Sony's unexpected decision to delay the release of Game-of-the-Year candidate Little Big Planet over the inclusion of two sentences from the Qur'an in an LBP soundtrack song stunned gamers late last week.
But the PlayStation 3 maker, burned in 2007 by a religion-based controversy involving FPS game Resistance and the Church of England, was undoubtedly being cautious. An American Islamic leader, however, says that delaying and editing LBP was the wrong move.
As reported by Edge Online, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. (left), head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, remarked:
Muslims cannot benefit from freedom of expression and religion and then turn around and ask that anytime their sensibilities are offended that the freedom of others be restricted... The free market allows for expression of disfavor by simply not purchasing a game that may be offensive...
[Mohammed] defended the rights of his enemies to critique him in any way even if it was offensive to his own Islamic sensibilities or respect for Koranic scripture... To demand that [the game] be withdrawn is predicated on a society which gives theocrats who wish to control speech far more value than the central principle of freedom of expression upon which the very practice and freedom of religion is based.
The fact that the music writer is a devout Muslim should highlight that at the core of this issue is not about offending ‘all Muslims,’ but only about freedom of expression and the free market...
LBP on Ebay:
Meanwhile, gamesindustry.biz reports that copies of the unedited LBP are fetching as much as $249 on Ebay. Hmmm...where did I put that review copy?
Comments
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
"Seriously, I'm sick of the Muslim community throwing a bitch fit anytime"
What the hell are you talking about? Don't be a freakin' moron.
First of all, the article wasn't about a reaction of "the" Muslim community, but about critizing the reaction of Sony, because they were afraid of the reaction of Muslims. It is basically a condemnation of self-censorship.
Second of all, there is no such thing as THE Muslim community, just like there is no such thing as THE Christian community. There are multiple communities, each of which can have widely differing points of view about pretty much anything. For example, you wouldn't probably want to stereotype Christian views based on what Fred Phelps is talking about.
Third of all, the "bitch fits", as you put it, are usually coming from fundamentalists and/or extremists (Taleban), which by no means represent Islamic beliefs as a whole.
-- http://pixelantes.blogspot.com/
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
No other religion (okay, REAL religion) has been able to get things pulled because it doesn't like the usage.
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
And yet they all freaked out over Dio swearing vengeance on their holy book in the ANIME version of Jojo's Bizarre Adventures.
I'll never understand stuff like this.
---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
Muslims are not Borg.
Some disagree with others on matters of scripture.
Simple as that.
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
Huh, I bet Sony didn't expect this kind of reaction for removing the content. It's a pretty bad knee-jerk reaction on their part. It's understandable given the crap they got from the Church of England but one has to wonder how the game got so far into development before they decided to pull the song.
If the Shoutbox is any indication of what sort of replies may crop up in this article, I'm gonna expect a bunch of ignorant xenophobic ranting from people who know nothing about Islam. So, in advance; shut the hell up and keep your bigotry to yourself. Don't try to paint an entire religion based on the actions of a crazy minority who gets all the media attention.
Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cook-book! Little Red Cook-book!
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
Thing is, if they didn't make this move; most likely it would have barely been noticed. But now that they have, it will be the full Streisand Effect in action.
And so what if there's a couple lines from the Qur'an - you could go to the libaray and get the same thing, right?
Silly Stupid.
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
so what if there's a couple lines from the Qur'an - you could go to the libaray and get the same thing, right?
The problem is that it's set to music which is according to some groups a major "NO-NO". Quite how this fits in that the music is written/performed by a devout Muslim I don't know other than that parts of the Muslim community seem to be at polar opposites to one another.
Re: American Muslim Group Leader Slams Little Big Planet Recall
I havn't a clue why that posted twice. Sorry GP.
Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cook-book! Little Red Cook-book!