Call of Duty Triggers Wrath Among Muslims Over Depiction of Ripped Quran Soaked in Blood

This is not the first time that the shooter franchise has found itself in hot water over what players describe as offensive and discriminatory content. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 featured a mission called "No Russian", where players could participate in a terrorist mass killing.

Some Muslims have called for a boycott of Call of Duty over allegedly Islamophobic content found in the game. In the newly released Call of Duty: Vanguard, gamers discovered pages from the Quran, the central religious text in Islam, scattered on the floor and soaked in blood.

#No_Call_of_Duty

This is a very bad thing and all Muslims and Arabs will leave your very bad game, more than once you offend Islam and this will not go unnoticed, your game will stop now and immediately. pic.twitter.com/PU18vbrWMH

— 𝙄𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙝𝙞𝙢 🇸🇦 (@ir1im1) November 10, 2021

Screenshots from the game posted on social media prompted a huge wave of negative comments with the hashtag #No_Call_of_Duty trending in Muslim countries.

shame on you 😡😡!!#No_Call_of_Duty pic.twitter.com/TcCJoC5x66

— Ahmed Gerbady (@AhmedGerbady) November 10, 2021

We are all against it ❌❌#No_Call_of_Duty pic.twitter.com/GIv4N5NLI2

— vexi (@aboodxfan7) November 11, 2021

Many users posted videos of themselves deleting the game or writing bad reviews about it.

#No_Call_of_Duty pic.twitter.com/KO8PfIQcOM

— كمبور (@174asc) November 13, 2021

#nocallofduty this is a red line pic.twitter.com/7QTwY7OX0i

— Made you read this (@255mak) November 11, 2021

Even fans of the game were livid.

i was a big fan of @CallofDuty but the disrespect here cant even play their new games anymore. they see us muslims as terrorists nothing less

— فاروق🇵🇸 (@faruq_dre) November 11, 2021

#No_Call_of_Duty
From a fan to the game to a hater !! pic.twitter.com/SektHlcc13

— ɴᴀssᴇʀ :) (@nfvqz) November 11, 2021

Activision, the company behind the game, has posted an apology on its Middle Eastern account and said it would remove the “insensitive” content.

“It should never have appeared as it did in [the] game; we deeply apologize”, it said in a statement published in Arabic”, the statement read, as per Iranian state-owned news outlet PressTV.

However, the apology failed to quell the anger, with users saying that the CEO of Activision should personally address the issue, while the individual responsible for the mishap should be punished.

Have you gone mad?Do Muslims only live in Middle east? We want a formal apology from all of your social media platforms,your CEO and everyone who was involved in it. #No_Call_of_Duty

— Hamza Phoenix (@Hamzazafar20) November 13, 2021

@CallofDuty @SHGames @CallofDutyARA

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

— FaZe VIRUS (@FaZeVirus) November 11, 2021

Other users claimed that pages from the Quran were put in the game on purpose.

#No_Call_of_Duty #CallOfDuty
What is the purpose of having the Quran in this game? why these papers were not from the bible or from any other book? this is not the first time so we will not call it a mistake. It is clear that this happened on purpose. pic.twitter.com/lLF4sCqcfc

— تركي محمد الجسار (@aljassar_T) November 10, 2021

Second time this has happened in Call of Duty. Not sure how this happens by accident? Embarrassing and seems it must it’s intentional by someone over there at @CallofDuty ?

— FaZe Apex (@FaZeApex) November 11, 2021

This is not the first time that the game developer has found itself in hot water with one of its most successful products. In 2012, it faced backlash after a user discovered that in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 there was a quote by the Prophet Muhammad that was written on a painting hung in the bathroom. That same game featured purportedly homophobic content, Muslim villains, and a controversial mission called "No Russians" that allowed players to commit mass shootings at a Russian Airport.