LittleBigPlanet recalled over Quran quotes in music
Sony's upcoming world creation puzzler LittleBigPlanet was supposed to be released today. In fact, it's already getting rave reviews and blast-off penis rocketship videos. Yet bizarrely, Sony has made a costly last minute decision to delay the game by a week, recalling all existing copies and replacing them with freshly minted discs.
What predicated the recall? Apparently, a single Muslim gamer's forum post, in which he claims the game is offensive to Muslims because it contains a song with lyrics taken from the Quran.
From a business perspective, better safe than sorry, of course. Making a stand against the unreasonable expectations of religious extremists in the name of free speech is all well and good, but not worth the rumpus if the fix is simply replacing a song with lyrics with the same song's instrumental version.
But as Salon's Machinist blog takes note, what's truly absurd about this Little Big Planet recall is that the song in question was written and performed by devoted Muslim Toumani Diabaté, and can be easily purchased over iTunes. Moreover, Diabaté has a prayer room right next to his office and studio, and describes the Quran as a "deep and spiritual instrument." It's not just some lame doofus' pretension at multi-cultural profundity by cramming unrelated Quran quotes into a death metal song otherwise called "Jesus Christ Goat Fuck." It's a Muslim song, written and performed by a believer with the utmost respect for the faith.
What a stupidly drastic action for Sony to take for a non-issue, and a fantastic tale of knee-jerk sensitivity to one isolated voice's unthinking demand. The Machinist has a great write-up, including reactions from the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Sony recalls LittleBigPlanet over Quran quote in music [The Machinist]
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I think the issue is that while the song could be found to be spiritual, the game is a purely entertainment product and some Muslims do not think that the Quran should be used for any kind of entertainment what so ever. Plus just because Diabaté is a Muslim doesn't mean that his work is automatically OK with other Muslims. That's like saying Catholics agree with Mormons and Lutherans because they are all Christian.
Im sure if you just camly and rationaly explain these facts to those in the process of burning a japanese flag, then the crisis sony fear will be averted.
Agies, that's a fair point. Still, clearly this isn't an issue of some extremists getting ornery because the infidel is poking fun at them: in fact, no one really seems upset about it at all. To go to such an expense in recalling the game (especially when a patch would have done) over something no one's likely to get very upset over is fairly silly.
Agies, that's a fair point. Still, clearly this isn't an issue of some extremists getting ornery because the infidel is poking fun at them: in fact, no one really seems upset about it at all. To go to such an expense in recalling the game (especially when a patch would have done) over something no one's likely to get very upset over is fairly silly.
Brownlee, some have pointed out elsewhere that Sony is one of the few "westernized" countries that has a good reputation in the Middle East. I am certain that this is an "oh shit" measure to make sure that they in no way lose another market.
I think that the point that we are all missing, is that Toumani Diabaté is really awesome.
Isn't this something that Sony could have fixed much more simply by: a) offering a free disk swap to anyone without an Internet connected PS3, and b) updating immediately over the Internet to remove the offensive track?
Agies, you American? Because Sony isn't a country :)
Lame joke, I know, but I couldn't resist.
BCJ #6: As is his Symmetric Orchestra!
The Muslims I know are far more put off being depicted in the media as the threat of the day in game after game after game. A 'hero' running through a gauntlet of virtually identical Muslim Arab men and gunning them down ('for AMERICA!') is far more offensive.
The Sufi sect in Islam uses music and the words of the Qu'ran as a form of religious expression, I believe that is the tradition Mr. Diabaté is following in.
MGFarrelly #10- Actually, he's much more concretely part of the griot tradition of West Africa.
Sony fears that complaints will cause Walmart to pull the game as "pro-muslim propaganda" -- all cultures project their own idiosyncracies on each other, and to many Japanese, Islamophobia looks a lot like their own xenophobia, so they respond accordingly!
Even if Muslims were ok with the song being in the game, you know that as soon as certain people in the US caught wind of it there would be a huge outcry of "they're trying to brainwash our children." This will save Sony grief from both sides in the long run.
