The opinions expressed in the following post are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Untold Entertainment Inc., its employees or its affiliates.

Video game news sources everywhere are reporting that Little Big Planet will be delayed after publisher Sony issued a worldwide recall of the game. The trouble is that the vocals in one of the background music tracks contain phrases from the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. One player pointed this out in a forum post, explaining:

We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Quran deeply offending.

The trouble i have here, and it should be obvious, is that like the forum poster who complained about the game, i am also an adherent to one of the world’s major organized religions. And, like the forum poster, i take also offense at certain game content. But unlike the forum poster, i am a Christian.

In order to progress through EA’s new game Rock Band 2, i have to repeatedly play through a song by Alice in Chains called “Man in the Box,” which contains the lyric “Jesus Christ, deny your maker”. Being a Christian, if i were to complain about the song to EA, do you suppose they would issue a worldwide recall to pull all of the games out of stores a week before street date so they could remove the song? Hardly. And why not? What’s the difference?

The difference, friends, is that Muslims have funny predilection towards burning shit down.

A History of Violence

If Christians, Hindus, or Buddhists were to complain about Fun Video Game and the publisher didn’t pull the product, the most they could expect is – what? A stern prayer vigil? A strongly-worded letter? A weak and short-lived retail boycott?

But Allah forbid if you offend certain Muslims. Certain Muslims, if provoked by – oh, i dunno – a few doodles of their prophet (blessings and peace be upon him), tend to get up to the following shenanigans:

There are plenty of things in video games that offend me – as a Christian, and as a decent human being. You can pay a hooker for a handjob in Grand Theft Auto, and then subsequently murder her with a chainsaw and take your money back from her corpse. You can punch an innocent human being’s head off his shoulders in the upcoming Fallout 3, and keep it in your inventory as a trophy, or decorate your room with it. And these games are mainstream. There’s tons of this stuff out there.

What’s the solution? Will any of these game companies modify their game content to suit my sensitive sensibilities? Doubt it.

What if i tell them that their games offend me as a Christian? No dice – they won’t budge.

But what if Christians reinstate the crusades and start burning shit down again? Apparently, that is the salient difference between the way comparitively moderate Christians are dealt with, and the way Muslims are dealt with, owing to the fact that their ranks contain violent consolate-torching radicals.

To counter this point, you could take the example where Sony was petitioned by the Church of England over the game Resistance: Fall of Man. Sure! That’s fair. Let’s compare, shall we?

The Complainants

Christian case: The Church of England, the official representatives of the Christian faith for an entire nation

Muslim case: Some dude in a web forum

The Complaint

Christian case: Sony released, as its flagship title for the launch of its new PlayStation 3 console, a game where players engage in a bloody gun battle inside a digital replica of Manchester Cathedral – an active, functioning real-world church where real Christians can go every Sunday to worship their God – in a real-world city plagued with real-world gun violence where real people are getting really killed.

Muslim case: Two passages from the Muslim holy book are sung in Somalian in a background music track.

The Recourse

Christian case: The Manchester Cathedral level is integral to gameplay. The player must play through this level to experience the remainder of the content on the disc.

Muslim case: The player can – and this is pretty crazy – push the MUTE button.

The Reaction

Christian case: Sony shows considerable “resistance” by issuing initially obstinate statements, saying

Resistance: Fall of Man is a fantasy science fiction game and is not based on reality. We believe we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game.

and

Historical buildings are often used in entertainment…[such as] iconic movie scenes involving Godzilla and the Tokyo Tower and King Kong in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair sides with the Church of England, saying

I think it is important that people understand there is a wider social responsibility as well as an interior responsibility for profits.

Muslim case: Sony’s Director of Corporate Communications issued this statement:

We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologize for any offense that this may have caused.

The Result

Christian case: Sony issues a so-called apology:

We do not accept that there is any connection between contemporary issues of 21st Century Manchester and a work of science fiction in which a fictitious 1950s Britain is under attack by aliens. It is not our intention to cause offense by using a representation of Manchester Cathedral in chapter eight of the work. If we have done so we sincerely apologize.

The game remains on store shelves, unchanged.

Muslim case: Sony issues an immediate recall of Little Big Planet in the United Kingdom. A short time later, the company commits to a wider recall and worldwide delay of one week while the offensive content is removed from the game.

My Conclusion

i can only infer from this fiasco that people are afraid of Muslims, and perhaps rightly so. Anger them, and their radical minority (a minority large enough to form an enraged mob rampaging through the streets of Beirut), will take violent, aggressive action against your publishing company, publication, or country.

The forum poster who originally complained about this issue did so irresponsibly. As a Christian, i wouldn’t dream of asking EA to remove “Man in the Box” from Rock Band 2. And if my religion had a very recent history of radical, rampaging mobs burning places down in protest, i would be even less inclined to complain. i would be embarrassed that a violent minority represented my faith on the world stage (as it has in Christianity’s history).

The read i get from the poster’s intentions are “Hey Sony: please fix your game. If you don’t, i can’t be responsible for what my obscenely muscular and emotionally unstable cousin Tim-bo over here might do to you.” It reeks to me of renouncing radicalism on one hand, and wielding the radical minority like a seething, violent silent partner on the other.

So what’s the solution? i have a few ideas.

1. Muslims gotta calm that action down. If the content offends you, don’t purchase the content.
2. Companies gotta stand up to this simmering threat of extremist Muslim overreaction by refusing to be bullied.
3. Christians gotta start burning more shit down.

Ryan Henson Creighton is a Toronto-based game developer, and founder of Untold Entertainment Inc., specializing in online games for kids, teens, tweens and preschoolers.

Ryan Henson Creighton

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