Complaints Force Lego to Pull Jabba the Hutt Set

Toy maker Lego will stop selling a model of the palace of “Star Wars” villain Jabba the Hutt after criticism that the palace looks like a mosque.
Complaints Force Lego to Pull Jabba the Hutt Set
Jack Phillips
4/2/2013
Updated:
7/18/2015

Toy maker Lego will stop selling a model of the palace of “Star Wars” villain Jabba the Hutt after criticism that the palace looks like a mosque.

The Turkish Cultural Association of Austria on Monday said the toy set looks like the famed Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. 

“This does not belong in children’s bedrooms,” Birol Kilic, chairman of the organization, told NBC News. “And the minaret-like tower features machine guns. Children will become insensitive to violence and other cultures.”

“The game is pedagogical dynamite. It depicts Muslims as terrorists,” the Turkish Cultural Association also said, according to The Independent. It added that Jabba is depicted as a “terrorist who likes to smoke hookah and have his victims killed.”

Kilic told the broadcaster that following a meeting with Lego, the Danish toy maker said it will stop selling the play set.

“We only keep a product in the assortment for a few years and it was scheduled to exit in 2013 from launch,” Lego said via Twitter.

The play set features obese alien Jabba the Hutt, who first appeared in “Return of the Jedi” in 1983, in his lair.

Lego added “Jabba’s Palace” to its Star Wars collection in 2012, according to The Independent. However, the set drew condemnation after a Muslim father found that his family member gave it to his son as a present.

At first, when complaints emerged about the play set, Lego said, “The product is however not based on any real building but on a fictional building from a scene in the movie Star Wars Episode VI.”  

“The Lego designers try to reproduce all buildings, space ships and characters from the movies as close as possible when creating a new Lego” product for Star Wars, it added.

The Hagia Sophia is one of the most famous buildings of the ancient world. It was dedicated to the Bishop of Antioch in 360 AD under the rule of Byzantine emperor Constantine II.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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