After receiving criticism from Muslim gamers who observed pages of the Quran laying on the floor during a gameplay sequence, the publisher of Call of Duty: Vanguard has issued an apology.
According to gamers who shared photos on social media, the pages of the Quran emerge in zombie mode during the Der Anfang campaign; a survival mode in which players confront a wave of zombie soldiers.
Players who identified the religious material took to Twitter to share images of the incident. One player also appealed to the game’s makers and publishers to “remove the pages immediately.”
“Call of Duty is made for everyone. There was insensitive content to the Muslim community mistakenly included last week and has since been removed from the game… It should never have appeared as it did in-game. We deeply apologize. We are taking immediate steps internally to address the situation to prevent such occurrences in the future.”
– Activision spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
Sometimes the whole point of a diverse team isn’t just for gender balance, sometimes it’s at least one person pointing out hey maybe putting an entire cultures holy scriptures onto the floor to be stepped as you kill people is super insensitive? Leave the Quran out of it ffs https://t.co/9sfY5iUiwy
— Anisa Sanusi (@studioanisa) November 11, 2021
“Games have used Muslim lands as war zones and Muslim people as targets for decades — it is tiring to see additional disrespect towards our people, things like this just really shouldn’t happen.”
– Rami Ismail, Muslim Dutch-Egyptian Game Developer
Rami Ismail, a Muslim Dutch-Egyptian game developer, stated the continual defamation of Islam in the gaming business makes him “annoyed and exhausted.”
Muslim players have already chastised Call of Duty for its offensive content. Additionally, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 producers had to modify a multiplayer area in 2012. It depicted Islamic religious literature in a restroom, including the term “Allah,” which is Arabic for God.
If you have any questions, then feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay with us, here at Spiel Times. Â
Make sure you also subscribe to our push-notifications and never miss an update from the world of video games. Lastly, you can follow us on Twitter @spieltimes for the latest PS5 restock and drop. Until next time, Stay Safe and Happy Gaming!
Everyone should read either the Qur’an or a tafsir such as Tafsir al-Jalalayn. If Muslim gamers read hadith they would know that they should be training with real weapons, not wasting time with video games. Of the game I play, Muhammad said the player’s hand is stained with pig’s blood. He hated anything that distracted Muslims from Jihad.
The Qur’an is not respectable because it is a partial anthology of the rants with which Muhammad roused the rabble to do his wet work. For further clues, read the fourth volume of Sahih Bukhari and the book of Expedition in vol. 5. Those books can be found in pdf format in the internet archive.