Muslim Complaints Get Modern Warfare 2 Map Pulled

[sethisjimmy]

No post says that Christianity is perfect, but Christians are a lot more passive and wouldn't demand that people can't do something in a game.

I don't care what religion you are, if you get offended by a texture in a game then.... yeah...

Yeah, Christians wouldn't complain about a game, they'd instead complain about what you do in real life, such as gay marriage.

I get that not all religious people are like this, but my point is I don't think Christians are as "passive" as you think they are.

No post says that Christianity is perfect, but Christians are a lot more passive and wouldn't demand that people can't do something in a game.

I don't care what religion you are, if you get offended by a texture in a game then.... yeah...

Yeah, Christians wouldn't complain about a game, they'd instead complain about what you do in real life, such as gay marriage.

I get that not all religious people are like this, but my point is I don't think Christians are as "passive" as you think they are.

Yeah, because Islam is real different.....
Christians - even the extremists, wouldn't give a shit about this sort of thing in a game.

Also, Christians protesting gay marriage and Muslims protesting some words in a texture are completely different things. I'm not getting into that debate.

But Christians have gone on all kinds of crusades against video games. Jack Thompson was one such Christian.
Christian groups have attacked Pokemon of all things for being "linked to satanism"!

Christians have indeed sunk "that low" many times before, just as many religions have.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

Yet another example of people cowtowing to muslims. What a bunch of garbage.

 

[Kargathia]

I think what most people are upset about is that this is one in a list of occasions where muslims appear to have been given special treatment, in fear of someone literally being hurt.

Not only that, but the ridiculous reasons for removing the content. Being offended by a quotation that potentially promotes Muhammad. A soundtrack being removed from a game simply because of a few words from the Koran?

This is a very small piece of a much larger picture.

The problem was not the mere presence of the texture, but it being in a bathroom, which is quite disrespectful.

And no matter how ridiculous the complaint is: you can always hold dick-waving contests over insignificant doodads whenever there aren't people going to die if the whole issue blows up. If you're going to have a confrontation with a highly volatile social powderkegg, then at least do it over something important.

When it comes to the larger picture: I don't think anyone has any real answers. Islam probably will come out of the medieval mindset they've dug themselves into, but it won't go smoothly. Expect a few more wars, and tens of thousands to die before that blows over.

Why was this even in the game in the first place? I don't see the point in taking the time to make that in a bathroom wall.

They've got a library of doodad textures of all sorts, and use them to decorate the houses. Basic things like clocks, paintings, wallpaper, chairs, tables, etc. - they don't design them separately for every single house, but keep using the appropriate library of textures and objects.
In this case some level designer / artist thought the bathroom would look nicer with a framed painting on the wall.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Oh...gosh this is stupid. Is it okay that I kind of want to punch this kid. Cause that was my first reaction to this.

I was initially reminded of South Park in that they have Jesus pop in as a character every couple of episodes but when it came to showing Muhamud, everyone shit their pants in fright and Trey and Matt decided against doing it. When something involves the muslim faith it's suddenly off limits and we have to be extra careful about offending them.

And this wasn't even trying to be offensive. It was a miniscule detail in a map within a game that is otherwise letting players kill Muslim avatars. Why is this the thing that tipped the scales?

 

[Flippincrazy]

People get offended that a quote about Allah is in the bathroom. Ask nicely to remove the quote from the map.
Acitivision decides to remove the map until the fix that part.

The internet goes mad.

And people say Muslims are bad. Just look at this thread and the youtube page. You ask your self why religious people get offended when you write all the shit about their God?
Also, Islam getting a special treatment? And Christianity not? Last time I checked, gay marriage didn't get legalized in a lot of Christian countries because of Christians. Last time I checked, the church didn't have to pay any taxes.

Every religion is getting special treatment. Not just Islam.

Hey look guys, sanity. Might want to take a leaf from this guy's book.

Activision did this voluntarily yet you all seem to assume they have taken down this map out of fear. Perhaps the guys at Activision simply understood that to many Muslims, whom I gather are a rather sizable and devout community, this could be interpreted as rather offensive, and as such thought it prudent to make this minor change so as to be kind to part of its user base.

The only consequence of this is that Favela will be unavailable for a small time, don't blow this too much out of proportion.

 

[GoaThief]

NLP is without doubt magick (note, not magic).

hate to burst your bubble, but 'magick' is the old english spelling of Magic, they mean the same, are essentially the same...

*flies away*

I'll quite enjoy bursting your bubble but the second part of your statement is completely incorrect, they do not mean the same thing at all.

I do magic tricks with my deck of cards, I do magick tricks with my mind.

One refers to a form of entertainment, whilst the other refers to the esoteric, metaphysics and general messiness. It's a handy way of not confusing the two in the written word. Would you prefer it if I used the word, "majik" or something similar instead?

 

[MrGalactus]

Que Fox News "apologist" shitstorm.
Remember, kids, apologising for offending people makes YOU the bad guy!

 

[Fayathon]

So what I'm getting is that this is another bout of "They slandered my religion by doing X inane bullshit and we're pissed about it"?

