A Lego-style figurine resembling terrorist strapped with explosives and made by a small American company has caused an uproar among Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
The controversial miniature figure, created by Seattle-based Will Chapman as part of his BrickArms military fighters line, is a bearded militant with a face-covering hood, a tiny toy assault rifle, a little grenade launcher and plastic bombs that can be attached to an explosives belt.
The character is called "Bandit — Mr. White" and sells for $14.
The jarring toy has outraged the British Muslim organization known as the Ramadhan Foundation, which called the figurine "absolutely disgusting," according to Sky News.
The foundation's chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq, complained that the toy is "glorifying terrorism."
"I don't think there's any difference between someone that shouts hatred through a megaphone and someone that creates a doll that glorifies terrorists," he told Sky.
"As a parent myself, I'm going to teach my children respect for the law and respect for each and every community. These are the lessons parents should be giving to their children — not lessons about weapons and violence."
Chapman, a father of three who operates the company from the Seattle suburb of Redmond, Wash., bristles at the notion that he is celebrating terrorism.
"We do not sell an 'Osama bin Laden' miniature figure," he wrote in an e-mail to FOXNews.com. "We sell a generic bad guy minifigure with a Ninja scarf head wrap, the same minifigure that we have been selling for over a year now, with no associated 'outrage.'
"It does not represent anything; it is simply a bandit — a bad guy for the good guys to battle. Attempt to assign it a 'personality' only serves to create controversy that does not exist."
On his Web site, he explains that his 9-year-old son gave him the idea for the toy line, which includes 31 different Lego-style weapons and a variety of military figurines.
He told FOXNews.com that BrickArms is a "family-owned and family-run business."
"We started in 2006, when one of our sons expressed an interest in military history and weaponry of the WW2 era," he wrote. "He wanted to recreate scenes from history, with his LEGO bricks and figures, so he and I designed the first of many of our BrickArms miniature toy weapon replicas."
Other figurines in the line are World War II fighters, U.S. Marines and even a Nazi SS officer.
LEGO issued a statement Thursday saying that the company isn't associated with the BrickArms toys.
"BrickArms is not licensed by LEGO Group to customize LEGO figures and has no links to the LEGO brand," the statement said.
"The LEGO Group is committed to developing toys which enrich childhood by encouraging imaginative and creative play — and does not endorse products that do not fit with this philosophy."
Now, why is Ramadhan Foundation assuming that the terrorist figure is a Muslim??? ;)
H/T Glocktalk
Let me see...Mr White has yellow skin, a scarf and weapons. Which of these things scream his religious affiliation again?
ReplyDeleteMaybe if these same groups would denounce actual terrorism with the same fervor, there'd be no need for toy figures to represent them?