Religious bitches whine and get their way again

[Superman]

Religious outcry sparks LittleBigRecall
New PlayStation game soundtrack unpopular with some Islamic groups

By Mike Smith

LittleBigPlanet, one of this year's most-anticipated PlayStation 3 releases, won't be arriving in stores next week as expected.

The "social platforming" game is already gathering rave reviews, but it hasn't proven popular with one Muslim group, which issued a complaint to the game's publisher Sony concerning one background music track. Performed by award-winning Malian musician Toumani Diabate, the song quotes two verses from the Qur'an. Many Muslims consider the mixing of music and scripture to be deeply offensive.

Although the game is already pressed, packaged, and reportedly sitting in the back rooms of many worldwide retailers awaiting its original Oct. 21 debut, gamers eager to get hold of it will have to wait at least another week while the offending content is expunged. Updated versions of the game are expected to be shipped to stores during the week of October 27.

"Sorry for the delay, and rest assured, we are doing everything we can to get LittleBigPlanet to you as soon as possible," commented Patrick Seybold, Sony's US director of Corporate Communications, in a statement on the company's PlayStation blog.

Assholes

I fucking hate how idiots like those make a stink about something and get their way. Fuck the Quran and the Muhammadians.

[Mayabird]

Mali is a predominantly Islamic country. Meaning this musician is probably Muslim (which is probably why he has verses from the Quran in it, although a quick search on him doesn't say if he is or not). So this unnamed group is bitching about something by a possible other Muslim being un-Islamic.

[Anguirus]

^ That doesn't surprise me, considering that IIRC Afghanistan tried to execute a man for apostasy. It seems to me that Islamists are at least as interested in making sure their fellow Muslims toe the line as they are with killing infidels.

[Dominus Atheos]

The two verses quoted are: "Every soul shall have the taste of death" and "All that is on earth will perish". That might be what's offensive.

Source

[Ender]

For the record,
here is the complaint.

I think it is foolish for a controversy to arise out of this. It is an arbitrary bit of dogma and just as with the PZ Myers host issue I fail to see why a group that does not adhere to this religion must still force itself to obey its tenants or face retaliation. That said, I've been watching the responses on various video game forums all weekend and frankly I've been disgusted by the response. I'm still trying to figure out if there is just this much rampant bigotry against muslims in the "gamer" community, or if it is just a severe case of self-centeredness that "how dare they make me wait 4 days to play a video game" is triggering this much anger and hate.

[KlavoHunter]

They actually got LittleBigPlanet to be delayed/recalled before it was even released?

I'm utterly amazed that a group of idiots looking to make a stink managed to find such a lyric in a song in the background music for a game that isn't even out yet.

[Ender]

They actually got LittleBigPlanet to be delayed/recalled before it was even released?

I'm utterly amazed that a group of idiots looking to make a stink managed to find such a lyric in a song in the background music for a game that isn't even out yet.

There was a rather polite request for a patch. Sony decided to go the extra distance on this with the recall of units already in stores.

[Dominus Atheos]

The most likely explanation for the recall is Sony is scared of the scandal that would erupt if they released a game that had quotes from the Qur'an, especially ones like "Every soul shall have the taste of death" and "All that is on earth will perish". Busybody parents groups and the anti-video game crusaders would go apeshit. You remember the controversies after Mass Effect had all those graphic, hardcore lesbian sex scenes, or GTA gave you the ability to rape random women on the street, or going even farther back, when Led Zeppelin recorded satanic messages into all their songs?

If an E rated game targeted at kids was actually released that featured such quotes, the Jack Thompsons, Hillery Clintons, and Cooper Lawrences of the world might have finally succeeded in banning video games altogether. I thank my non-existent god that this was caught before the game was released.

[Havok]

Is there any sort of logical (I know...) reason why they consider mixing music and the Qur'an/scripture so deeply offensive?

[CJvR]

I fucking hate how idiots like those make a stink about something and get their way.

I find the eagerness to surrender to such whiners to be more annoying, particulary if they are Muhammedans.

[Tanasinn]

Is there any sort of logical (I know...) reason why they consider mixing music and the Qur'an/scripture so deeply offensive?

Perhaps certain Muslims don't want their religion associated with death in a popular video game in a time where "muslim" is a valid political smear.

