Muslim leader rejects Sony's LittleBigPlanet edit
'We should be able to choose to buy, or not to buy'
Sony should not have removed controversial background music from its LittleBigPlanet game simply because it contained words from the Koran, an influential Muslim has said.
Instead of condemning the use of two quotations from the Koran in the game’s music, M Zuhdi Jasser, MD, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told Edge magazine that his organisation hasn’t endorsed “any restriction whatsoever on the release of this videogame”.
He said he hoped it wasn’t simply the fear of repercussions that drove Sony to delay the PlayStation 3 title's release, in order that the Koranic quotes be removed before the game went on sale.
Jasser said he didn't approve of the use of "the words of God" from the Koran in games without an educational intent.
However, he added, Muslims concerned about the game’s audio content should, instead, have been given the choice not to buy the game. “The free market allows for expression of disfavour by simply not purchasing a game that may be offensive,” he said.
Some early versions of the game still containing the Koranic lines have already found their way onto eBay, where sellers are hopeful that punters will be willing to pay a premium for the un-tweaked version's rarity value.
Ironically, the music used in the game is also freely available on CD and through download services like Apple's iTunes.
A new, edited version of LittleBigPlanet will be available in the UK from 3 November.
COMMENTS
So bad PR is now good PR?
Well done PS3 fans! You managed to turn one bad thing into another one.
Can't accept defeat at anything can you?
The only thing people like Mark (who now remains as an AC) can ever use against the 360 is the bad PR about the RRODs. He would never think to state that it could actually be good PR? No! But when lbp has an issue as big as this costing Sony an awesome amount of money? No talk of heads flying or issues. NO its a good thing that was possibly planned by Sony all along. Maybe they just couldnt face giving out a good reason for a delay?
Should have released it intact
If they'd released the game as-is, and it did upset a few people, perhaps the crazies would have been buying PS3 consoles and LBP games to burn in the street, filming it, and placing it on youtube?
Hey, a sale is a sale.
Relax with the emotions
I think some the people on here are very similar, at an emotional level, to those that were, for example, expressing their grievances against the Danish cartoons with violence. Remember that out of approximately 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide, only a tiny group took part in those. Just because the news channels only choose to show their actions, your mix of bias and emotions allows you to agree that the majority of Muslims are this way.
I found the cartoons distasteful. I didn't see them, but I knew what they were about. I didn't choose to be violent. I chose not to buy Danish. And if you followed the news after the cartoons were published, you would also have noticed the large dent in Danish income, which requires far more cooperationd, and far more concerted effort, than simply burning effigies one day, and returning to normal the next.
Such outcomes are simply a fact of life, and it happens everywhere. Nothing is black and white as perhaps some of you may like, however much you may disagree that you don't. Look at any country in the world. You will see people pro war on terror, and against. You will see people pro abortion, and against. You will see people pro ending poverty, and those against. On the one hand you would like to argue that people have freedom of choice. On the other hand you would like to bash them for making a choice that you don't agree with. Well, that's exactly what the people burning Danish memorabilia were doing, only at a stronger level.
You don't know if all, some, or none, not a single one, of those people went to jail, or felt any kind of resentment, or have now grown from that experience and realised it was the wrong thing to do, or vice versa. The world simply isn't that black and white.
Anyway, my main point was, that some people on here readily accept that all Muslims, or a good majority of them, are fanatical bombers. If that were the case, the world would have no serious population, energy, or carbon emission problems. The fact is, it is a VERY TINY MINORITY of people that do the things you see in the news, and such tiny minorities occur in every grouping. Left-wing, right-wing, whatever, you will people in the opposite group you don't like, and you will see people in your own group that you don't like. Just like every group, you will see a range of responses from members of that group to external influences, both positive and negative. Some of them will cheer like crazy when one person of the opposite group dies. You've seen Muslims doing that. You've seen American soldiers doing that. Doesn't mean that's how every single member of that group would respond; you just didn't see their response.
The best solution to removing that group, is to not give them the coverage, because they are so small that they don't deserve it. By sitting here and, I'm sorry to say, spewing emotional hatred, rather than logically weighted thoughts, you're just growing the problem.
Sorry for the long post, I hope it helps goes some way to broadening the picture, and allowing us to not get polarised whenever the slightest difference occurs. If anything, its not good for your health!
easy to say this after the cut
if it had been released without the cut - there'd be hell to pay, but this comment makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy
Oh cmon dude!
fear of repercussions is EXACTLY why they pulled it.. and by the way couldn't Muslims have chosen to buy or not to buy a Newspaper from the Netherlands which contained a cartoon that some found so offensive it caused some to take to the streets and burn effigies in the streets?
Sony did exceptionally well here to be so inclusively sensitive to those in the Muslim community overtly fanatical about their religion... oh man what a load of nonsense... imagine if we discover that God actually includes everyone regardless of your religion.. oh my gosh how exposed all this secularism would be... PPS even bacteria must have souls according to religion...
