Opium said:
Next we'll censor TV when people say "Jesus" as an exclamation or in a derogatory way.
Um, that's the one religion you can do anything you want to. The Christian religion is castrated, mocked, misinterpreted, and reinterpreted all the time in worldwide media and if you complain, you only make Christianity look worse. If you just look at Japanese media, the number of ways Christianity is used in anime alone is confusing and mind-boggling. Plus Christian symbols have become simple decorations on characters' outfits without having any meaning to them, which has been confusing to Western audiences. When I look at things from that angle, I can understand the desire to protect your religion and it's sacred symbols from being secularized. And yet I have seen some very creative, interesting programs that would have been negatively impacted if they hadn't been allowed to use Christianity in a fictionalized interpretation.
My argument to Muslim groups that get upset is that Christianity has survived all the misinformation and misrepresentations (malicious or otherwise). It's the same thing I said ages back when the Hindu groups got an episode of Xena removed because it misrepresented their faith. If you are looking for the truth of a religion in a fictional setting, you are searching for answers in the wrong place.
It's not the use of any faith in an artistic or fictional way that bothers me, it's the lack of consistency in the reactions to it. If it's not okay to use Muslim chants or holy songs or to mention that faith in any negative light, then it shouldn't be okay to do that to any other religion, even to the extent of cults. And then we run into the problem of what is acceptable discourse about faith and the various world religions.
That said, I can't help but wonder if half the reason it was pulled was that they feared an anti-Muslim backlash. There are groups of people out there who will make a big deal about Koran phrases being in games because they are afraid or angry. By announcing it in a way that makes them appear sensitive to Muslims who might be offended, they can then get good PR without losing a group who might boycott their product on "principle". Somewhat like my neighbor's son who won't buy any piece of electronics that isn't 100% made in the US. It's all about the almighty dollar in the end and a few delays to edit out someone's artistic vision while earning good PR for the company seems like a better deal than risking outrage over the game from someone or other or lamely (but possibly honestly) announcing that the game just isn't ready. (Maybe that sounds a bit pessimistic, but my group was up late last night discussing this very topic.)
It is an interesting topic, Xcalibur, and I hope I have responded in a thoughtful way. I am not desensitized to the misuse of religious music, symbols, or holy people. I've studied world religions and lived in three very different countries, so I believe in harmony and inter-cultural understanding without sacrificing who you are and what you value. But I have also experienced the bigotry and closemindedness of human nature firsthand.
BTW -- pimpmynintendo, many RPG's have religion in them. Harvest Moon and Final Fantasy spring to mind, both of them referencing and building on animistic faiths such as the Druidic faith of the Celtic peoples (which is experiencing a revival, even if it is a reinterpretation of a poorly documented faith system), or "borrowed" dieties from Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology mixed with Hindu gods and goddesses.
