are black as you can see in acts 13:1 where they show they referred to the israelites as Niger latin in origin, which is the original spelling of the word n@gger, if you look up the origin.

Also the Egyptians(the civilisation from which we get most of our ancient historical documentation) believed the God of Israel was the true God. If you read the "poetical stele of Thutmosis III", In the in the 15th paragraph Amun Ra (in the poetical sense) says "it is I, Amun ra, then one who conquered the people of the East, the ones who dwell in IN GOD'S LAND". If you take out your map you'll see that Egypt is located in the foremost Northeastern part of "Africa", east of that is Israel, Christ was an Israelite, born of the seed of Judah, the first born son of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel in Genesis, (judah being yhe father of the jews, who are black as i said before.)

@dragonknight
Which one is it, am I racist or do i sound like someone who hates his own people, no one on youtube defames the name of Black People like Tommy Sotomayor, and he's an atheist, man youre all confused aren't you. Throwing around damning epithets, and proverbs with no evidence will get you know where with me, youre talking to a an of high wit.

[TheTimeDoctor]

wow, this turned quick.

[MadLad]

That was idiotic . . .

[THamm]

I personally don't like his look, at least give us the option to take of the keffiyeh. I don't like all Arabs being stereotyped as Saudi Arabians. many more Arab nations out there that would make a cooler looking character

[DragonKnight]

I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're from one of those other nations and wished Shaheen looked more like you.

[q8kik]

Like who?

[Baka-akaB]

you do realize that they dont need to give you the option per se ? It's Tekken , has been at least 3-4 games where you can customize the clothes and haircuts of anyone playable .

Plus by defaut he'll probably have an alternative costume without it

[annoyedgamer]

They have you just were not paying attention.

[CorndogBurglar]

Prince of Persia says hi.

[DragonKnight]

Dude, Pizza The Hut avatar. Nice!

[mafiahajeri]

Persians are not Arabs. Hence Persia in the title... Geographically impaired much?

[specialguest]

Very common mistake people make is to confuse a Persian for an Arab.

[poseiden21]

Persian =! Arabic.

[Tony-Red-Grave]

@MRMagoo123

Marduk is Australian :p

[dfire1212]

Of all the characters you can up with.....this is it

[thisismytag]

I actually really like the costume design, it fits in well with Tekken's over the top character style. Really excited to play as him! I ave he feeling he will play like Ezio from SCV.

[Eonjay]

He looks awesome. Can't wait for this game. Day One.

[Deadpool616]

There's a fighting style that's very brutal in his region, but I forgot the name of it. Makes me wonder if Shaheen uses it. Anyway, it's good to hear the character is getting positive attention.

[Gazondaily]

Krav Maga? That's an Israeli fighting style.

Silat, that's Malaysian. Used in the Raid Redemption movie (amaaazing movie).

Not sure about Arab fighting styles but wrestling is quite big there.

[Baka-akaB]

Middle Eastern Martial Arts tend to be weapon based as opposed to hand-to-hand combat type training. Egyptians practice an art form called Tahtib which is believed to have originated in Ancient Egypt. It is a folk dance now but was once used as a training for fighting with a stick.

From what i remember in a few studies , there were a few similar sword dances from Syria , Irak , Lebanon etc with some of the martial training elements within those .

Still it's difficult to say if the modern folk dances have ancient roots or were more influenced by the Arab culture which spread after the rise of Islam. One exception is Egyptian Tahtib which was found prior to Arab rule.

[BillySpandex]

Without a doubt, this game is going to be bought day one!

[e-p-ayeaH]

Badass man all that´s left its his horse or camel standing next to him

[strangeaeon]

His finishing move is a bomb vest.

[TheTimeDoctor]

or pocket sand.

[Femto]

Love his character design, i really want a short trailer maybe to show off some of his moves, looking forward to this game!

[FromTheAshes]

Nothing new...Looks like Siba, the dropped character from the Virtua Fighter series... http://i.imgur.com/XS52I8b....

[Viryu]

Well, as long as the Cat Girl lands in Europe, I'm ok with whatever else they add there.

[GoodnessGreatness]

Now all they need is a Southeast Asian character.

[Devil1870]

special attack: suicide vest
el ohh el

[Whirlwind_Fanfare_08]

I'm loving this new fighter. Can't wait to see his fighting style.

@Devil1870
Dumbass!

[spacedelete]

loads of racists in here. good to know i'm right about the dumb masses and their ignorance.