Update on "Little Big Planet" versus Islam

I found the following article today and I have put pasted it in almost entirety:

Sony's unexpected decision to delay the release of Game-of-the-Year candidate Little Big Planet over the inclusion of two sentences from the Qur'an in an LBP soundtrack song stunned gamers late last week.

But the PlayStation 3 maker, burned in 2007 by a religion-based controversy involving FPS game Resistance and the Church of England, was undoubtedly being cautious. An American Islamic leader, however, says that delaying and editing LBP was the wrong move.

As reported by Edge Online, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. (left), head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, remarked:

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

[Mohammed] 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... To demand that [the game] be withdrawn is predicated on a society which gives theocrats who wish to control speech far more value than the central principle of freedom of expression upon which the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.

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...

I personally must say that I agree with Jasser that no one including Muslims and Christians should assert their freedom of expression while denying others the same rights. Jasser appealed to Muhammed, the founder of Islam himself, to backup his opinions that the rights of others should be protected even if it went against his own views. Pretty words. Research into what Muhammed thought of this seemed to be dictated by whether or not he was in the minority or whether or not he was in control. Peace and tolerance was what he preached when he did not have the resources to force his will on others. This is why we have the Koran that says Peace and tolerance towards Jews and Christians and says kill us if we don't convert. It says both. I also have to point out its only in western democracies where people have the right to believe or express in public what they think. It's in the fundamentalist Islamic regimes where you can be persecuted, at best, or outright murdered if your understanding and interpretation of Islam is different from those in power. I guarantee Jasser would not be able to say the things he said in Iran.