I don't think you need to implement a huge algorithm to check if string has unsafe data - filters and regular expressions do the work. But, if you need a more complex check, maybe this will fit your needs:

<?php
$strings = array();
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    ';alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))//\';alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))//";alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))//\";alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))//--></SCRIPT>">'><SCRIPT>alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))</SCRIPT>
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    '';!--"<XSS>=&{()}
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    <SCRIPT SRC=http://ha.ckers.org/xss.js></SCRIPT>
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    This is a safe text
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    <IMG SRC="javascript:alert('XSS');">
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    <IMG SRC=javascript:alert('XSS')>
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    <IMG SRC=&#106;&#97;&#118;&#97;&#115;&#99;&#114;&#105;&#112;&#116;&#58;&#97;&#108;&#101;&#114;&#116;&#40;&#39;&#88;&#83;&#83;&#39;&#41;>
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    perl -e 'print "<IMG SRC=java\0script:alert(\"XSS\")>";' > out
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    <SCRIPT/XSS SRC="http://ha.ckers.org/xss.js"></SCRIPT>
EOD;
$strings[] = <<<EOD
    </TITLE><SCRIPT>alert("XSS");</SCRIPT>
EOD;



libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$sourceXML = '<root><element>value</element></root>';
$sourceXMLDocument = simplexml_load_string($sourceXML);
$sourceCount = $sourceXMLDocument->children()->count();

foreach( $strings as $string ){
    $unsafe = false;
    $XML = '<root><element>'.$string.'</element></root>';
    $XMLDocument = simplexml_load_string($XML);
    if( $XMLDocument===false ){
        $unsafe = true;
    }else{

        $count = $XMLDocument->children()->count();
        if( $count!=$sourceCount ){
            $unsafe = true;
        }
    }

    echo ($unsafe?'Unsafe':'Safe').': <pre>'.htmlspecialchars($string,ENT_QUOTES,'utf-8').'</pre><br />'."\n";
}
?>