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Austria’s
Turkish community has threatened to sue Lego because it thinks the firm’s “Star
Wars: Jabba’s Palace” box set might teach children to associate Islam with
violence and terrorism.
One
of the buildings is a “one-to-one copy” of the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul,
while the figure with an axe and machine gun in the minaret-like structure
could be a muezzin, the Turkish Cultural Community said.
The
“terrorist” Jabba the Hut, the malevolent slug-like alien kingpin from the
“Star Wars” movies, meanwhile “loves smoking a water pipe”, it said in a
statement.
“It
is obvious that the hideous villain Jabba the Hut’s figure and the entire
backdrop encourage the depiction of Orientals and Asians as sneaky criminals,”
it said.
The
organisation said it was considering filing criminal complaints against
Denmark’s Lego in Austria and Germany for alleged incitement to racial hatred.
It is also mulling legal steps in Turkey.
A
Lego spokeswoman, Katharina Sasse, told AFP that the buildings in the box set
were faithful copies from “fantasy” structures in the “Star Wars” movies and
that the firm was “very sorry” if offence was caused.
“We
can guarantee that we definitely did not copy the mosque mentioned or any other
building,” Sasse said. She added that Lego had no plans to withdraw the product
before its scheduled phase-out at the end of 2013.
Pakistan Cyber Force
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