One wonders (especially since this has happened in the past) if this is all some sort of reliable hype building strategy… After all, it never fails… rest assured there will be an uproar from the “Islamic side”.

I'm a muslim living in the US and I have a rather liberal outlook, and I know plenty of other muslims who share that outlook; and believe in free speech. BUT when it comes to religion (Islam or otherwise), we don't have a sense of humor about it. Because I believe there are some things that are sacred and should be left as such. This does ignite a little bit of a cultural clash in the US because religious-satire, jesus-jokes etc. are common here and there may not be any harm intended; yet, from an Islamic perspective, it can be perceived as highly blasphemous. I do believe even in the US, religious satire is frowned upon by the Evangelicals and the religious right. What you don't see is the violent uproar common in radical Islamic societies. That aside, is it really 'the right thing' to use 'religion' in any form less of 'sacred'? You may be an athiest, does that mean you can bash religion freely? or does it mean you HAVE to respect something you don't believe in. Guess it all goes back to the 'live and let live' mentality… if only more people exercised it.

Sorry to ramble, but I guess my point is that freedom of speech is best exercised when accompanied by 'responsible' speech… maybe then we can all co-exist peacefully.

So a decision has to be made to 'hurt' the fewest people. I think that in a single decision, fewer people would be hurt by removing the lyrics, though ultimately the cost will be much much greater.

Out of curiosity, is it only phrases that can't be used in music? or is every single individual word banned from being in lyrics?