Activision Faces Backlash over Desecration in its Latest CoD, Apologizes
Following an act deemed insensitive and disrespectful, Activision apologizes for including pages from the Quran scattered where players can step on them, subsequently removing them.
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An image from Call of Duty: Vanguard showing a page from the Holy Quran on the floor and stained with blood
Activision has been subject to criticism over desecrating and disrespectfully using Quranic text. The game developers included pages of the Quran on the floor of a Call of Duty Vanguard Zombies map.
Following the launch of CoD: Vanguard, many players noticed that the game had various pages of the Quran scattered across the floor of a map in the game's Zombies mode.
Although the reason behind the insensitive use of religious text could have been some twisted version of "aesthetic", the pages of the Quran were positioned in a manner that allowed players to step on them in combat and have them stained with blood in certain cases.
In Islamic belief, it is forbidden to place the sacred book on the ground, sparking a wave of criticism and a public outcry, as well as calls for boycotting the game.
CoD Vanguard and Activision were called out recently for displaying pages of the Quran both on the floor and covered in blood for Zombies, an act which in Muslim culture is seen as incredibly disrespectful and insulting as the sacred book is never meant to touch the ground pic.twitter.com/XllGMDDlWI
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) November 11, 2021
@CallofDuty @SHGames @CallofDutyARA
— FaZe VIRUS (@FaZeVirus) November 11, 2021
Muslims were insulted to the extreme !
Removing the content & writing a basic apology in the middle eastern account is not enough
- Who’s in charge of this? Punishment!?
- A full explanation, not the first time…..#No_Call_of_Duty 🚨 pic.twitter.com/tnYGdq1243
Activision has since apologized for the disrespectful act, saying they would address the issue to "prevent such occurrences in the future."
The video game publisher also stated that the content has now been removed from the game, sugarcoating the whole debacle by saying, "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," the statement read.
Activision has issued a statement apologizing for #Vanguard Zombies including insensitive references to Muslim community. Activision says that the references have been removed from the game already. pic.twitter.com/Mu0hXwt9pY
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) November 11, 2021
