Qur’an quoting anime incites Islamic religious anger

A scene from the sixth episode (“The Mist of Vengeance”) of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime has provoked angry responses from Arab and Islamic communities, so much so that Japanese publisher Shueisha has been forced to publish a (English) letter of apology on its website, explaining its position on the so-called offensive material.

The scene in question depicts the villainous character Dio reading text from the Qur’an, the central religious text of Islam, shortly before talking about how he intends to murder the hero of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Jotaro Kujo. This has been construed by many Arab and Islamic peoples as “Japan insulting the Qur’an” and that, essentially, the scene “depicts Muslims as terrorists.“

In response, Shueisha has explained that the Qur’an text quoted in the sixth episode was used by mistake, as the artists working on the scene in question “could not read a single word of Arabic”. As a result of all this, Shueisha has already completely halted all worldwide distribution of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime and manga (including in the United States) and won’t be releasing newer copies without removing the offending images, concluding that “These incidents have made us more aware of our responsibility to the worldwide audience that enjoys our animation.“