Penny Arcade brings up a good point:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/10/22/

LBP was delayed because of a couple of references to the Koran which would be deemed offensive. This is the same game that has a 911 themed level. What happens if someone makes a level where you kill Mohammed or something? Would things like this be allowed? I know there is a report system, but where do they draw the line? There is a big gray area, and obviously no right and wrong answer, but what are your opinions?

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PA Blog:

Here is today's comic. It is about LittleBigPlanet. Although I suppose technically it's about the lack of LittleBigPlanet.

Let me be clear about something up front: I don't actually care when the game comes out. In this dark season, respite is in frightfully short supply. I'm glad of it. The reasoning behind the delay is, frankly, beyond my ability to comprehend it, and there's no politic way to describe it. Maybe I could discuss every other thing in the Goddamned universe, and you could arrive at my point by inference.

The delay - and the sentiment that animated it - are irrelevant.  No matter what this song contained, rated by some universal standard for blasphemy, the things you could do with the included toolset would make any scholar of Islam beg for the days when the holy scriptures were merely set to a jaunty beat. My guess - and this is only a guess - is that a pop song is preferable to having your unerring spiritual manual launched into space.  Or maybe it's one of these things where all sins are equal?  That strikes me as profoundly unimaginative.  I should show them some of my bookmarks.

I'm not convinced that the tools LBP has in place are sufficient to manage things like this - is there even a keyword for "Blasphemous?"  So, Media Molecule has now agreed to babysit the Internet. Have fun with that.

No-one was watching when modding became something like a gamer's right. Now, the mainstream perches in every high corner, shifting its weight like Poe's raven, positively starved for evidence that this incredible medium bears within it the dissolution of a generation.

This is why Microsoft doesn't want to get within ten miles of this shit - user contributions are circumscribed. I don't agree with that, siding instead with the incredible creative power of the human spirit, but it's not hard to understand their position. Fallout 3 - unlike Morrowind and Oblivion - isn't shipping with mod tools, officially because they weren't in the schedule. But when the ESRB re-rated Oblivion - a currently shipping game - based on a user mod, you have to wonder why they would put themselves in that position.

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edited for formatting

I believe that no ones faith or beliefs should be forced on to someone else.

This is an obvious point but a song with words from the Kuran can surely only be offensive to people that find it offense in this case Muslims.  So why not disable the song and allow none Muslims to enable it if they like.

The problem in most cases like this is that religious people think that everyone should believe in what they believe in and have no concept of free will.  This is why the world is such a dangerous place at the moment.

My dad and I were talking about religion the other night.  I have nothing against religious people but I think religion should not be taught to children until they are at least 14 years old and are able to understand what they are being told and make their own minds up about whether they want to follow a particular faith or no faith at all.

One thing that should be taught in schools however is morals, not religion.  The decline in the attitude of western society in term of how we behave towards one another is down to lack of morals.  Now religion does teach morals but this is mixed in with things that some people cant believe so its giving a mixed message.

Simply teach the important part of religion, morals.

Here's what Phill Harrison has to say about the issue:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/harrison-sony-took-absolutely-the-right-decision-to-recall-lbp

"I wasn't privy to all of the discussions and debate that went on within Sony, but I know they would have thought very deeply about it, and at the highest level of the company," he explained. "And on reflection I think it was absolutely the right thing to do, because LittleBigPlanet set out from day one to be a game for the entire world - and if there was anything that accidentally detracted from that vision and made the game not fun for the entire world, then the game would have fundamentally failed in its mission. "

We are in a politically correct world and nothing is acceptable any more, Someone asked why there are so many WW2 games qto a developer and they said besides monsters nazi's are the only politically group you can make a game where you can shoot them anything else and some group is all over you

Hes sort of contradicting himself.

To make the game accessable to everyone in the world would be to allow those that want to hear the song, hear it and those that might find it offensive not hear it.

Disabling the song and allowing it to be reenabled would have done this better.

The song in question is apparently available for download on a website.  Now I wouldn't go to a website and download this song if I knew I was going to be offended by it.  So I wouldnt go to the track selection screen and enable a song that I knew I was going to be offended by.  And as long as appropriate warnings were displayed.  I couldnt be offended by the fact that the song was there as I made a choice to enable it.

Too much pandering.

I'm just quoting Phill Harrison - please don't shoot the messenger lol

The song is still in the game, I believe. Only the two offending phrases have been removed.

I was talking about Phil not you mate lol.

The problem though, is what does it mean for User Generated Content now that they've removed the song?  Does any UGC that references the Koran get banned as well?  Does the same go for other religions?

I don't know the specifics of the 911 level, or if it was removed, but I'm sure that many people, especially the families of the victims, would be offended by that.  Should that be removed as well?

Would a level where you save Jesus be offensive to Jewish people?  Should that be removed also?

What about content that is never shared, so doesn't have a chance to be banned?  What happens when a mother sees her 10 year old playing a giant penis level that he/she created?

The point is, we've seen how the media handles video games.  They're the first thing blamed anytime something goes wrong.  Look at Mass Effect this year, Doom during Columbine, GTA:SA.  The last 2 were crucified by the media because of mods.  Is LBP going to end up with the same problems?

I hope not.

Oblivion seems to be ok so far, and I'm sure there are some pretty offensive mods for that if people look hard enough.

LBP it could be argued will be more highly scrutinised by the various lobbies than Oblivion due it being...well...LBP