There are plenty of questionable apps available on iTunes – from the plethora of fart clones to belly jam – but here are some that Apple approved then removed because they were offensive.
What Apple approves, keeps or pulls in iTunes was on my mind over the weekend as I watched the number of signers to the online petition to remove a “gay-cure” app from Christian group Exodus International boom.
When we first wrote about the app, there were 6,700 signatures – about as many that got the much milder Manhattan Declaration pulled – there are now nearly 90,000.
Apple still hasn’t responded, the group behind the petition Truth Wins Out, has said it will stage a protest at Cupertino headquarters. While we wait to see what Apple will say, here are some apps that were OK’d then pulled over protests.
Baby Shaker only lasted a few hours before outrage over this game – where you silenced the kid by shaking the iPhone — got it whisked out of the iTunes store. Apple never made any comment as to how it got approved in the first place.
Beauty Meter sounded innocuous enough: a user-generated beauty contest, where people rated the contestants. Too bad there were underaged girls on it and plenty of nudity.
iSlam Muhammad offered to let downloaders “Enjoy violent and hateful passages from The Qur’an that support and encourage Muslims to attack and behead anyone who does not agree with them. See how Allah directs his followers to treat men and women.” Who is approving this stuff?
Hottest Girls was another quasi-porn app that played peek-a-boo on iTunes – the naked women featured here were available for just a day.
What do you think Apple will do in the Exodus app case, given the precedents?
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
93 responses to “From Baby Shaker to iSlam Muhammad, Apps Apple Pulled from iTunes”
Well if they do pull it, they’ll just open themselves up to the “Apple is anti-Christian” mutterings again.
true — but if they leave it there because after the last one they have changed the policy but don’t communicate that it’s not going to go away
I think Apple will pull the anti-gay app once the outrage gets to a certain level, but I think this is bad policy to simply remove stuff when people complain. People complain about a lot of things that are completely innocuous (like the baby shaker app). Apps being censored need to be censored for a valid, solid, reason like because they cause more harm than good or violate someone’s human rights, not just because enough people shout loud enough about them to get them removed.
“I (we) don’t like it,” is never a good enough reason for censorship. Everyone doesn’t like something or other.
Agree — the real problem is that they don’t have a policy.
LOL
i kinda bet that (Islam mohamad )
is made by someone who wants to hurt the image of islam
,, since it has nothing to do with (islam ) which mean : peace
The word itself might mean peace, but if the way to achieve it is to consider woman as inferior to man, and clear descriptions on how to violently deal with infidels, homosexuals, clear death sentence for apostocy, etc, etc.. then I I guess peace is not really the right word to describe it!
Cheers
In that case every an anti children stoning campain would also be considered anti-christian…
“Stone disobedient children” (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
I used to be just like you….until I stopped watching FOX news and actually visited a mosque and asked them my questions.
The Christian bible also promotes those same ideals.
You’re absolutely right.. most religions in the world have those things in their books…
When will people realize there is absolutely no claim for any of the methaphysical religious claims, and start using common sense to be good?
Shnka411, I did the same.. with both Catholic, Protestans, Muslim and hindu faiths. The feeling you get from the people is of course peacefull, but it is worthwhile to digg deeper into all the things religion in general promotes. Just look what happens when you give religious groups authority.. from the cruzades when christians slaughtered half europe to the middle east situation where dictators gain their power hiding behind a religious curtain…
Cheers!
I was going to write something extremely long here… but I guess I will settle for a /facepalm, since it is more fitting and quicker.
Then why don’t they let us take over their country’s resources and build bases there peacefully?
But all the dictators there have are U.S. lackeys until they stop taking orders.
That’s the old testament. The new one is full of nothing but love (with a couple of notable exceptions)
The Pope happens to like that app a lot.
I guess I should turn the other cheek :)
Seriously Nutz321, I guess you are too inteligent to hit someone because of someone expressing his/her opinion!
This is a topic like any other, except that is not based on anything real (or at least with any proof)… so most believers are afraid of discussing it!
and connecting this to the main topic, why should a company support certain groups that claim the existence of certain celestial entities and try to push their own laws, which are totaly against common sense?
