Video game with Koran words

London, Oct 18: Following strong objections from the Muslims in the UK, Sony has reportedly decided to dump millions of copies of a new "PS3" computer game 'LittleBigPlanet'.

Muslims had taken a strong exception to some of the lines in the song which were quoted from their holy book Koran. The game was due to hit shop shelves next Friday. But, now copies of the game will be returned from warehouses around the world, and will be re-released sometime in November. Incidentally, the track was recorded by Grammy award winner Toumani Diabate - himself a Muslim. The words used by Mali-born Diabate translate as "Every soul shall have a taste of death" and "All that is on Earth will perish."

The incident has evoked strong reactions from the Muslims. A game player said on an Internet messageboard: "We consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Koran deeply offending. We hope you would remove that track from the game immediately."

Reacting to Muslims' uproar, a spokesman for Sony said last night: "During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Koran. We have taken immediate action to rectify this and sincerely apologise for any offence this may have caused."

Hardliners who have seen review copies of the game say mixing words from the Koran with music is deeply offensive and demanded Sony take action. The furore will potentially cost the firm millions of pounds. LittleBigPlanet is Sony's most significant PS3 game till date. The company sources hope it will help them sell thousands of consoles in the run up to Christmas. Millions of gamers have pre-ordered it and the company is adopting its cute main character Sackboy as its mascot.

ANI