Grow the fuck up and play your game, or better yet, stop playing games if you've got the time to be reading picture frames through your sniper scope.

Disclaimer: I don't hate religious people until they think that their religion makes them a special case, shit like this makes me want to wallpaper a bathroom in Islamic text just to tell them to fuck off, I'd do the same for any other religion, but there isn't one that gets worked up over every inane fucking thing quite like the Muslim community.

 

[theblindedhunter]

This is such a tiny thing, with so much tension around it. It really is impressive.
Perhaps pulling it was oversensitive, but it is understandable to be careful, because good or bad there is a reputation Islam and Muslims have. Perhaps being offended by someone else's ignorance is oversensitive, but it is understandable to be highly reactive in a world that often seems to be totally dismissive, or downright hateful, of beliefs you hold dear.
In the end, though, it is just a little thing that is good for them to fix. They're not changing game balance, they're not removing key features from the game, they're just taking a map down for a bit while they fix an aesthetic feature that is inaccurate and somewhat offensive.
Those offended did the right thing by voicing their complaint appropriately. Activision did the right thing by handling it carefully and altering this inconsequential feature. Not everything has to be an issue.

 

[blackrave]

NLP is without doubt magick (note, not magic).

What does it matter which language I read the Koran in (or if I even have or ever will), it bears no relevance to your burden of proof.

What evidence do you have?

NLP is magic only to those who lack self-awareness to realize that they are being manipulated.
NLP doesn't work in 100%, but it works in most cases.

Also from your answer I take you haven't read Koran?
If you haven't read it, then go read it, before getting into arguments without further knowledge.
You don't have to read all of it just one or two hundred verses (at least I think they are called verses) to start to realize that something is seriously wrong.

P.S. It might be due to translation, but I'm reading both russian and english translations, so I'm fairly sure, that it isn't side effect of translation.

 

[Agente L]

I have absolutely no idea why there would be an Muhammad quote on a bathroom in freakin' rio de janeiro.

Brazil has like, less than 1% of islamics or something like that. Quotes from the bible? Sure, that could happen.

But from Muhammad? Damn infinity, get your facts straight.

 

[aceman67]

I'll quite enjoy bursting your bubble but the second part of your statement is completely incorrect, they do not mean the same thing at all.

I do magic tricks with my deck of cards, I do magick tricks with my mind.

One refers to a form of entertainment, whilst the other refers to the esoteric, metaphysics and general messiness. It's a handy way of not confusing the two in the written word. Would you prefer it if I used the word, "majik" or something similar instead?

Wrong again, Magick IS the old-English spelling of the modern-day word of Magic (you're arguing with an English major here). One is the root origin of the other, and while culture may have attributed different meanings to the two words, their base meanings remain the same (the use/cause/means of illusion, trickery, misdirection or supernatural/paranormal means to perform an act).

The only real difference (which doesn't change the meaning of the word regardless), is that one is attributed to Wicca/Wiccan culture, the other is not.

 

[GoaThief]

NLP is magic only to those who lack self-awareness to realize that they are being manipulated.

I completely agree with this statement my friend but seriously, give us some examples please otherwise you'll just end up looking like some loon shouting nonsense with no substance whatsoever.

 

[elvor0]

As a militant athiest, I'm offended by the lack of mockery of organized religion in my video games. Not only do I protest this being removed, but it should be optional in each game to turn on a "blasphemy mode" which swaps the in game textures to images of Muhammed with a bomb turban, Jesus having homosexual relations with an uncircumcised Moses and Buddha eating a deep fried Hindi god with obvious enjoyment. Did I miss anyone?

You forgot Atheists, who in my opinion are more annoying.
Most religions will keep themselves to themselves, but atheists constantly like to remind people why they are "wrong".

For the record, that would be offensive- not some writing on a frame. Sounds more like a description of "Postal" though!

While I agree that extremists in any field are bad, including Atheists, key figures in the big two religions constantly tell people why they are "wrong". Christianity is still a massive power player in both America and the UK, and Islam leads a dictatorial regime in the middle east.

For a start, the Christian Church continuously lobby against gay marriage, and before that it was civil partnerships. I'm not the one telling gay couples that their way of life is sinful and wrong, or that it taints the sanctity of people already married. I may argue that their religion makes no sense and I think it's mental to believe it these days, but I'm not attempting to dictate what they can and can't do in their private life.

Extremist Muslims also berate the entirety of the western world, cause riots and dish out hate speech against the on a regular basis. In fact we're currently fighting a WAR in certain areas of the middle east /because/ they bombed several key western places, because they feel the west is evil. (Yes there are other reasons, for both the west and the east, as well as conspirisy theories, but lets just take this at face value for arguments sake)

Atheists and religious people talk smack about each other all the time, it's not limited to us who don't worship some form of Dogma.

The thing that annoys me about certain relgious people complaining about stuff like this, is that it not only paints the normal theists in a bad light, but to me, it just makes them look like they're shaky about whether they believe in it or not. If they're so sure that what they believe is real, they should just be able to laugh of something so trivial as "Allah loves you all" (or whatever it was) without it bothering them.


