Comments on: Koran expressions delay PS3 title 'Little Big Planet'

Sony is delaying the much-anticipated game due to discovery that background music contained potentially offensive expressions found in the Muslim holy book.

[OmegaCerebro]

This whole situation raises a particular question I always wonder in regards to Muslims; I've wondered about it, my friends have wondered about it, and I'm sure a lot of Western animosity towards Muslims is based on it. WHY IS EVERYTHING SO FREAKING OFFENSIVE TO MUSLIMS? Seriously. Christians wouldn't start a riot and go around suicide bombing people if quotes from our holy book were used in a song/game. It may not sound like it right now, but I really try my hardest to be respectful of other people's beliefs, but when I keep reading about crazed Muslims calling for blood and death over a comic strip, or everyone is afraid to voice their "freedom of speech" for fear of a Muslim suicide bombing their local Wal-Mart...well, that's when I get angry. Muslims can run around and call us infidels and threaten to kill us on worldwide television and nothing happens, but let a Westerner so much as mispronounce Muhammad or even dare to breathe his name in a negative way and all of a sudden Muslims all across the world think you deserve to die.

I think it's bad that there's always this ridiculous rift between West and Middle East, Christian and Muslim, but a large reason for it is because Muslims are so hyper-offended and excessively angry about ANY and EVERY thing underneath the sun that isn't traditionally Islamic. Who wants to have a discourse with someone with such a short fuse? I applaud Sony for wanting to difuse the situation, but instead of catering to the vast majority of their non-Muslim fanbase, they decide to appease the very small number of Muslims who would even play this game to begin with. I thought logic dictated that the desire of the many outweighed the desire of the few? (within reason, of course)

[Zeeshan47]

I cannot count the myriad ways in which you are ignorant, so I shall copy paste my previous comment. Enjoy. Maybe you'll get something out of it.

First of all, all the monotheistic religions believe in a God. The god might go by different names, but it's all chalked up to linguistics. God = Allah = Yahweh(well that last one is slightly different, but similar enough for my purposes). Therefore, "God D***" is no more offensive to you than it is to other people of different faiths. True, the phrase is more of a colloquialism than most, but something to the same effect exists in all three religions, and I'm pretty damn sure that saying "Allah D***" won't raise some eyebrows.

Secondly, badnewswade is absolutely ridiculous. If you're going to chalk this change up to a fear of extremists, might as well not say anything bad about those Irish, Southerners(of the US), Black Muslims, all kinds of African-Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, the Koreans, the Vietnamese. There are good and bad people in every religious and ethnic subset, and the bad often overshadow the good. Hypersensitivity you say? Turns out, there's a clash of ignorance on both sides. Neither party is willing to accept similarities and let differences be civil. The western world was the first to butt into the Muslim world's business, mind you, lest you forget colonialism. The religion does not promote ultra-violence either. Thanks for pulling a buzzword out of Clockwork Orange by the way. The religion itself professes peace, as do most other religions. Even Satanism, for the most part, promotes uncontroversial practice(this is in reference to LaVeyan Satanism, as I believe no other facet can claim an organized ideology). Let's put it this way. After colonialism, the western world left Muslim countries absolutely destitute and with no control over their most valued possession, the vast majority of the people descended almost into poverty. The economic gap had widened to an absurd level. it is proven that terrorism is best bred in conditions slightly better than poverty. Why? People will always seek a scapegoat for their misfortunes, and people in poverty are barely making ends meet. Those who can spare an hour or two, or some meager amount of funds are the most dangerous. Set them in a direction, and they will take your message to heart. The real aggressors in this situation are those in relative power(the sheiks and ayatollahs) who have nothing but pure hatred against the western world in their heart, and use their influence to brainwash entire nations. This is somewhat analogous to McCarthyism in that instability or uncertainty breeds extremism.

[sparrowhyperion]

Man.. I tell ya. I guess companies are afraid of cheezing off the Muslims. I am a Wiccan and they think nothing of offending my beliefs... People need to grow up and stop whining about stuff like this. If Muslims are so afraid of having their beliefs questions, then it goes to show just how insecure they really are.