[Havok]

Is there any sort of logical (I know...) reason why they consider mixing music and the Qur'an/scripture so deeply offensive?

Perhaps certain Muslims don't want their religion associated with death in a popular video game in a time where "muslim" is a valid political smear.

That's great, but their gripe was over the song being in the game because there was scripture from the Qur'an in the song, not the content of the game or being associated with any death that may be in it.

[Darth Yoshi]

Likely it's considered a form of blasphemy. After all, you're taking the holy words of Mohammed and perverting them into merely a component of Satan's hedonist music.

[Bounty]

Islam and certain forms of art have always had a strained history. The Qur'an is considered sacred, so taking out bits and pieces and using them in a completely profane piece of entertainment can be seen as extremely disrespectful.

[Ford Prefect]

It just astounds me that LittleBigPlanet or all things has managed to generate controversy. It's basically one of the most innocuous games ever to be released.

[The Guid]

Perhaps to play devil's advocate, but these texts are important to these people, and they have a sense of ownership over them, to guard their legacy. Perhaps this can be seen from the light of the rights of people to not have their work reproduced without permission, without it fitting the original vision.

Then again I suppose Muslims claiming to own the Koran is pretty suspect.

[charlemagne]

Perhaps to play devil's advocate, but these texts are important to these people, and they have a sense of ownership over them, to guard their legacy. Perhaps this can be seen from the light of the rights of people to not have their work reproduced without permission, without it fitting the original vision.

Then again I suppose Muslims claiming to own the Koran is pretty suspect.

Yeah, the Koran would by now be public domain by even the most rigid copyright laws.

[Rye]

Yeah, they were going to patch it on release to remove the song, but they thought it'd be too risky and recalled all of them to put out a version without the song. At first I was like "how can they find that offensive?" and to be fair, the majority of muslims probably wouldn't; music for the glory of God isn't prohibited in islam after all, (though I'm guessing they should find the rest of the music in it extremely offensive?) but then I thought that people would instantly make a load of racist and 9/11 levels with planes crashing into towers with the islamic song on in the background.

[apocolypse]

For the record,
here is the complaint.

I think it is foolish for a controversy to arise out of this. It is an arbitrary bit of dogma and just as with the PZ Myers host issue I fail to see why a group that does not adhere to this religion must still force itself to obey its tenants or face retaliation. That said, I've been watching the responses on various video game forums all weekend and frankly I've been disgusted by the response. I'm still trying to figure out if there is just this much rampant bigotry against muslims in the "gamer" community, or if it is just a severe case of self-centeredness that "how dare they make me wait 4 days to play a video game" is triggering this much anger and hate.

Imho it's probably more the last option. Sony has been advertising/hyping this game for a long time, and a lot of people are worked into a frenzy to play it. Now that they found out they have to wait even longer, I'm sure there's a lot of resentment over it.

[Solauren]

Or....

Sony could be having some kind of problem with there much-hyped game, and are using this as a cover to do a quick fix and not piss everyone off for having overlooked problem.

[Ghost Rider]

Eh, free advertisement for Sony over something they think people may get all tingly over.

[Themightytom]

Eh, free advertisement for Sony over something they think people may get all tingly over.

I AM pretty tingly but i will stick to the Xbox, where adults can yell obscenities at 8 yr olds and vice versa and microsoft doesn't give two shits about offending people :-p

[TithonusSyndrome]

The most likely explanation for the recall is Sony is scared of the scandal that would erupt if they released a game that had quotes from the Qur'an, especially ones like "Every soul shall have the taste of death" and "All that is on earth will perish". Busybody parents groups and the anti-video game crusaders would go apeshit.

So your take isn't that the Islamic community minds their holy scripture being mined for quotes, just that the quotes in question make for bad PR because they sound violent? Talk about bolting the barn after the beast has fled.

[hongi]

and to be fair, the majority of muslims probably wouldn't; music for the glory of God isn't prohibited in islam after all

Technically, stringed instruments and many forms of music are forbidden in Islam. Doesn't stop many, many, many Muslims from playing instruments and doing music, just see Turkey. But they're not supposed to.

[Shroom Man 777]

Why are stringed instruments forbidden in Islam?