Call of Duty: Vanguard’s new Zombies map quickly gained the attention and criticism of the Muslim community after pages of the Quran were found randomly scattered on the ground of the Der Anfang map. Call of Duty players tweeted outrage over the developers using blood stained and scattered pages of the Quran as part of Der Anfang’s décor, which eventually garnered the attention of the publisher.
Could we -please- just not put text from the Quran on the ground or on places people where people can walk on it. 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 https://t.co/a1fzv8EVwN
— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) November 10, 2021
Activision has since replied to Dexerto, which originally reported the issue, and the statement apologized for the insensitive depiction and announced the content was removed from the game.
“Call of Duty is made for everyone,” the publisher’s statement said. “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.”
An official apology was also posted to Twitter on November 11, but only on the official Call of Duty Middle East Twitter account and not by Sledgehammer Games or the main Call of Duty Twitter.
— Call of Duty Middle East (@CallofDutyARA) November 11, 2021
This issue arrives as Activision Blizzard faces lawsuits and other investigations related to sexual harassment and discrimination against women.
Source: Gamespot