My note to Muslims... GET OVER IT!

[bas68]

Perhaps the esrb should add _offensive_to_religions_ as a category. Then consumers could make a more informed choice regarding their purchase.

[knowsomthin]

Maybe some of you, including the author of the article, should back away from your games and rants for a moment and check the facts. The song in question has been cited as Tapha Niang, by Toumani Diabate, a Grammy award winner who is from Mali, not Somalia! Those two countries are on opposite sides of Africa. I guess this just reinforces all that reasearch that shows Americans are ignorant of basic geography and often can't even find their own states on a map, let alone anyone else's. The language of Somalis is Somali, but the language of Malain Diabate is Mande. He does use Arabic words in this song, which some Muslims may object to but not necessarily all. Sony made a business decision not to offend - that's just good capitalism.

[bas68]

Continuing with my esrb point; it's actually a new content descriptor that is needed. Take for example an existing content descriptor.

# Drug Reference ? Reference to and/or images of illegal drugs.[2]

esrb could add:

# Religious Reference ? Reference to and/or images of religion that some may find offensive.

In this instance MM would have had the opportunity to label the game with _Mild_Religious Reference_

[Calbeck]

Sorry, it's just a straight-up kneejerk reaction on all counts. I've no sympathy: Muslims get the call to prayer in music and verses from the Koran are sung on many occasions, plus the songwriter is a devout Muslim with a prayer room directly off his studio so he never misses his five a day.

Would any gaming company even go to the extent of installing a zero-day patch (much less pulling thousands of already-delivered CDs from the shelves and delaying the release date) just to pull two musical lines that a handful of German Catholics complained about?

How many games in the last ten years have openly made insulting and demeaning religious statements without anyone --- but members of the religion in question --- blinking an eye? When complaints were made, how often and nastily were the religious people mocked and derided for not being able to take a joke/insult/comment of any stripe? Why should now be any different just because the complaints come from Muslims?

[mmntech]

I can't help but wonder if this is some Stairway to Heaven thing. You know, people claiming they hear hidden messages that aren't really there. It seems that this incident stems from a single complaint. It's frankly disturbing in our secular and "democratic" society that one single zealot can claim religious offence and automatically get their way. I knew we had freedom of religion here in North America but show me where it says we have the right not to be offended.

It's tempting to blame Islam but this week we had the Jews complaining that South Park aired on Yom Kippur and made fun of Steven Spielberg. Then there's the Christians who wanted Harry Potter banned for depicting witchcraft. I've got a better idea. How about we ban the religious fanatics, sissy whiners, and hypocrites instead. The world would be a better place without them.

I can't really blame Sony for allowing this to happen though. I certainly don't approve of their decision. It's not that they fear violent reprisal but the do fear litigation. I believe Nintendo was sued over the star and crescent moon symbol appearing in Ocarina of Time. They appear on the original gold and grey N64 cartridges but not in later versions. "Human rights" lawyers are more than willing to drag these huge companies through the dirt and milk them for every penny due to "racism". Just look north to Canada and read about some of the Human Rights Tribunal rulings up here for silly nonsense. I particularly suggest Googling "Mark Styne".

[fitzyfitz1111]

SPEAKNOEVIL: You Sir are an idiot. When is the last time a muslim showed respect to an american. When has Sony showed respect to Christians. Most m Rated Games include the phrase GOD #%@! it at least 15 times. **** the muslims. Why should i care about somebody that wants to kill me. On that note. Vote McCain to keep Obama out!!

[461am]

fitzyfitz1111: You sir are an idiot. What does Obama even have to do with this?

[ddesy]

1) The election has nothing to do with this.

2) McCain is a very, very angry and dangerous person. Look at the outrageous number of lies he tells in his campaign!

[ddesy]

Also: I know a number of Muslims, and they do respect Americans.

Your bigotry is showing!

[slickuser]

other religions usually tolerate any offensive stuff. Not Muslims!

[darrennah1991]

the fact is, why does allah need his muslim followers to protect him? isn't he god? afterall, since allah is almighty, why does he rely on puny, mortal creatures to stick up for him?

muslims, its clear that you serve a nonexistent god. or maybe a weak one.

giga90, please, you're just another close minded malaysian. every malaysian i meet is so close minded and can't speak proper english. read some good books mate.

