Sustainability Plastic explosive: P.C. police hunt down ‘Osama bin Lego’
by Ward Harkavy
While real people are being blown up all over the world, religious leaders are taking up arms against little Lego terrorists.
The crusade against BrickArms’s tiny terror toy is all the rage in the Brit tabloids. Naturally, one of Rupert Murdoch‘s papers, the Sun, has the best headline: “Osama bin Lego.”
But no news outlet is as consistently droll as the Brit techie Register, which for this story blares:
“Lego terrorist threatens democracy: Religious leaders slam ‘Toy Taliban'”
Religious leaders have united to express their dismay at a custom range of Lego figures — including a “Toy Taliban” armed to the teeth with C96 broomhandle Mauser pistol, AK Assault Rifle and M67 frag grenades.
The offending terrorist — made by US firm BrickArms — didn’t much impress Mohammed Shaffiq, of Muslim organisation The Ramadhan Foundation, who slammed the toy as “absolutely disgusting”.
He told the Sun: “It is glorifying terrorism — the makers should be ashamed. We should be coming together to unite against terrorism, but how is that possible when children are playing with toys like this?”
The Register story adds:
Everything is “disgusting” to Shaffiq. Remember those Danish cartoons? “Disgusting,” Shaffiq said in March 2007. Or The Jewel of Medina? “I am disgusted at the novel,” Shaffiq said in November 2008.
Meanwhile, BrickArms, a family business in Redmond, Washington, is molding plastic and young minds. Check out Will Chapman‘s charming history of his small company.