Fortnite: Battle Royale has been harshly criticized by a minister from Indonesia. He demands a ban on Fortnite in his country because it allegedly requires players to destroy a holy site of Islam.
What is the situation? Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia, wants to ban Fortnite. The reason is religious in nature. According to a statement made to CNN Indonesia, the minister claims to have heard that one must shoot in the al-Harām Mosque in Mecca in Fortnite and even destroy the holy Kaaba (the central sanctuary of Islam) to obtain new weapons:
At least five times a day, we face the Kaaba, no matter where we are in the world, to perform the obligatory prayers […] I have been told that in this game [Fortnite], there are icons similar to the Kaaba that must be destroyed to obtain new weapons and to reach the next level.
Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno via CNN Indonesia
This, in turn, is unacceptable for the minister, and he thus demanded a ban on the game in Indonesia. He referred to a fatwa from Egypt, which also calls on all devout Muslims not to play Fortnite anymore.
The game Fortnite is against noble, religious values. Therefore, I have instructed my team to immediately review and ban the game. Additionally, we want to issue a warning to developers to be more cautious in the future.
Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno via nme.com
A fatwa is a recommendation issued by Muslim religious scholars advising believers on certain behaviors or prohibiting them.
What exactly does the minister mean? This statement may surprise Fortnite fans, as there have been and are no mosques in Fortnite. The uproar is mainly due to a map from the Creative Mode, which was released in 2019.
A fan apparently actually built a mosque with a block resembling the Kaaba in the center. In a video, however, only a (apparently German) user is seen admiring his creation and even uses a commendable emote aimed at the presumed ‘Kaaba.’
The minister wants police action against Creative Mode users
How did the situation progress? The Indonesian minister, in the meantime, requested a statement from the developer Epic. They assured via Facebook to the minister that Epic respects all religions and that the content that caused the uproar is not even an official part of the game. Furthermore, one cannot destroy the supposed Kaaba in the Creative Mode map.
This is how the minister wants to resolve the issue: On behalf of the minister, another Indonesian minister named Johnny G. Plate has responded regarding the further course of action.
Fortnite has clarified that the element in the video (similar to the Kaaba) is user-generated content (UGC) created by users in the form of Creative Mode. […]
As a follow-up to the dissemination of the content, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics is coordinating with the Indonesian National Police to track down the perpetrators who created the content and take action against them.
Johnny G. Plate via CNN Indonesia
To what extent the Indonesian police can take action against a content creator in Fortnite internationally remains to be seen.
Legal entanglements surrounding Fortnite are nothing new. There have been several court issues in the past concerning Epic Games’ battle royale game. The latest being the epic lawsuit against Apple.
