LittleBigPlanet Qur'an music track controversy intensifies

What was once one of the most anticipated game launches of 2008 has quickly spiraled out of control, thanks to a new round of religious controversy, and cries of censorship.

LittleBigPlanet Qur'an music track controversy intensifies

Little Been Banned (click for more on LBP)

LittleBigPlanet, once touted as the killer app for the PlayStation 3 this year, has encountered yet another round of controversy this week, as cries of censorship were raised by a Muslim group that saw the game's recall as detrimental to their religion.

"[American Islamic Forum for Democracy] stands against any form of censorship in the marketplace of ideas whether imposed by government or by corporations intimidated by the response of militants or those with an inappropriately sensitive level of political correctness," said M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., president of the non-profit AIFD, in an interview with EDGE.

Just to recap, LittleBigPlanet was recalled worldwide last week after a Muslim poster on Europe's official PlayStation message boards indicated that an in-game music track, called Tapha Niang by Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, sampled audio derived from the Muslim holy book, the Koran (aka Qur'an).

Setting the book's scriptures to music is seen as offensive to some Muslims, who view the Koran's text as the word of god. The outrage prompted Sony to act immediately and recall all copies of LBP from the retail channel.

It was the wrong course of action, Dr. Jasser contends.

"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," he said. "The free market allows for expression of disfavor by simply not purchasing a game that may be offensive."

Turning the initial forum complaint back against itself, Dr. Jasser added that Mohammed himself "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."

The musician behind the musical track, Toumani Diabate, has also weighed in on the LBP recall, saying, "It's quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the Prophet Mohammed. It's my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam."

Nevertheless, the game remains recalled, and new copies will be issued to retailers next week. If you're one of the lucky ones with a "banned" copy, head to eBay, where they are selling for about $200 each.

As noted by GameIndustry.biz, this is the second time in as many years that Sony has been plagued by religious controversy. In 2007, Sony was lambasted by religious leaders in the UK for including Manchester Cathedral as a level in Resistance: Fall of Man.

Comments [30]

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war02orc

Well here's my opinion, forget political correctness. You don't like the music because of it being based on muslim beliefs, then turn the sound off. Or don't buy the game. The fact is that in this day in age everyone should be making their OWN decisions on what is and isn't right as far as religion goes, there is nor reason why a company should be responsible for that.

And as for the manchester cathedral, that didn't bother me either.

In fact, I really don't care what religion the game is based on. if I don't like it, I won't play it. simple as that. So sony, I say BRING IT ON, send me the games as they are initially conceived!

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ultrazilla2000

Interesting how Sony only issued an apology to the Catholic Church over the Cathedral...and AFTER much criticism. Yet they tuck their tails between their legs and issue a fast paced recall only a couple days after a minor group of Muslim extremists complained online. Nice. Gee Sony, let's not give in and over react to crazy fear of terrorists or anything...
The more people give in to their every demand and whims, the more you empower them and their extreme beliefs. Does the whole world belong to them or something?

It was very refreshing to read about what the AIFD had to say though. I applaud them for reasonable understanding and proving not every Muslim belief is the same.

monkbaine

Wow,and all over a video game's "one musical track". I still wanna hear what so many people thought was so offensive,I'm just not willing to pay $200 to find out. lol

mattchew86

omfg.....wow.....so, they try not to offend a group of religious people by putting sacred text to a poppy beat, something sony did not originally do, then when trying to make up for what might have, i emphasize, MIGHT have been a disaster with a bunch of radicals boycotting the game, then these same people turn around and say sony is trying to censor them? i think sony shouldve taken the hint that the these songs were ok with most people considering the artist who made them isnt dead yet. yet, in their defense, it was better to play it safe than sorry. imho the manchester cathedral incident from rfom was ridiculous. i enjoy going to church, and i found it interesting how symbolic it was in the game and how much it said about the enemy we had encountered, considering this was the an alternate series of events in the past, i think it showed just how vulnerable the human race was. that the chimera didnt care where you were, what kind of building you were in, or what kind of unspoken rules our civilization used to abide by. shouting "sanctuary" doesnt mean jack squat to an alien race hell-bent on taking over your world.

Shadowfox186

Utrazilla200 its not that interesting. Resistance had been out for 5 months when the catholics complained. It was a finished game and already out on the market with several hundred thousand already sold. What was sony supposed to do other than issue an apology? Recall the games on shelves and remake a whole secton of the game? That is not worth such a huge cost. LBPwasn't even out yet and all they had to do was remove a few seconds of audio from a song verses redoing an entire level. So these two situations are very different and are nowhere near the same. Thats why Sony is handling them in two different ways. Its not fair to compare the two.

Shadowfox186

Utrazilla200 its not that interesting. Resistance had been out for 5 months when the catholics complained. It was a finished game and already out on the market with several hundred thousand already sold. What was sony supposed to do other than issue an apology? Recall the games on shelves and remake a whole secton of the game? That is not worth such a huge cost. LBPwasn't even out yet and all they had to do was remove a few seconds of audio from a song verses redoing an entire level. So these two situations are very different and are nowhere near the same. Thats why Sony is handling them in two different ways. Its not fair to compare the two.

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goofball

Good for SOny. This will make this game sell even more. There is no such thing as bad publicity.

artsaber

goofball wrote:

Good for SOny. This will make this game sell even more. There is no such thing as bad publicity.

Agreed, but couldn't they have just fixed this issue with a patch by overwriting the music track in question with an edited updated version? Oh well, the buzz about LBP is even more than before, everyone is talking about this game, Fable2, Resistance 2, and Gears 2 right now. Could 360 and PS3 gamers finally be uniting under the umbrella of good gameness?

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