Cheers!
Well, not all of them, look at the situation in Persia, they went through a revolution to take down someone who was indeed influenced by the US and since 79 democracy seized to exist and a teocracy is in place.. with all its stoning rules, disrespect for woman, etc..
Oh, really? Actually, it doesn’t. The writings in the New Testament contest sin, but it does not promote violent acts against infidels, homosexuals etc.
Although the words are related, “Islam” does not mean “peace” – it means “submission” (to the will of God).
Maybe Exodus International will create an App for Cancer victims? Im sure they have many good reasons to suggest why people are contracting the disease more than ever. Maybe from greed or stupidity, or just not believing in their religion? What would Steve Jobs think of that? Get a grip Apple, we are not living in the stone age and plenty of us Homos are buying your products! Have some respect!
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Just look what happens when you give religious groups authority.. from the cruzades when christians slaughtered half europe to the middle east situation where dictators gain their power hiding behind a religious curtain…
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Yeah OK and Stalin who was an atheist was a nice guy who ran the USSR like Disney Land. 20 million deaths say otherwise. People who are nut bars are the problem not the love of God. There’s a distinct difference between the two.
I said it once and I’ll say it again. I’ll gladly support the removal of the Exodus app and I’ll even sign the online petition BUT ONLY if apps such as Bible Thumper are also removed. Let’s see all sides get an equal amount of respect. Now wouldn’t that be a novel idea.
you don’t believe in the old testament?
he’s not wrong, it’s just that all the billion+ muslims in the world don’t have that exact interpretation, so I get the FOX reference.
but you could also say,
I used to be just like you….until I stopped watching CNN news and actually visited a church and asked them my questions.
you can’t forget where you came from.
you’re taught both books for a reason.
the baby shaker app isn’t really innocuous. In a society where you have to put a warning on the nyquil that says “do not give to children to make them sleep”, an app that says you have to shake your baby to make it quiet down is ludicrous. Sure, it is just a joke, but people are too stupid to assume that they know that. Look at that old “x-ray” app. How many comments are there on it that are along the lines of “omfg it doesn’t really turn your phone into a hazardous radiation emitting machine, i used it on my foot and it still showed a hand!!!”
That’s true!
The big difference is that Stalin did not do those things “in the name of”, while the religious groups do a lot of evil in the name of religion. And the problem is, they believe they are doing the right thing!
Islam comes from the Arabic root word salaam, which means peace.
I think you’re going off of false stereotypes: Islam says women are spiritually equal to men, the Quran makes it clear that they are not inferior. Don’t take what Saudi Arabia or what terrorists do as an example and apply it to the 1.5 Billion Muslims around the world. I’m a practicing Muslim and I support women’s rights and oppose violence and terrorism and these unjust punishments handed out overseas in corrupt countries.
They use the religion as a curtain, but is the curtain a curtain or is it a sheet? These leaders are not real Muslims. When the West colonised the East, they put in these leaders.
“After World War I, the Arabs, who had revolted against the Ottomans in 1916-18, supported by the UK who sent them Captain T. E. Lawrence, found they had been doubly betrayed. For not only had the British and the French concluded the secret 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement to partition the Middle East between them, but the British had also promised to the international Zionist movement their support in creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine via the 1917 Balfour Declaration, although the former site of the ancient Kingdom of Israel had a largely Arab population for over a thousand years. When the Ottomans departed, the Arabs proclaimed an independent state in Damascus, but were too weak, militarily and economically, to resist the European powers for long, and Britain and France soon established control and re-arranged the Middle East to suit themselves.”
I think those whoa re against the Exodus app need to grow up, stop hating Christians, and practice the tolerance that they demand from others.
Hypocrites.
Even suggesting that the Exodus app is remotely linked to the above apps is disturbing and delusional.
Nutz321,
I do agree many of the dictators were indeed supported by the US. Like in the case of Egypt, and of course the populations were revolted over having a forced leader imposed by another country, leading to the revolution as we have seen it.
