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LittleBigPlanet Delayed Due To Qur'an-Sampling Audio
Several readers have pointed out that Sony's much-awaited LittleBigPlanet has hit a snag and will be delayed worldwide. The delay came after it was discovered that a song licensed for use in the soundtrack contained audio samples from the Qur'an. All advanced copies sent to retailers for the target release of October 21 in North America, 22 in PAL territories, and 24 in the UK and Ireland, have been recalled. "The post, by user 'Solid08', indicates of the specific references in the composition: 'In the 18th second: "kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: "Every soul shall have the taste of death' ... almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "kollo man alaiha fan", literally: "All that is on earth will perish."'"
So what if it has that there?
Perhaps they merely do not wish to anger potential customers now that it's been discovered and publicized. This isn't the first time it's happened or anything. For example, look at Zelda Ocarina of Time: original versions of the cartridge contained Muslim chanting in the background of the fire temple music, which was taken out of later copies. Later re-releases of the game on the Gamecube also changed some symbols in-game that resembled the crescent moon. No real reason to remove these things other than to prevent conflicts among the audience.
Why would reproducing a work that has long since been in the public domain be a problem? If it is, hundreds of publishers are in deep shit.
From what the article says, it seems some Muslims got offended at their holy scriptures being put to music. So, Sony is bowing to a few fundamentalist Muslims to keep from generating any bad press about how they offend Islam or whatever.
Personally, I think if they're going to start bowing down to any fringe group that complains on the Internet, they're going to have a hard time releasing any games ever again.
People are so scared of "terrorists", and associate Islam so closely with those terrorists, that they are scared to death of offending anyone that calls themselves a Muslim. This just makes it much easier for the radical wing of Islam to not only be heard, but to wield influence out of proportion with their numbers. Of course, you could argue the same thing has been done with regard to the more radical wings of Christianity in other spheres as well.
Eno and Byrne had a song called with Quran verses in the 80's and they were told by some imam that it was blasphemy to put the words of god to "grooves" (Byrne's word I think), so they took the song off the album.
Delayed PS3 game + angry gamers + Anon. internet forums + people who've actually studied Islam as opposed to trolls who don't know shit about it but flame about people "misunderstanding it" anyways = A lot of wasted /. Moderator points slaying trolls.
There. Fixed that for you.
Now go do some research on Islam. Here's a reading list for you:
#1 - Koran.
#2 - Hadith. Read both the Sunni and Shi'a preferred sets. For extra credit, check into other schools that have their own "authoritative" sets.
#3 - Read up on the various fatwa that are considered "core" to belief, or to interpretation, by each of the major branches.
NOW come back and tell me you've actually studied it, in depth, before declaring it a "religion of peace." Because it is most definitively not one, unless you believe that slavery, definitive tiers of haves and have-nots based on who's a member of the official state religion, definitive tiers of haves and have-nots based on which genitalia you were born with, and an admonition to subjugate, enslave, or otherwise wipe out anyone who doesn't believe in the state-sponsored religion can actually be a "religion of peace."
"I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children." (Leviticus 26:22)
"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourself every girl who has never slept with a man." (Numbers 31:17-18)
"The Lord commands: "... slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women" (Ezechial 9:4-6)
"When the Lord delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the males .... As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves." (Deuteronomy 20:13-14)
"You will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you." (Deuteronomy 28:53)
"The Lord said to Joshua [...] 'you are to hamstring their horses.' " (Exceedingly cruel.) (Joshua 11:6)
"... Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword and; also the women and little ones.... every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall utterly destroy." (Judges 21:10-12)
"This is what the Lord says: Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass .... And Saul ... utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword." (1 Samuel 15:3,7-8)
"The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their women with child ripped open." (Hosea 13:16)
"A curse on him who is lax in doing the LORD's work!
A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed!" (Jeremiah 48:10)
Part of the trouble is that the verses you're referencing in the Old Testament were from a specific war -- "Go and kill the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead" or "Destroy the Amalekites" -- particular people who they were fighting at the time. Unlike the Qu'ran, the Old Testament doesn't say that these instructions to wage war are standing orders.
It's an interesting difference, though, isn't it? Islamic fundamentalists trying to get rid of public displays of pictures of Mohammed, trying to eliminate people reciting the Quran in products, and so on, and meanwhile, Christian fundamentalists are insisting on public displays of pictures of Jesus, trying to get readings from the bible everywhere, and so on.
It's just a different kind of crazy.
Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
Here's one:
But that's rather beside the point. Suicide bombings are committed almost exclusively in defense of homeland against occupying forces (or, rather, the belief that such a thing is occurring), especially forces of a different religion, and especially when those doing the defending live in relative poverty. There are very few cases of countries with poor, heavily Christian populations that are occupied by people of other religions. Ergo, hardly any Christian suicide bombings.
