Call Of Duty Players Furious After "Disrespected" Quran Spotted In 'Vanguard'

Call Of Duty: Vanguard players have hit out at Activision and Sledgehammer Games after it emerged pages of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, had been strewn across the floor of a zombies map. 

The Quran is considered by Muslims to be the most important of holy books. It’s believed to be the sacred word of God, and as a result is to be treated with great care and respect. You can understand why people are less than happy with seeing it used as set dressing in a Call Of Duty game, then.

Twitter user BKTO0R was first to draw attention to the issue. Pages of the Quran can be seen torn out and scattered across the floor, with many sections of the book covered in blood splatters. 

“Brothers, I see pages of the Qur’an on the ground in the zombie map,” BKTO0R writes, according to Google translate. “I think that it should be removed as soon as possible.”

 A number of gamers both in and out of the Muslim community soon joined BKTO0R in an attempt to reach out to Activision and find a solution. Industry insider Tom Henderson responded, confirming that he’s reached out to the publisher and has made them aware of the problem. 

"It’s disrespectful,” wrote one user explaining to those who don’t see the problem. “God’s holy words on the floor with blood like it doesn’t matter.”

“Who in their right minds thought this was right?” added another. 

Video game developer Rami Ismail also shared his thoughts on the matter, calling on all studios to ensure nothing like this ever finds its way into their video games.

“Could we please just not put text from the Quran on the ground or on places people where people can walk on it,” he pleaded. “Even if you think religion is nonsense, there's just no reason to be disrespectful towards two billion people's culture & beliefs in a videogame for a throwaway asset.”

With a patch, the pages are now blank and Activision has spoken to Dexerto to apologise for the problematic use of the Quran in Vanguard. “Call of Duty is made for everyone,” read the statement. “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.”

Featured Image Credit: Activision

Topics: Call Of Duty, Activision