It seems like an Onion spoof: the Turkish Cultural Community in Austria accuses Lego of racism.
Numerous articles write, and cite one another, that the Turkish Cultural Community doesn’t like that the palace used by Jabba the Hutt resembles the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul. They also say that the Lego figures depict Asians as people with “deceitful and criminal personalities.”
“The terrorist Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke a hookah and have his victims killed,” said the statement allegedly posted on the organization’s website (with no link).
“It is clear that the ugly figure of Jabba and the whole scene smacks of racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Asians and Orientals as people with deceitful and criminal personalities.”
Squelch the outrage.
Tim Worstall makes a great case for this story being a spoof. I came across it while searching for the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria’s website—which I couldn’t find, but was cited as the original source of the controversy.
Click to read Worstall’s Forbes piece for the whole backstory. If the story IS true, then maybe North Korean leader Kim Jong Un really was the “sexiest man alive for 2012.“
