LBP Delay - The Flip Side
By sweep 6 Comments
On monday I wrote a long blog about The Little Big Planet delay as a result of some holy text from the Qur'an being used as backing music. This topic has recently been discussed by people all over the internet, in podcasts forums and blogs - and its a popular discussion point for many not only because of the Little Big Planet delay, but because its a wake-up call to everyone just how fragile our relationships with the Muslim community really is, and how far its political reach extends.
However what really opened my eyes was the response of M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., president of the non-profit American Islamic Forum for Democracy. This is a direct quote and can be found here.
“The free market allows for expression of disfavour by simply not purchasing a game that may be offensive .”
Jasser, who has also appeared on CNN, in the Washington Times and National Review, said that not only does the First Amendment support freedom of expression, but Mohammed also “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.”
Apart from having a lot of respect for this man effectively placing himself in the crosshairs, it demonstrates that the Muslim community is obviously very divided - and we have consequently only been dealing with the group that has kicked up the biggest storm.
After reading Brukaoru's blog it got me thinking. I spent such a lot of time preaching on my blog about tolerance that I didnt really consider the fact that we are allowing this mentality to interfere with our own cultures notions of freedom. We should not have to live in fear of retribution after an honest mistake, and as has been mentioned there are sections of extremist Muslim communities looking for excuses to attack non Islamic civilizations. We should not have to retreat so dramatically as a knee jerk reaction. Arguably it is Islams intolerance to the rest of the world which has caused them the greatest political problems, not the worlds intolerance towards Islam.
It's hard to strike a balance. There will be Muslims arguing amongst themselves as to the stand they should have taken. They will all agree that they dont LIKE whats happening, but there will be disagreements about the level of retribution. Whilst a corporation such as Sony should obviously refrain from offending such a large group of people, this should be done on principle and not as a response to a threat. The product was obviously not designed to offend, so do these people really have the right to impose these regulations upon us?
Before I continue please note that this post is, again, not an invitation for racial intolerance. Everything I write here has been thought about and I am trying to remain fair. I am considering the alternative side to an interesting topic after receiving alternative information from a reliable source. If anyone doubts this or has arrived at a different impression please read my blog from monday which dealt with the initial response to the delay.
I wrote about tolerance and effectively having a base level of respect for your fellow man. This is all still true. But this mistake on behalf of Sony was really not an act of malice. It was not designed to be provocative or cause a war. It was, effectively, harmless. It therefore seems unreasonable for the Islamic community to react on such a large scale by "Demanding" that the game be changed.
Its a tough one. On the one hand, a religious group just wants people to pay their religion the respect they believe it deserves. On the other hand there are people on the same religion saying that the first hand Muslims are over-reacting and that we should not have to censor our own culture to appease them, even if they dont approve of our actions. And on the third hand, we dont want to be bullied by the section of a culture which has no direct involvement with our own, we want to be able to express ourselves freely. Thats a lot of hands.
“…To demand that [the game] be withdrawn is predicated on a society which gives theocrats who wish to control speech far more value than the central principle of freedom of expression upon which the very practice and freedom of religion is based.”
Jasser added, “The fact that the music writer is a devout Muslim should highlight that at the core of this issue is not about offending ‘all Muslims,’ but only about freedom of expression and the free market.”
He still said that he does not endorse the use of Koranic versus in non-educational videogames, calling the literature “the words of God.”
“AIFD 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,” Jasser said.
So from this perspective the argument is now centered beyond the involvement of the Qur'an text within the game, and has come to rest on the principles of expression and where sociaty draws the line. We want freedom of expression without causing riots in the streets. It shouldnt happen. We shouldnt allow it to happen. But unfortunately, it does happen. So we have to work around it. If you dont believe me look what happened to Salman Rushdie, who faced death threats from Islamic groups after publishing his book The Satanic Verses.
Its a complex issue and there is no real solution or compromise. The debate will continue long after Little Big Planet has hit the shelves, because it really is an important world issue at the moment. The catalyst for this entire conundrum is, of course, the internet.
/pours oil on flames.
This post is probably not what you were expecting. I may even have contradicted myself. But its another form of perspective - and its arguably a much more realistic way of looking at the LBP situation. Thats allowed. People can change their minds and think about things from a different point of view. Blindly continuing down the first path you chose may not be the best route towards understanding the various elements to the equation.
Let me know what you think guys. Was I closer to home with Mondays blog post, or do you agree with this one? I have tried to present both sides of the argument in a fair way, one about tolerance and the other about weakness to political pressure. Please let me know which you agree with more. After reading this do you still think sony did the right move in buckling under pressure and removing the content?
Thanks For Reading
Love Sweep
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