Image of Yoda featured with King Faisal in Saudi textbook

Riyadh, Sept. 23: Saudi Arabia’s education minister has apologised for the production of a school textbook in which the Star Wars character Yoda is seen superimposed on a photograph of the late King Faisal, reported the BBC on Saturday.

Mr Ahmed al-Issa said a committee was looking into the “unintended mistake”.

The image, which shows the diminutive Jedi Master sitting beside King Faisal as he signs the United Nations Charter in 1945, was created by Saudi artist Shaweesh. He said it was not yet clear how it had ended up in the textbook.

However, Mr Shaweesh stressed that he had meant no offence King Faisal, who helped transform Saudi Arabia into a modern state and an actor on the world stage.

“Everyone loves King Faisal here, even the younger generations,” Mr Shaweeh said.

The 2013 artwork, entitled United Nations (Yoda), is part of a series in which symbols of American pop culture ranging from Captain America to Darth Vader are superimposed onto archive photos of historical events.

The initial inspiration, Mr Shaweesh said, was a photograph of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat standing beside Mickey Mouse during a visit to Disneyland.

Mr Shaweesh mentioned

The image (left) which shows the diminutive Jedi Master sitting beside King Faisal as he signs the United Nations Charter in 1945, was created by Saudi artist Shaweesh

that he included Yoda in the photo of King Faisal — who was then serving as his father Ibn Saud’s foreign envoy — because they were both “wise, strong and always calm”.

Mr Shaweesh further added that some critical comments had been made about his artwork after the textbook’s publication, but most of it had been directed towards the education ministry.

“Someone should have checked the image before printing,” Mr Shaweesh added.