But let’s be carefull here as history can repeat itself as it did in Persia/Iran. In the 50s revolution, England and the US imposed a leader to them, who ruled the country for decades. Besides him being a visionary, not promoting head scarfs, promoting equality, and making it one of the most developed countries in the middle east, the populations frustration over not being able to choose their own leader, led to the 79 revolution where they just blindly teared down the government and put an islamic govenment into place. And look what happened… they became one of the most human right disrespectfull countries, by law a woman is worth half than a man, apostacy is punished with death, betrayal is punished by stoning!
Let’s learn from history and realize that state-church separation is a key asset towards respect and individual freedom!
Sulayman,
Thanks for the comment!
I do agree that there are many false stereotypes. I actually had a Catholic background and only in an adult age, when I was able to read the religious books by myself realized that the big stereotype in religion is indeed, that it is peaceful and respectful. I am not talking of any particular religion, but just generalizing a bit towards the Christianity, Judaism and Islam. All of them regard woman as inferior. In the quran it is clearly stated that a woman is worth half as much as a man. Just look at the definition of heaven for man and woman.. it is a bit different for both I would say, defining women as objects for men. Same happens for the Christian based faiths. Polygamy is only accepted from the man side, never the other way around, the woman is described as being a property of the father which is transfered uppon mariage… not to mention all the descriptions of when a man is allowed to beat his wife, etc (deuteronomy in the bible)
I know most people who happen to follow a religion are good people, whith great intentions, like I’m sure you are. Unfortunatelly, the underlying principles of those faiths can lead very good people to do very bad things. Because of that, and the lack of any proof of any of the claims, I believe one is better thinking for himself.
Cheers
Regarding Israel you are right. It is an extremelly sensitive topic, as for religious reasons it was decided to create a country where other people lived… a completely full and stupid idea, from my point of view! But nowadays, after 3 generations, none of the living people have fault of what the ancestors did. I believe the situation will only be solved once everyone can forget about any religions, and reach a level of maturity like european countries which were able to tear down the physical borders between them.
I appreciate you being civil, but I need to point out that the Quran does Not say a woman is worth half as much as a man. God loves all men and women and does not devalue either, He is quite clear in the Quran as to that. As to the “definition” of paradise, Islam is clear that guiltless sex is one of the pleasures of paradise, it doesn’t say for men only.
As for male-only polygamy, there was a practical reason for it. Polyandry (where a woman has multiple husbands) was seen as infeasible because there was no real way of establishing paternity, which becomes even more important in cases of divorce and child support.
Sulayman,
Quoting the quran, the passages:
Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females, and if there be women more than two, then theirs is two-thirds of the inheritance, and if there be one (only) then the half. — Quran 4:11
… unto the male is the equivalent of the share of two females. — Quran 4:176
And call two witness from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not at hand, then a man and two women. — Quran 2:282
(Of course most ancient religious books share similar passages)
I understand, as you mentioned with the man-only polygamy, that these things might have made sense in a society as it was a thousand years ago, the problem is still nowadays people take these things as a model for living, ending up in a total disrespect for basic human rights, and end up doing terrible things like forcing woman to completely hide themselves, forcing submission to men, mutilating children’s sexual organs, and performing acts of terrorism among who just think that the things written in those books have no proof and don’t make sense…
What is surprising for me is why people defend so much, and are willing to hurt others, for things with absolutely no proof?
I very much I appreciate your feedback and views!
Cheers
That’s your evidence of gender inequality?
Men usually got more in inheritance because they were tasked with taking care of the family, as well as any wives and children they had when they claimed the inheritance.
As to the female witnesses, the entire paragraph in the Quran is concerning business transactions and how you need witnesses to whatever deal you make for it to hold up in court. Since women in 7th century Arabia were not generally considered as financially literate, the passage in the Quran recommends using two women to make sure there would be no trouble recalling it at a later date. It makes sense; if I was at a hedge fund meeting I wouldn’t be able to recount the events nor the vocabulary since I have no training or much financial literacy. Scholars have said for a very long time that this Quranic ayat pertains only to financial transactions, and not things like criminal trials etc.
