Terror-Themed Game Suspended

Walker, the vice president, said in his statement that Bilal's lecture before the exhibit was "stimulating and thought-provoking," but "questions were raised regarding its legality and its consistency with the norms and policies of the Institute."

The controversy erupted two weeks before Thursday's opening, when the College Republican blog called the art department a "terrorist safehaven." Some students began to lobby the administration to cancel the show.

"The message he's putting forth marginalizes the seriousness of the threat of Islamic terrorism," said Ken Girardin, 23, chairman of the College Republicans and a co-author of the blog.

The arts department, known for cutting-edge work, overwhelmingly supported the exhibit. Faculty members said Bilal is a bridge-builder and cited an emotional conference call he had set up for them with Iraqi art teachers.

High, the department chairwoman, defended Bilal in an e-mail to a critic as a "respected artist" who "does not support al-Qaeda."

"It makes me very sad," she said.

Svetlana Mintcheva, the director of the arts program of the National Coalition Against Censorship, said, "A video game fantasy about terrorism is not a terrorist act."

Several of Bilal's other works evoke the violence of the current war. In his piece "Domestic Terrorism" in Chicago in 2007, he confined himself to a room in a gallery where he installed Web cameras and allowed Internet viewers to watch him eat, sleep, drink and read -- and fire yellow paintballs at him.

On http://www.dogoriraqi.com, people can vote on whether to subject a cute pug dog or Bilal to waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.

Bilal announced Friday that he will make a copy of his work to be shown at the Sanctuary For Independent Media in Troy starting Monday. He will leave the other version of the piece at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as he awaits its decision.