There are many many cases of religions trying to ban or control things, but far less cases of Atheists trying to do the same.

Now just as a disclamer,(because apparently that's necessary because otherwise some dick jumps on you for "GENERALISATION" when we know that they're on about the dicks)I know full well that most theists are the same as you or me, an every day man that just happens to (or not) believe in some sort of "God" figure. It's the dicks that ruin it for everyone else.

Remember, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me, this is what we teach children for fuck sake".

 

[Comando96]

Remove map.......................................................................... until you can edit it out...

fuck sake you incompetant people just open the texture on ms pain and get rid of it...

I mean, corporations insecure sense of reality just... do what you need to do.

Even better... stealthily remove it.

DON'T ANNOUNCE TO THE FUCKING WORLD WHAT YOUR DOING AS IT TURNS THIS INTO A LOSE LOSE SENARIO.

captcha: deep thought
Oh Allah! The captcha has now developed a sense of sarcasm... how long till the nukes :S

 

[Something Amyss]

Does anyone think that the Muslims may get a degree of special treatment when it comes to things that offend them, due to the riots and such which were sparked off by that stupid video a few weeks back? And I'm not suggesting that Muslims are generally violent, just commenting on what the public perception may be for a while.

Puh-lease. They were getting the same so-called "special treatment" before the riots, and it's "special treatment" in name only. They're the only Abrahamic tradition in the US that gets shat on constantly, and when they do get a little consideration it's almost always called "special treatment" or "political correctness."

Hell, in the states we have dozens of laws pushing Christian morals on people, and you can't be a political candidate if you don't universally support Israel's actions. But Islam? try and build a mosque and we'll try and stop you. Hell, we ran campaigns against the current President using "Muslim" as a slur.

Yeah, it's special treatment. We treat them especially bad. They're almost as bad as atheists.

 

[Something Amyss]

DON'T ANNOUNCE TO THE FUCKING WORLD WHAT YOUR DOING AS IT TURNS THIS INTO A LOSE LOSE SENARIO.

Yeah, know your audience.

In this case, know your audience is too immature to handle the temporary removal of a map in a game and will cause a shitstorm that will embarrass most five year olds.

 

[GoaThief]

I'll quite enjoy bursting your bubble but the second part of your statement is completely incorrect, they do not mean the same thing at all.

I do magic tricks with my deck of cards, I do magick tricks with my mind.

One refers to a form of entertainment, whilst the other refers to the esoteric, metaphysics and general messiness. It's a handy way of not confusing the two in the written word. Would you prefer it if I used the word, "majik" or something similar instead?

Wrong again, Magick IS the old-English spelling of the modern-day word of Magic (you're arguing with an English major here).

An English major who fails to understand the English language, or so it seems. Where did I claim that "magick" was not the old-English spelling of "magic"?

One is the root origin of the other, and while culture may have attributed different meanings to the two words

So after all you concede that I am indeed correct and the words currently have two different meanings.

The only real difference (which doesn't change the meaning of the word regardless), is that one is attributed to Wicca/Wiccan culture, the other is not.

Now you're wrong again I'm afraid. The popular definition of "Magick" is attributed to one Alistair Crowley, rather than Gerald Gardner whom pretty much invented and popularised Wicca at a later date.

 

[Dogstreet]

Unfortunately I don't believe that this kind of incident portrays the Muslim community in a good light.

Wait... what? How does an individual, who calmly makes a justified, relevant, accurate and logical complaint (a far cry from what normally happens in this world, I should point out, just look at hazabaza1's quoted Youtube comments if you don't believe me), NOT put the Muslim world in a good light?

Because it caused a game company to take a map off a game?

Wow, you have some serious priority issues here.

Free-speech and freedom of expression does NOT give people a carte-blanche to do anything they want, damn the consequences. You have to take responsibility for what you say (The phrase "don't write cheques your body can't cash" comes to mind), and unfortunately, its stuff like this, given the current global situation, that can quite possibly lead to people DYING.

Activision did the right thing by taking the map down, and shows great responsibility.

I don't like political correctness as much as the next person, but at least I have the common sense to understand that when you poke a hornets nest, you're going to get stung. The muslim world right now is a Powder-keg waiting to go off, and its things like what was pointed out in the video that will set it off.

I think you've missed the point I was trying to make; I will try and make it a little clearer.

I have no problem with the maker of the video complaining for something they feel is wrong (as I said in my initial comment) nor do I have a problem with Activision's response; however, as many people have already said, this is a game which is 5 years old - and nobody has had a problem with it until someone noticed the text. They then believed it was appropriate to make a youtube video speaking on behalf of the Muslim gaming community about this issue. If I can quote you here:

"The muslim world right now is a Powder-keg waiting to go off, and its things like what was pointed out in the video that will set it off."

Exactly, things that were 'pointed-out' in the video - highlighting this in such a public way seems deliberately provocative when it could have been handled as a private matter between Activision and the individual (or community) - The very direct way of bringing this issue into the public eye, considering recent events seems to be poor judgement. This was what my original comment was related to. I hope that clears things up for you.