PS1/2 Little Big Planet delayed over Koran phrases in Background music

[kikuchiyo]

Watching you armchair anthropologists is a bit of a gas.

I am Muslim too and I am not really offended by this, but I may have avoided the game if this was kept in. I can understand both potential Muslim reactions and Sony's response.

The Muslim reaction.
Whether you believe it or not, the Qu'ran is believed by Muslims to be the word of God. Not like the Bible where a third party wrote down what Jesus did, but God saying I did this, I did that. As such the words are seen as holy in and of themselves (which is why Muslims avoid harming copies of the Qu'ran, or putting them on the floor). To have it played during a game, even one as harmless as this, somewhat trivializes or profanes (in the older sense of the latter word) the holy. I think this is what Xcalibur may have been trying to say in the first post.

It's also important to note a Sony employee pointed this out and Sony corrected it. There were not protests, riots, etc. While I think the Danish cartoons were stupid, the idiot riots that came after them were dumber.

Sony's reaction.
Whatever middle class Muslim countries have (and its not much) buy Sony stuff - not just games but electronicsl. I don't think a Muslim boycott would cripple Sony, but it wouldn't be fun for them.

My reaction.
To some degree I don't care. But making "everyday" the holy to me would be problematic and I would not play the game or if possible skip that level, which is weird because I consider myself pretty secular and have really looked forward to this game.

Another thing is that this over sensitivity is probably a ploy for more publicity. There was no massive outrage, just a beta tester pointing out that the song had a koranic verse.
It was most likely just an arab song, as those have a tendency to reference to religion.
No one in arab countries go mad over those songs so it seems a bit like a double standard to me.

I doubt it. In this new age / trip hop music genre (I am a big fan of one of the other bands on the LBP soundtrack, The Go!Team) using religious chants and such is in vogue. And Islamic prayer has a very musical quality. I am not surprised it was used. No one would care if it was just some Arabic song (and indeed, the best, but an improbable solution is just to do a similar background music using Arabic music). I am actually pretty sure it was the Qu'ran as used in prayers and Sony erred on the side of caution.

 

[B-Blue]

I just listened to the song and I'm not offended at all.

The singer said:
(?? ??? ????? ????? )
which is a part of an Ayah mentioned three times in three different Suras in the holy Quran and it translates literally
(Every soul will taste death) or something like that I suck at translation

Which is true, don't you agree?

So, I don't see anything offensive about that.

 

[mb01]

Great game, managed to get a hold of the recalled version today. Very nice!!

 

[xcalibur]

Maaaaan thats it?
It doesn't mention god, the prophet or anything else. What the hell is so damn offensive?
And its not really that bad either, why can't it be a lyric to a song?

And lastly, the song isn't even arabic style. Sure its got arabic lyrics but the style is more hindu than anything. Probably pakistani.

 

[Costello]

this was already posted, sorry
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=110673

 

[Try2bcool]

Somewhat like my neighbor's son who won't buy any piece of electronics that isn't 100% made in the US.

So in other words he lives like the Amish do...there hasn't been any electronics equipment 100% made in the US for 20 years or more.

Oops, I hope I didn't offend anyone of the Amish faith with that statement. *sarcasm*

 

[Lyuse]

I think the lyrics should stay in the game.

 

[deathfisaro]

That was a creative way to sabotage the release of a long waited game.

I'm waiting for the delay of Resistance 2, because obviously Scientologists find shooting aliens offensive.

 

[FAST6191]

I'm wondering how it managed to get into the game in the first place. Surely the people who pick background music check the song lyrics as part of their job? I mean, you can't have someone yelling explicit lyrics in the background of the next big kiddies game just because the whole thing's sung in Sweedish. Just sounds odd to me.

Given the level of censorship that usually exists on the radio and what gets played in various reggae/similar sessions..... hell look at some of the stuff from the pogues ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/docume...es/pogues.shtml *).

*one for giggles, one of their most well known songs is called the Fairytale of New York (it is usually a Christmas song). Last year the word faggot (I presume not speaking about meatballs or a bundle of sticks but who knows) was blanked but the line "you're a bum, you're a punk, you're an old slut on junk" was not.

Back on topic.

"it'll become fashionable to wear muslim symbols on chains around your neck"
A couple of weeks back I was at a motorbike show, some random guy aiming (and suceeding) in looking like street trash was sporting a plastic rosary. I laughed.
As for what will happen I would prefer the Khanda (Sikh symbol for those not aware: http://altreligion.about.com/library/gloss...ldefskhanda.htm ), that would make for a decent makeshift throwing star unlike the cresent moon symbol (if indeed it is a muslim symbol).

As for the matter at hand my usual go by intent principle reigns supreme, not that I give two hoots about religion mind you.
I also have to ask "is it offensive at all", I know Christians who would consider transubstantiation (to save a search the wafer and wine from communion "literally" becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus) positively morbid yet it is a central tenet of other sects (and a few shades of grey appear as usual). On a more subtle note there are also big debates between those who would interpret whatever book/story literally (as in word of God) and those would read into things (and all the shades of grey in between), from what I can tell this is what is happening here.

Something that I have been toying with though and would be weakly backed by evidence here (yet applicable). The term offending those of the muslim faith (and I will play along and assume it is viable) seems to be being thrown around yet it seems to be based solely on a "large amount of people" being offended as opposed to some more useful metric. Here though we have what appears to be a sect with a view and not knowing the numbers involved but surely at some point those small numbers become insignificant even on a metric like this.

 

[ebdynasty]

As a muslim I was told about this by my mum, I asked her why it was removed and she told me because it is haram (something which isnt allowed in islam for example drinking alcohol). In islam, listening to musical instruments is also apparently haram so taking direct quotes from the Quran and placing it onto that song obviously will offend many muslims, to be honest I wouldnt have had a clue that it had anything to do with words from the Quran. According to what I know, only vocals can be used in songs, for example the call to a prayer sounds like a song but its not, if anyone wants a link to that I can show them.