US-based Hindu politician and president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, has urged Sega Sammy Group to remove all Shin Megami Tensei antagonist characters, which, he claims, “was a sacrilege” for the wrong depiction of Hindu deities.

“A supposedly responsible company like Sega Sammy Group, which claimed to be ‘living up to society’s ethical and public expectations’, should not be in the business of trivializing the deeply held beliefs of ‘others’ and ridiculing entire communities,” said Zed in his blog post.

#UpsetHindusUrgeSega to discontinue depicting #HinduDeitiesAsDemonshttps://t.co/5qcAFfhD7D

— Rajan Zed (@rajanzed) December 7, 2021

Zed claimed to represent the thoughts of all Hindus around the globe as he urged Sega Sammy Group CEO Haruki Satomi and Board Chairman Hajime Satomi to offer public apology. He also suggested that they review their systems and procedures and train their staff for religious and cultural sensitivities.

Zed added that reimagining Hindu scriptures, symbols, concepts and deities for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it created confusion.

“Hindu deities were meant to be worshiped in temples and home shrines and not to be degraded as demons in a video game for usage in combat in the virtual battleground.,” he wrote.

“Hindus welcomed entertainment industry to immerse in Hinduism but taking it seriously and respectfully and not for refashioning Hinduism scriptures, symbols, concepts, icons and deities for mercantile greed. He or other Hindu scholars would gladly provide genuine entertainment industry seekers the resources they needed for their study and research regarding Hinduism,” Rajan Zed emphasized.

This is not the first time that Rajan Zed has made such appeals. In the past, Zed protested against “Genie Krishna” in Shin Megami Tensei IV FINAL which came out in February 2016.

In addition, he urged Netflix to stop the premiere of Record Of Ragnarok earlier in June 2021, resulting it to be banned from Netflix India.

Source: Oricon, Rajan Zed Blog