Call of Duty: Vanguard developer Activision has released an apology to the Muslim community for the disrespectful depiction of the Quran in the game. 

The series drew widespread criticism from Muslim players after an eagle-eyed YouTuber noticed that a location in its zombie campaign had pages of the Quran littered over the floor. Islam scholars have explicitly stated that placing the Quran on the floor is indicative of debasement or lack of respect.

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

In the wake of the controversy, the official Arabic-language Twitter account for Call of Duty posted an apology and acknowledged that the offensive content has been removed from the game.

“Call of Duty is made for everyone”, the tweet reads in Arabic. “There was content insensitive to Muslims included in the game, and it has been removed. It was not supposed to exist as it appeared in the game. We deeply apologise.”

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“We are also taking all necessary measures at this moment within the company to determine and understand the situation and to avoid such errors in the future.”

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