The pages from Islam’s holy book were seen scattered on the floor. In Islam, the Quran is considered sacred and cannot be placed on the floor or on any dirty surface.
“Call of Duty is made for everyone. There was insensitive content to the Muslim community mistakenly included last week, and has since been removed from the game,” an Activision spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Friday.
“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.”
“I understand the effort it takes to make a video game world feel real and believable, however for a piece of set dressing, they could have literally used any other blurb of writing,” Sanusi told CNN. “There was absolutely no reason to bring in the Quran into this.”
Sanusi, 31, said she found the game’s inclusion of the Quran “disrespectful.”
“There is a bare-level minimum of respect expected when it comes to how you treat and portray a religion with 2 billion followers on the planet,” she said.
“When dealing with portraying a culture that is not your own, it’s important to have sensitivity measures to avoid instances of cultural appropriation, or in this case, an unintentionally offensive outcome.”
This is not the first time Call of Duty has attracted negative criticism from Muslim players for insensitive content.
Rami Ismail, a Muslim Dutch-Egyptian game developer, said he is “annoyed and exhausted” with the constant misrepresentation of Islam in the gaming industry.
“Games have used Muslim lands as war zones and Muslim people as targets for decades — it is tiring to see additional disrespect towards our people,” Ismail told CNN. “Things like this just really shouldn’t happen.”