As just one atheist can I post in their forums and get them to recall and remove all religious references from their games?
While it was somewhat sensible of them to do this, wasn't the Sony response to the CoE when Resistance: FoM featured the Manchester Cathedral pretty much "go piss up a rope", and only later issued an apology? Why wasn't the same procedure followed in his case?
Not that I think Sony should even CARE about these kind of complaints.
I can't help but think that I would really want to get my hands on a few copies of the original games. If Little Big Planet is a hit those might be worth a fair bit in the future. A bit like owning a Woz built Apple I, or a misprinted stamp that there are only a few of in the world...
Those of you old enough to remember the 16 bit era may recall any number of Japanese games which got various religious references removed from their US/EU releases. One of the Castlevania games comes to mind and a few other RPGs which were either altered or declined for release due to sensitivity to Western religions.
@14 the problem with your idea is atheists pretty rarely freak out to the point where they attack other people over their own lack of g-d. Also since you supposedly believe in nothing, you dont really have anything to take offense from. Either that or when there are enough of your kind to constitute a market, then maybe pop culture will cater to you.
Yes, you can by the tune on iTunes.... BY CHOICE! You have no choice over which tracks of music are included in a game.
While Sony may have over-reacted, in this day amd age where you can't dress up for Halloween parties in school and don't hang Christmas decorations for the same religious rabble rousers out there, its good for Sony to be safe rather then sorry when potential lawsuits arise later.
Atheists do believe in something: we believe we can lead good, helpful, meaningful lives without having to pretend to listen to our imaginary friend in the sky.
We don't take direction from a book written hundreds of years ago by some guys who claim to have heard voices (since re-written, edited and translated by non-professional linguists)
We don't sit around wasting our lives chatting with the ceiling thinking there's something out there that's taking notes and will quiz us later.
We're getting on with our lives doing the best we can, trying not to step on too many other toes in the process, JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.
So maybe everyone should just shut up about your own beliefs and just let everybody else get on with theirs.
@17 Actually, I have decided to impersonate a member of any religion I see referenced and feign indignance till the reference is removed.
Who knows, maybe this was the work of someone doing the same. A person who just really wanted the islamic reference taken out of the game because it bugged them as a non-believer to be subjected to the glorifiaction of allah. Yeah, I could get behind that.
logical extension: all references to islam and koran must be removed from everywhere in society since it has been clearly demonstrated to be a safety liability and a source of crime and violence.
Any person finding a reference to islam now has case law to argue that the originator has been negligent and put others at risk through their actions. I am all for this, it is one of the few methods that works against pernicious memes like organized religion. Let all their scrivenings be so holy NO ONE can be exposed to them. Let any who publish them be sued for endangering others. Let us respect religion so much we dare not let it over our borders.
News like this just sets Muslims back and make them look like over-sensitive, paranoid nutjobs (even in cases where they are not). But, I like it because anything that puts any organized religion in a bad light is good for humanity's progression overall.
Ooh, Sony did something stupid. Man bites Dog.
No one yet mentioned how the re-issue of My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts had one track pulled for pretty much the same reason. Not all sects of Islam are offended by this sort of thing, but there are probably enough vocal opponents that Sony probably regarded this as a QA slip up and thus pulled the game.
@19 kongjirra,
Just a tiny hint for you, if you want to not step on peoples toes, try respecting others ideas first. You may also wish to fact check your assertions regarding translations of sacred texts. Literally millions of people read the Koran in the original Arabic or the Torah in the original Hebrew. I've read that there is a growing interest in learning to read biblical Hebrew and Greek in various Christian communities, but I dont have a citation handy to back that up. AFAIK learning Aramaic is pretty well isolated to yeshiva students and hard core academics so that isnt really much related to the point I'm trying to make. Finally I do hope you recognize the irony of speaking about your own beliefs while telling others to shut up about theirs.
LOL I love the arguments on boing boing.
I agree with 14, as an athiest can I petition to have all forms of religion removed from any form of popular media available on the planet on the grounds that I find it offensive?
Perhaps we could get some references to the invisible pink unicorn added to the game instead?
;)