It's not paying respect, it's being a coward and knuckling under to idiotic demands. I don't care whether somebody believes in something or not, to demand something like this is completely out of line and should be ignored by all right-thinking people.
Just because it's "religious" does not make it also not stupid.
I will absolutely not be purchasing this game because of Sony's actions on this matter.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
While there are definitely some racy parts of the old testament, I don't know of any place where incest or rape is okey'd by God, but there are a few places where God's silence on the issue leads people to assume he's ok with it. Other passages usually make it quite clear that he isn't. But there is still the question of Adam & Eve's kids, and I'm not sure biblical scholars really agree on what that's all about.
The times where mass-murder is advocated are interesting. God establishes the precedent in Genesis (when he floods the world and when he tells Abram that his descendants will come back and destroy the Amorites in 400 years because their evil was not yet fully grown) that he waits until a people group is wholly, completely, evil before wiping them out. In other passages he isn't as explicit, but in those cases there are examples of individuals within those societies who turned to God and were spared from being destroyed (this happened in Sodom & Gomorrah and in Jericho, and in the Exodus some of the Egyptian slavers left with the children of Israel, etc). The point being, that while it isn't as explicit as most of us would be comfortable with, there is a precedent there of still allowing individuals a chance to repent if they were really open to it.
Not that I can explain away every strange passage in the Bible; I don't think anyone can. I just wanted to mention that when it comes to a text that was written thousands of years ago in a culture that none of us were a part of, in a language most of us don't speak, it needs to be read with a little more care than most (including myself) usually want to put into it.
As for cruelties that have been afflicted in the name of God (some of them even in biblical times but without his blessing), I don't think there is any justification for them. Just a bunch of religious leaders who decided to abuse their power like any human would be tempted to do. And I know they like to justify their actions by finding passages in the Bible, but if you're going to just take verses out of context you can really make the Bible say anything you want.
Also, knowing that about the Bible makes me hesitant to take a passage from any other religious text (the Qur'an included) out of its context and make judgements based on it. Someday maybe I'll have the time to study the Qur'an, but not yet.
Well it is, you know, kind of written in their religion that they have to kill the homosexuals.
I have a hard time believing that most people who call themselves Muslim actually practice and follow their religion. (Same goes with any religion, really.)
I don't get why people cling to religion. Sure, people say they're catholic/christian/jewish/muslin/etc, but that's usually a cultural thing.
The number of people who actually BELIEVE their religion is much, much smaller. And the number of people who actually adhere to their religion's laws is infinitesimal.
No, they were motivated by ethnicity. Not in any objective way - it can often be impossible to distinguish a European Jew from his fellow non-Jewish countrymen genetically - but Nazis had their own theories, and according to them, Jewish were ethnically and racially distinct, and their unique religion was only used as an identifying mark. Remember that the definition of a Jew in the Third Reich, for the purpose of persecution, was not "one who practices Judaism" - it was "one who is more than 1/8th Jewish by ancestry".
Religion is cetainly not a sole factor dividing Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs (and all of them are typically offended by such claims, except for some pan-Yugoslavists, who mostly tend to be Serbs).
Well, yes, and Soviet aggressive anti-clericalism with massive persecution of all religions, and particularly Christians (because they were the dominant group) might have something to do with it. I'm not justifying the Red Scare, but it wasn't one-sided.
That's where we disagree. Judging by what I see, it seems that Christianity has been on the steady decline as far as violence is concerned for the last several centuries. It's unmistakenly the influence of the rising secular rational consciousness in the West, so Christians shouldn't claim much credit for that - but, they did adapt pretty well. There's more to be desired, of course, but the tendency is clear, and the present level is tolerable.
Islam, in contrast, seems to be ramping up its violence component for the last half a century or so, and its mainstream shifting more and more from the liberal interpretations to fundamentalism.
Ah, so this explains some of the enmity directed toward Sufis, then. FWIW, I don't think this view that mixing sacred scripture and music is a bad thing is entirely universal, merely a view held by the conservative elements within Islam. Which seem to be the most vocal. (That said, I am also aware that many Wahabbists view music in general as un-islamic or anti-islamic, so Sufis get a lot of hate just for that...)
Which is the religion of peace again?
None of them?
... and then they built the supercollider.
If you are arguing for the tribe's innocence, Amelek is probably the worse example you can come up with. IIRC, they raided the rear of the procession coming out of Egypt.
I've never so much as heard of anyone receiving a death threat for publishing an anti-Christian cartoon or depicting Jesus. Got cite?
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
As an atheist I am far more offended by the atheistic fanatics.
At least the religious people think that what I think matters if they are a dick about it.
The atheists trying to put down the religious are just dicks with no justification.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg