It appears some of the background music in LittleBigPlanet contains lyrics that can be found in the Qu'ran, prompting Sony to recall both the U.S. and European releases of its flagship title. An official statement from SCEE states:

"During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur'an. We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused.".

There is also a statement from Patrick Seybold, SCEA's Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media which states:

"We will begin shipping LittleBigPlanet to retail in North America the week of October 27th. Sorry for the delay, and rest assured, we are doing everything we can to get LittleBigPlanet to you as soon as possible.".

All this info can be found on an article from GameSpy.

Which according to fundamentalist mindframe, isn't a reason for offence...depending on the game of course. But I suppose they don't want to take that chance...

I've read elsewhere that Sony is a very strong brand in Arabic countries, and they don't want to take the chance to accidentally damage that. Though, you know, Muslims could also be proud it is mentioned.

If it is a good game (since I'm not aware of the game). Their only rule is don't mouth-off the Prophet in a disrespectful manner and don't involve the religion in any un-fitting manner. Which technically applies to any and all countries/ideologies/religions who don't have a free-speech law.

Apparently the lyrics used translate as ‘Every soul shall have the taste of death’ and ‘All that is on earth will perish’. No gloomier than any Slayer lyric....

Ahem.

This isn't the first time this has happened. There was the Kakuto Chojin recall a few years back, detailed in the trivia section for the game.

Penny Arcade weighed in on that controversy with this comic.

During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur'an

And? The Qur'an is copyrighted? What's wrong with quoting it?

Depends on the interpretation of the occasional suicide bomber.

I'm all for cultural sensitivity, but I'm also concerned about giving offense by assuming without asking.

Unfortrunately, we've all seen how powerful angered Muslims can be. Sony would be risking far more by releasing the game in a potentially-offensive state than by delaying it a couple of weeks, even allowing for the PS3's reputation for delays for it's big games. The song used is actually by a Muslim, but there seems to be dispute about the validity of music in general within the Islamic world, and it's the more hardline followers of any religion or belief system (Christanity, Communism, nationalism etc) who are more likely to react violently if something offends them.

This reminds me of the Zelda game doing the same (2nd item)

I live in the most populated Muslim country in the world. The moderates here don't care one way or the other, even more so...they usually disagree with the extreme views of fundamentalists...but as you may know...moderates don't know much about their own religion since they barely ever read their own holy texts.

The fundamentalists...well, any fundamentalist believes that their own version of truth is absolute. Which is fine. What is not fine is when they cross the borders of that into indoctrinating or forcing their views upon others...who usually have something else better to do.

Its funny that I used to know an Iranian Muslim student back in the States, that eats pork and drinks alcohol. Quite flabberghasted that such person(s) existed, since the norms of religion are quite obvious and strict from where I come from.

With a big-ticket item like this, even if there's only a 1% chance of offense (and what were the odds of hackers unlocking Hot Coffee from unused game resources in San Andreas? And yet... major hassle!) (Though major free advertising in the news also 8) I imagine the mega-corp's position is: better safe than sorry. Since a religion like Islam isn't monolithic with a central authority like the Pope, it's hard to get a ruling about what will and won't be offensive to its adherents. (I don't believe Mohammed wrote much about his views on video games in his lifetime 8)

I'd like to think Mohammed would shake his head and say "Where did I go wrong?"

I'd like to think Mohammed would shake his head and say "Where did I go wrong?"

I think that can be said of most influential philosophers (maybe not Ayn Rand 8) and major world religion founders.

I think that can be said of most influential philosophers (maybe not Ayn Rand 8) and major world religion founders.

Not really... Muhammad was extremely hot-tempered, vindictive, and easy to get offended. The citizens of Mecca tasted enough of his wrath. He was a warrior and politician, hardly a philosopher. A totally different kind of guy than Jesus or Shakyamuni. But similar to Moses in some ways.

