Fireman Sam Koran Row: Chinese Animation Studio to Investigate Gaffe

A seemingly innocuous television episode of British children's animation series Fireman Sam has ignited controversy as a character appeared to tread on a page from the Koran, the Islamic holy text.

U.K. broadcaster Channel 5 pulled the episode, "Troubled Water," from its online catch-up service and said it had no plans to air it on television again, reported The Guardian.

The episode was first broadcast in October 2014 but the inflammatory scene only recently came to the attention of eagle-eyed viewers on social media after it was re-broadcast. The error has prompted some Twitter users to accuse the program of inciting Islamophobia.

The Koran is the holy book from which an estimated 1.5 billion Muslims around the world extract religious values and teachings. It is considered sinful to step on the text, throw it on the floor or rip pages from it.

The brief scene shows one of the animated characters slip on a pile of papers left lying on the floor. As they fly into the air, one of the pages appears to be a passage from the Koran written in Arabic.

Twitter user Miqdaad Versi, who identifies himself as assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he was "baffled" by the foolish blunder.

Versi said the passage was taken from verses 13 to 26 of Surah Mulk, chapter 67 of the Koran. He tweeted:

The production company HIT Entertainment, a subsidiary of toy manufacturer Mattel, said they "sincerely apologize for any distress or offense it may have caused" in a statement Tuesday.

"It has been brought to our attention that in an episode of Fireman Sam (series nine, episode seven), an image of the Koran is briefly depicted. The page was intended to show illegible text and we deeply regret this error. We sincerely apologize for any distress or offense it may have caused," the statement continued.

HIT Entertainment said it would "no longer be working with the animation studio responsible for this mistake." Newsweek has identified the animation studio to be Xing Xing Digital Corporation, based in Beijing, China, who have been responsible for animating the series since 2007. In April, Mattel announced that HIT and Xing Xing would produce a one-hour Fireman Sam special featuring the voice of former Doctor Who actor David Tennant.

Newsweek contacted Xing Xing's vice president of production Miao Chun in Beijing Wednesday but was passed on to a producer within the company who identified himself as Bruce Cho. Cho said Chun was his supervisor and was better able to translate Newsweek's questions on his behalf in English.

"We didn't use any improper [animation] for that. We are all Chinese, we don't know [much about the] Muslim culture...we just do the animation," said Cho.

However, asked whether the animation company denies the gaffe stemmed from Xing Xing, Cho said the company had only just become aware of the situation.

"We didn't know what the situation was," he said. "We need some time to investigate what's going on."

HIT Entertainment was unable to be reached for comment when contacted by Newsweek.