Spreading Islamophobia: This Is How a Renowned American Video Game Angered Muslims Around the World

Over the past few days, Muslim activists have circulated through social media images showing a severe insult to the Noble Qur’an in one of the famous electronic video games called “Call of Duty.”

This prompted many of them to demand that the video game be banned in Arab and Islamic countries, while others demanded the company to delete this version and provide an official apology to Muslims.

The incident coincides with the rising manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Islam in some European societies, which are particularly active on the internet.

 

An Insult to the Qur'an

Several scenes of torn pages of the Qur'an scattered on the floor and stained with blood in the popular video game (Call of Duty: Vanguard's Zombies) have caused a stir since November 10, 2021, among many Muslims around the world.

For Muslims, the Qur'an is God's holy book, therefore, disrespecting it in any way is considered an insult, it is also highly respected and treated with the utmost respect.

Muslim users of the video game called on social media to boycott the video game using the hashtag #No_Call_of_Duty in both Arabic and English.

Many also shared screenshots of the negative reviews they wrote for the video game, they encouraged others to do so in an effort to raise awareness of the insensitive use of the Bible, they also described the video game as anti-Islam.

In turn, video game developer Rami Ismail, in a tweet via his account, said: “Could we -please- just not put text from the Qur’an on the ground or in places 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 and beliefs in a video game for a throwaway asset.”

 

 

In an effort to mend the stalemate, Call of Duty Middle East, issued a statement in Arabic on Twitter on November 11, 2021, in it, it said that it had removed the scenes that provoked Muslims from the video game, and it also apologized for the violation that it had caused.

“Call of Duty is designed for all users. There were scenes in the video game offensive to Muslims that were shown last week, and they have now been removed. They should not be included in the video game. We apologize profusely. We are taking all measures to address this issue within the company in order to understand what happened, and ensure that it does not happen again,” the statement said.

However, the apology failed to quell the anger of the video game's Muslim users who rejected the statement, they declared their adherence to the boycott, they called on the American company Activision, which produces the video game Call of Duty, to apologize through their main account in English and punish the person responsible for the incident.

Where observers believe that a quarter of the world's population are Muslims, and the majority of them live outside the Middle East, such as Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria, there are five largest Muslim communities in the world in these countries, so the US company Activision's use of a Middle East account to apologize via Twitter is very ignorant.

 

 

 

Islamophobic

The Saudi dissident journalist, Turki al-Shalhoub, pointed out that “the video game Call of Duty has encroached on the Holy Qur'an.” He called, via a tweet on Twitter, to delete the video game and lower its rating on the online application store.

From his point of view, Yemeni journalist, Salem al-Amari, who said in a tweet that, “what the video game organizers did break all the red lines, and hurt the feelings of about 2 billion Muslims, a blatant and dangerous attack on the sanctities of Muslims. There is no explanation for what the video game developers have done except that they have a deep-seated black hatred against Islam and its people. Therefore, we must boycott it and cooperate to discipline it.”

However, this isn't the first time that Call of Duty and Activision have found themselves in trouble with one of their most successful products, because of what players describe as repeated discriminatory abuse across in-video game content they have also termed Islamophobic.

This discriminatory abuse of the video game was also invoked in 2017, because of the incorporation of stereotyped images of Muslims and insulting Muslim personalities.

In 2012, (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) faced a backlash from its users, after a player discovers a quote of the Prophet Muhammad: “God is beautiful and loves beauty,” written on the frame of a painting hanging in the bathroom, it is considered in the Islamic religion to be insulting for the name of God to appear in the bathroom.

At the time, Activision officials apologized, saying in an official statement: “We apologize to anyone who found this image offensive. Please ensure that we were not aware of this issue, and that there was no intent to offend. We are working as quickly as possible to remove this image, and any other similar images we may find from our various video game libraries.”

 

Provocative Video Games

Social media activists recalled the abuse of other video games of the Holy Qur'an, including the video game, Code 6, which canceled a scene in which a picture was hung over a toilet with Quranic verses, they emphasized that these and other video games distort the minds of their users, distance them from their religion, and drain their time.

They also expressed their regret over the abuse of electronic video games of the Holy Qur’an, and they pledged to cancel it and stop dealing with it and everything produced by the American company Activision.

Activists stressed that the video game deliberately insults Islam and Muslims and provokes their feelings, especially since this is not the first time this has happened, but it has happened more than once.

They pointed out the existence of malicious tendencies and agendas of the American company Activision by deliberately repeating the incident.

In turn, the Anti-Defamation League revealed in a report that 26% of Muslim video game enthusiasts are targeted with hate in online video games because of their faith, and it considered that the developers of Call of Duty offended Muslim players again by allowing players to trample on the Qur'an.

 

 

In June 2021, the Al-Azhar International Center for Electronic Fatwa warned against playing the video game “Fortnite” after repeated incidents of hate, violence, murder and suicide because of it and other similar video games earlier.

“This video game embodies the demolition of the Noble Kaaba in order to obtain privileges within the video game; which directly affects our children’s beliefs negatively, and confuses their concepts and identity, they belittle their sanctities,” the center’s statement stated.

The center reiterated its inviolability of all electronic video games that call for violence or contain false ideas through which it is intended to distort faith or contempt for religion, or contempt for sacred things, or terrorism, or harm to oneself and others.

In June 2017, Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News reported that the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sports said that many foreign popular video games are responsible for deliberately spreading fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims - or Islamophobia - and desecrating Islamic symbols.

On the Turkish government-run website, 19 video games are already listed as containing potentially anti-Islam content, such as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Resident Evil, Pac-Man, Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

In 2016, the San Francisco video game Developers Conference Committee revealed that Muslims are represented in a biased way in modern Western video games.