The European delay of LittleBigPlanet we mentioned earlier has blossomed into a worldwide recall of the game due to passages from the Islamic holy text Qur'an being included in the background music in one of the levels.

"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 Qur'an," admitted the company in a statement.

"We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused."

Yesterday a reader sent us a link to a music file containing the two offending phrases, which can be found here. Hit the jump for the translation of the offending phrases.

The words are:

1- In the 18th second: "كل نفس ذائقة الموت" ("kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt", literally: 'Every soul shall have the taste of death').

2- Almost immediately after, in the 27th second: "كل من عليها فان" ("kollo man alaiha fan", literally: 'All that is on earth will perish').

Thanks to NSider for providing the link and translation.

We'll keep you updated as we hear more on how this recall effects release dates.

Qu'ran references force worldwide LittleBigPlanet recall [GamesIndustry.biz]

Send an email to Michael Fahey, the author of this post, at fahey@kotaku.com.