[Cunninghamsmail]

When will these muslims stop ****ing with us? Why is Sony collaberating with Terrorists of entertainment.

[Amillennialist]

Speaking of "offensive comments," what about this:

"the Messenger of Allah . . . would say: 'Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war. . . . When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. . . . Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. . . . If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them . . .'" (Muslim Book 19, Number 4294).

"fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war) . . . " (Qur?an 9:5).

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (Qur'an 9:29).

"Allah's Apostle said: 'I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle . . . '" (Bukhari Volume 1, Book 2, Number 24).

"It is not for any prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land. Ye desire the lure of this world and Allah desireth (for you) the Hereafter, and Allah is Mighty, Wise" (Qur'an 8:67).

?Allah?s Apostle said, ?I have been made victorious with terror. The treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand?? (Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 220).

[ddesy]

When one takes things out of context, one makes a mistake.

[animesis]

What I find rather surprising is that Sony doesn't mind making a game using a Church (Manchester Cathedral) in a Violent video game fight scene, but 2 short phrases from the Koran, (In Somalian, I hear) is completely wrong?

If Sony decides it doesn't want to offend Muslims, why doesn't Sony mind offending Christians...

Im not going to say they should or shouldn't, freedom of speech, protection of our Sacred buildings ect, I just feel that for every religions sake they could show equality.

[onlyauser]

Sony has been shockingly stupid for a while.

[Jimmygotajobatgoogle]

Well, honestly, I thank for those people who support what Sony is doing. Yeah, having to wait extra for the game you want sucks but do you prefer the image of the game you like to be tarnished after it is released or fixed before it is released and get more publicity?

Remember GTA? I forget which version since I don't like what GTA is doing, when they ask you to kill this certain group race? A lot of people criticize it, Im sure fans of GTA don't like it but this issue could have been avoided if the developer were more careful towards this kind of sensitive issues.

Nonetheless, there are many people in this world, some is religious and some is not religious. Its not fair to say that you don't like muslims cause they are sensitive, they are christians, indians, buddhist and many other religion where they will be some people who gets very sensitive when you question about their religion.

I like the idea and concept of Little Big Planet and would love to see it get positive reviews and not having bad reviews of the developer insensitivity :D

[DaveB1980]

This will probably come off as insensitive, but delaying the game based upon obscure references that 99% of players would never, ever notice -- or for that matter, care about -- is absolutely ridiculous. I understand that Sony is trying not to leave those without an Internet connection in the dark by fixing it via a downloadable patch, but come on!

*sigh*

[ballssalty]

Wow, no double standard here. It's ok to offend the Church of England by using a violent bloody scene in the Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man but no we can't have someone humming a few lines from the Quran. That's just way too offensive.

[this1!]

its awesome when all the social retards gather when any article on the internet has the words quran or muslim...

take that as you'd like

[QuoteGuy]

Ibrahim Hoop, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he appreciated Sony's sensitivity to Muslim issues, but he's concerned about backlash over the recall. "Many Americans already feel that Muslims want to censor everything," he said. "Yes, some Muslims might feel that the use of the Quran . . . might be an inappropriate use of the text, but we did not ask for this recall. In fact, we haven't received any complaints about this game."

[MATTSDRE]

It's sad to see that the Muslim religion receive special treatment. How can they be offend by a game if we are just infidels. As infidels which includes Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus, or anyone outside the religion and small group, it doesn't matter what we say or do.

"Tapha Niang" by Grammy-award winning musician Toumani Diabaté was taken out of the game because of these lyrics... "Every soul shall have the taste of death" That's it folks.... that's the translation.... nothing with God or Allah or anything of the sort, but yup i'm sure offended by that.

It just doesn't make sense.... and it's really unfair for the world to bend to one religion. To me, it doesn't seem that Sony is really worried about offending religions in general, since they offend all the others, but they are afraid of what extreme, complainy Muslims might do. This is just like the South Park episode about Family Guy, except Sony bent over for the Muslims.