Activision apologizes for Call of Duty map’s ‘insensitive’ use of Koran

Activision has apologised for its design decision on a Vanguard: Call of Duty A Zombies map in which zombies spread pages from the Koran on a floor. They also plied them with blood. Activision confirmed that they have removed the offensive content from their game.

You can see pages scattered across a map of Zombies in a series if screenshots that were posted on Twitter. Seen up close through a sniper’s scope, they show writing in Arabic script.

Activision didn’t describe the pages in its apology but did acknowledge “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,” the company said in a statement provided to Polygon and other media outlets. “We deeply apologize. We are taking immediate steps internally to address the situation to prevent such occurrences in the future.”

Duty callVanguard’s Zombies mode is developed by Treyarch; the game’s campaign and standard multiplayer was handled by Sledgehammer Games. Activision representatives declined to comment further on the matter or explain why Treyarch chose to illustrate Zombies maps in this manner.

Activision removed in 2012 the Favela Map from Infinity Ward-developed Modern Warfare 2: Call of Duty (published three years earlier) after players noticed that paintings hung in the bathroom of one of the game’s maps contained a quote from the Prophet Muhammad: “Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty.” Activision apologized and returned the map to the game with the offending content removed.