I agree with you that there is a problem with people who try living strict unflexible rules, but these supposed Muslims who do that aren’t following the Book. Female genital mutilation is a pre-Islamic practice and its cultural, not religious (even Christians from the region do it, despite both Muslim and Christian leaders speaking out against the practice.) Islam actually has a large body of scholars who update the interpretation of the religion, via a process known as Ijtihad the religion gets updated to deal with new situations like organ transplants, praying in space, etc. I realize you may look down on all religions (or thats the implication I’m reading from your comment), but they’re not all alike and they’re not all dogmatic or fixed.
Look, I’m a Muslim, and I dearly love my mother and sisters. I don’t interpret nor practice Islam in a way that demeans women. In my opinion, Islam is better for women than Catholicism; we don’t claim women are the first sinners and women can be scholars. I also oppose violence and hatred, because I think the main part of the religion was to believe in God and do good deeds to one another.
Sulayman,
The love for our dearest ones is completely independent from our faith, or at least I believe it should be. This is something we share as people and is not related to any faith. I, as someone who thinks there isn’t any proof for a concept of God, do also dearly love my closest ones.
As we discussed in the previous arguments, many of the practices are more related to tradition than religion, but religion is indeed used to justify those acts. The examples you mentioned, make total sense in a society in the 7th century, but most of them are completely outrageous nowadays.
With our social evolution, of course religions which want to keep the same books, try to find in the books a different interpretation for what is hapening, but then I see no use for religion, as all we do is try to interpret a book in a way that it makes sense to what is the actual reality.
To answer your question over gender inequality, what happens in most religious countries and the comunities which I visite and keep a close contact with, is that women are subject to completely different rules than men.This was obvious when visiting countries like (northwest) India, Pakistan, Iran, where woman are forced by law (which is claimed to be based on the quran) to wear either a Burqua or a head scarf, they cannot just go jogging with their legs and hair free feeling the wind (but this is ok for men), the bars at the universities are segregated and much smaller for woman… and the list goes on and on…
We could argue that this is due to the countries traditions, but when I visit the religious comunities in europe or north america, I find woman are subject to the same submissive and discriminationg rules by their comunity and family.
There are of course a lot of exceptions to this, but if we look at the big picture, the main motivation for woman to accept these differences and act submisively, is religion, independently of having a good or bad interpretation of it.
Please don’t get me wrong in the sense that I am against someone believing in any concepts, I am just against using it to enforce rules and the submission of others. I honestly appreciate our discussion as I think we are converging towards a the point that the core of any religion should be faith and not a set of imposed rules.
You’re right, none of the ancestors have fault. They are innocent… until they support the cause, that is.
But to say after three generations, “Oh, that was a long time ago, just get over it!” is not an answer. Not only was land taken, but it is STILL being taken more and more, that is what some of the superpowers do best: colonisation. Even Australia still SHOULD (IMO) belong to the Aborigines. But that war is long lost. The Israel/Palestine war is far from over and when you give up, they feel like they can get away with more. You say learn from history, remember what Hitler done when the Allies just appeased him?
Of course, when I say they are not innocent, I do not condone violence until they turn on you. This is a law of Islam, yet many people say that our holy book says to “kill the disbelievers”. This is haram (forbidden) to just kill a disbeliever solely for disbelieving. Islam counts the murder of one man as the murder of the whole human population. Murder is an abhorrent crime. It also counts the saving of one life as the saving of the whole human population. Just one life lost is that important. The whole of humanity is regarded as one body and when a part is dead, the body is crippled.
Anyway, I’m getting off-track, but I want to leave you with this quote and the link to the speech:
“Not you must kill disbelievers in Mecca, but you can, you are allowed to, but:
ONLY after the grace period is over
and ONLY if there’s no other pact in place
and ONLY if they try to stop you getting to the Ka’bah
and ONLY if they attack you first
and even then, God is merciful, forgiveness is supreme, and so, essentially, BETTER IF YOU DON’T”
Here’s the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lesle…
See my response to learning from history below.
If by law, a woman is worth half that of a man, then Iran is not a real Islamic government.
Another quote from the same speech: “And while the Bible is addressed exclusively to men using the second- and third-person masculine, the Qur’an includes women, talking for instance of believing men and believing women, honourable men and honourable women.”
