The producers of the Fireman Sam television series have “unreservedly” apologised after an episode depicted a page from the Koran.
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HIT Entertainment, the producer of the programme, last night issued an unreserved apology, and said it was cancelling its contract with the Chinese animation studio responsible for making the scenes.
The episode (which is not new, but was indeed first aired on Channel 5 back in October of 2014) shows a character stepping and slipping on a pile of papers which fly up into the air, briefly revealing one sheet to be from the Koran.
Miqdaad Versi, Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, wrote on social media: “I have no idea what went through the producers’ minds when they thought this was a good idea”.
Channel 5 has removed episode seven of the children’s programme after viewers pointed out that papers on the floor of a fire station contained a page from the Islamic holy book.
HIT Entertainment has insisted that the Quran reference was not “malicious” but will “no longer be working with the animation studio responsible”.
One of the scattered documents that then flies past the screen in the computer-generated cartoon is a page from the Koran, which deals with the origins of existence and the punishments of Hell.
In a statement, Mattel said: “The page was meant to show illegible text and we deeply regret this error”.
Every parent forced to endure countless episodes of Fireman Sam knows that while the village of Pontypandy has a high accident and disaster rate per capita……
Fireman Sam airs on TVNZ.
“Again, we apologise unreservedly to our viewers”.
He also said he had identified the page from the Qur’an as “Surah Mulk (67), verses 13-26”. “We sincerely apologise for any distress or offense it may have caused”.
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It’s not the first time the show has been linked to sentiments considered disrespectful towards Muslims.
