Los Illuminados (The Illuminated)

So after getting my hands on Resident Evil 4 again I remembered why I loved this game when it was first released a few years back. Aside from the usual Resident Evil (Biohazard) checklist of macabre elements and eerie locations, the game offers a plot twist not found in previous titles. Instead of fighting hordes of T/G-virus infected zombies we find ourselves fighting hordes of mind-controlled, parasite-infected villagers and monks this time around. The culprit behind this dubious scheme is the "Los Illuminados" (The Illuminated) - a crazed religious cult that seeks to control the world through use of the plagas' (the mind-controlling parasite) ability to control its host's behavior and spread itself. The leader of the organization is Osmund Saddler, a wacko with plans to hold sway over the United States by having his organization kidnap the president's daughter and inject her with the plagas so that those in the top of government will be infected first; infecting everyone else down through the chain and ultimately using America's influence to spread the plagas across the world.

A bit far-fetched? Maybe. But what makes the game's storyline all the more fascinating is its satire of religious cults, particularly subtle in reference to Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups. One only needs to look at the striking resemblance the ganados' village chief has with Osama bin Laden to see this. When I first played through I saw the connection right away and thought the clever mask was amusing. But now, after watching all the news about the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and other extremists, I'm really starting to see the satanic connection between these groups and Los Illuminados. In recent months we've witnessed acts of strange character in the "Red Mosque" incident of Lahore in 2007, The Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008, and the overall environment being created by extremist elements in the region. Whether or not we are being lied to by the media agencies for political reasons is anyone's guess, but based on what we know, the entire region is undergoing radicalization. The mountainous regions of Pakistan, once a very peaceful and serene location is now under-run by local Taliban migrating from the mountains of Afghanistan into the tribal areas of North-West Pakistan. Villagers fearing the Taliban's rule have fled to neighboring towns where they can keep their families safe and send their children to school. The extremists are slowly moving in (a "resident evil" if you will) and destroying schools, keeping women at home and young girls from attending classes. They are forced to veil, men are to grow beards and attend madrasa where fanaticism and hatred for the West is taught. Men and women who oppose their foreign rule are either put to death (capital punishment style) or beaten/flogged, made to walk on burning coals or injured in some other way. Already we have seen local foreigners being kidnapped, beaten and/or killed just for living there and providing the services they offer. This they call "sharia" rule, but in reality is the farthest thing from anything Islamic. Indeed, their war with the West is really a war with the world itself, and the changing of times.

Thinking themselves "illuminated" these extremist illuminados seek to change the landscape of the Muslim lands by taking over a Muslim nuclear nation (Pakistan) and consequently the rest of the world by way of its influence. Sounds familiar in that far-fetched sort of way doesn't it? And if we are being told the truth, then this threat is something that needs to be stopped from within not from without, seeing as how the way things have been going with the West's War on Terror only gives the extremists more credibility in the eyes of sympathizers in the form of a foreign enemy (i.e- the West,) and hence, more recruits. The best solution is to have the West withdraw itself from all internal Muslim-conflicts and let the Muslim nations come together to fight this plague in their midst themselves. This way the extremists cannot claim their governments' hand in supporting a foreign power that is exploiting them. It will also prevent the West to needlessly interfere with the sovereignty of other nations, making the entire world a safer place. But instead we see the war has only spread more terrorism and rather than ending it, has only created further instability. Mindless masses with no means for a real education become disenfranchized easily and can readily be convinced to fight their own mothers if so persuaded, how much easier is it then to convince them to fight a foreign power that they are taught to believe is the primary reason for their suffering? [Insert ganados' yell] Ironically though, it almost seems at times that the extremists' war with the West is almost forgotten as most death and destruction that they bring is now almost entirely directed upon their own people and governments. Their creed has been one of civil war rather than a war against another country.

So like Los Illuminados, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and the diaspora extremist factions should realize that their goals are only creating more resentment and enemies rather than allies that they could use for help. Whatever their goals may be, there should be a method to the madness, but by showing the world the acts of terrorism they commit against average, defenseless people only shows us that madness itself is their method. Even by kidnapping the President's daughter they would not meet their goals. And even if they were to do so we've got Leon S. Kennedy to bring her back and kick their ass while he's at it!