Nutz321,
Fantastic comment, thanks! It is true that many people support the various causes and it is understandable, as it is very difficult for people to step out of the ideas they have been taught while growing up.
The big problem is that countries like israel were created based on some ancient religion which was used as a reference to justify overtaking other people’s property. And the followers of that religion believe it so much that it is unthinkable for them to step out, think rationaly about it and accept that what they did was based on metaphysical ideas to which there is absolutelly no evidence! They end up just doing everything they can to support their ideas, including, as you mentioned ocupying more land, killing, torturing, etc, all this in the name of some abstract god concept…
And on the other side the same happens… believers from other faiths don’t think rationaly and create laws again based on simmilar religions and justifying with it terrorism, muder, torture.
There are of course very good and well intentioned people everywhere, independently of where they were born and what kind of ideas their society tried to impose on them. And religion can unfortunatelly make these good people do terribly bad things, believing that’s the right way to go…
I honestly believe the problems we are discussing here will be solved when the people will realize we are all people, very close neighbours, and we are fighting because of problems which escalated because of some god concepts invented thousands of years ago…
Do you think it is possible for people to step out of these concepts? Or will we be continously fighting over ancient religions with no proof whatsoever?
Nutz321,
I am not discussing any Islam vs Christianity vs Jusaism, etc.. they are al based on the simmilar, many time common concepts, some more elaborated that the others. (See also my comment bellow).
What I mean is that most of the terrible things happening in the world nowadays are done in the name of these beliefs, depending on how someone interprets something. The woman rights disrespect in most religious comunities, are done in the name of religion. And people end up believing that is correct as it was dictated by some superior beeing. But no one realizes that this is an ancient invention with no proof whatsoever that makes people disrespect each other because of it…
And for many people, it is such a sensitive topic, that no one is willing to accept or discuss how ridiculous the concepts of a god are in the world we live in… and how much suffering these faiths bring to everyone around.
As you say near the end, “we are all people, very close neighbours, “. I take offence when you say “ancient religion”, since I am religious myself, but I understand why you say this. I believe that all the ideas in there are how a person should live their lives, but I understand other people may think differently and I respect their opinion. However, what I don’t understand is when people just read everything about their religion and say this or that to prove their religion without considering the other side. I watch Islamic and atheist and other religion videos on YouTube all the time. To blindly believe what you are taught is not good.
People commonly see Muslims and Jews as enemies, yet in the Qur’an, the Jews and Christians are referred to as the “People of the Book” and paints them in a very respectful light. We are not enemies of Judaism. We are enemies of people who take land illegally.
I do believe there are good and bad people on each side. Sometimes, people are miseducated as well. I watched a TED video and the speaker was talking about terrorist camps and how they are grossly misinformed about the teachings of the Qur’an since they can’t read Arabic.
My reply below to “depending on how someone misinterprets something”: “I watched a TED video and the speaker was talking about terrorist camps and how they are grossly misinformed about the teachings of the Qur’an since they can’t read Arabic.”
Anyway, this is turning into an argument about whether religion is real or not and if so, which one. This was a respectable conversation, I don’t want to encourage spammers and trolls to turn this ugly. It will inevitably happen when religion, politics or Mac vs. PC comes up. So let’s either steer the conversation away from whether religion is true or not, that belongs on a different website, or let’s just end it here. Thanks for the conversation though. Some people would have been really disrespectful.
PS. Besides, the replies are getting extremely thin, ;P.
True :)
Thank you for the great conversation!
Absolutely agree one should not blindly believe what one was taught! I guess as you mentioned above, we reached the comment limit here, and also reached some nice consensus!
Thanks one more time for the great exchange of comments!
If the gay community has managed to whine this application out of existence, then I must say that I no longer voice my support for gay marriage. Whats next are they going to demand marriage in all churches?
Yes people are very misleading and most of the time Muslim play great role in this. they portray the worst image of Islam in-front of them that’s why now non Muslims are making fun of our religion. what holy Quran teaches us tells us we are forgetting the true meaning and message inside that.