After extensive theological research and reading an extremely bad translated (stupid Indonesians, not one of the translators was actually an Arab) and equally cencored Al-Qur'an und Hadits, I'd have to agree.

Oh great, so all those extremists are acting just like him?!

We're doomed...

Explicitely, yes. And that's not exaggerating. You get a several thousand female virgins (and widows...numbers vary) with perfect breasts when you die in a holy war.

Mohammed's life was very different from Jesus', the way they are both recorded. Jesus is portrayed as having llived a simple life spreading love, helping the downtrodden and challenging orthodox ideas. Mohammed married a nine-year-old and aimed to spread his code via warfare and intimidation. Little has changed in the 21st century, it seems. While I have little sympathy with religious extremists of any creed, I find it frustrating that the very people who criticise Christianity at every opportunity will rarely say anything against Islam - perhaps out of fear.

That's just a matter of priority of the person(s) involved, mate. Chrisitanity is easier to access in western countries than Islam, either by literature, culture or simple exhange of conversation with the average Joe. Christianity by teaching's is very utopic. The followers of any religion almost always have the IQ of a rusty doorknob, and thus the very peaceful Christian religion (although Jesus does explicitely say that he brings a sword to bring war not peace...missed that, eh?), it is also the most bloody religion and has taken more human life than any other religion on the planet combined.

and thus the very peaceful Christian religion (although Jesus does explicitely say that he brings a sword to bring war not peace...missed that, eh?), it is also the most bloody religion and has taken more human life than any other religion on the planet combined.

Good point, but I think Martin was talking about the present day situation. Viewed historically, Christianity has certainly caused altogether more evil than any other religion. But today the Christians have either abandoned the violent ways and become more tolerant, or they simply don't have enough authority and power in modern democratic countries to return to the old style. While in Islamic countries the situation is quite the opposite.

Besides, even though Jesus does speak about swords, he didn't, unlike Muhammad, actually use one. It's really hard to justify the atrocities committed by Christians with examples taken from the life of the religion's founder. In case of Islam, it's much easier.

Well, historically, Islam is still a "new" religion. They have yet to go all the same shit Christians and Jews had to go through: being a majority; have the majority split up; having the majority split even more split up; people getting fed up with the majorities splitting all the time and making war at each other, etc. Like I said before in a private discussion, Islam's only fault is being stupid enough to be stupid in the information age where people can actually record stuff, unlike back in the medieval times. But with oil only being discovered at the birth of the information age, who can blame them for waking up late? :p

Besides, almost every religion (and idelogy, and race, and everything else) will have an excuse one way or the other to start beating up their neighbours sooner or later, regardless of what they actually teach. We are indeed a violent race.

[edit] Well if you want peace on earth in the Middle East, Israel should move awhile to some other continent for a couple hundred years, so the Shiah and the Sunni can pick up what they were doing in the year 636 and start killing each other again till they get bored.

A bit confused, are we? The split up of the majority was already 1350 years ago, as noted in your edit. For even more see the Barelwi, Deobandi, Salafi and Wahhabism movements or one of the countless sects amongst the Dervish.

Nope, sir. They haven't finished splitting (hell, Christians haven't finished splitting). At least they haven't finished splitting up over here. Actually the dudes splitting up in the Middle East are trying to re-enact their re-spliting all over again here in Indonesia (read=localization version)...which gives me a splitting headache.

At least in Indonesia, we're just about to start the "making war with each other" part. Where the Ahmadiyah sect is currently (for the past 2 years) being violently persecuted by fundamentalist Muslims. But its only one-sided so far, so not much fun.

Jews had to go through: being a majority...

There is an inherent logical contradiction in this statement...

Well if you want peace on earth in the Middle East, Israel should move awhile to some other continent for a couple hundred years, so the Shiah and the Sunni can pick up what they were doing in the year 636 and start killing each other again till they get bored.

I like this proposal. By any chance, do you still have some uninhabited island in your country for this temporary residence for the State of Israel?

We'll get along fine with the orangutans, we promise! :)