Danish toy maker Lego is upset with the United Nations, after the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights published an “anti-discrimination” poster that uses a Lego building block to smear Denmark: Lego Caught Up In Racism Poster Row.

“We feel that the message of this poster can be interpreted as if we are a racist company,” Lego spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said. “I don’t know if that’s what’s intended, but it’s definitely one way of interpreting it.”

However, the UN said no affiliation to Lego was intended and apologised for the misunderstanding.

“The poster is in no way a comment on the specific situation in Denmark or on Lego,” a spokesperson said. “It is unfortunate that the poster has been interpreted as such.”

Right.

And in case you doubt that this is a deliberate comment on the Danish cartoons, note these recent statements from Doudou Diène, the UN’s “Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance:” Racism and racial discrimination on rise around the world, UN expert warns.

Referring to the recent controversial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspaper cartoons and the violent reactions, he said the cartoons illustrated the increasing emergence of the racist and xenophobic currents in everyday life. But the political context in Denmark was what had given birth to the cartoons.

It was one in which an extremist political party enjoyed 13 per cent of the vote and had formed part of the governing coalition. The development of Islamophobia or any racism and racial discrimination always took place in the context of the emergence of strong racist, extremist political parties and a corresponding absence of reaction against such racism by the country’s political leaders, Mr. Diène said.

UPDATE at 3/22/06 12:58:50 pm:

Michelle Malkin notes that the “anti-racism” poster has mysteriously vanished from the UN web site.

And just to make the point crystal clear, there was also a version in Arabic: