I'm not going to say you can't use a swastika in India, but the people the article opens with are extremely naive, and should recognize that, or they're just trolling. You can't live in the US (Queens is in NY, right?) and think you can simply display a swastika, mirrored or not.
> You can't live in the US and think you can simply display a swastika, mirrored or not.
The US has the First Amendment. This would clearly be protected First Amendment speech.
Obviously a condo board or co-op board can have its own rules about displays in common areas inside the building similar to a HOA. But even these are subject to the Fair Housing Act, and cannot discriminate based on religion.
May be, but the people are allowed to think something else, and say that too. So, bad luck if they get grouped with neo-nazis, and that's it? When in Rome...
> Why not? You don't get to impose your beliefs on your neighbour.
It’s nothing to do with belief, more with common sense and respect. Tourists are advised to cover their heads when visiting Middle East countries; or not wear shorts when visiting Buddhism temples. It’s the same here for visitors to Western countries, where Nazis have left a deep deep scar in the society.
I mean, I most certainly would never use a crooked cross for the reason you point out, but it's a bit much to demand that an ancient culture change their behaviour because of your lack of discernment with regard to usage and intent.
It's also worth pointing out that the Nazi's barely did anything in the US. They inflicted their horrors on millions of people in Europe. The horror of genocide against native Americans in the US wasn't perpetuated by Nazis.
If you want to fight back against such evils in the present day, rather than making a fuss about symbols, the world would be be better served if you helped fight back against those who inherited the hate of the nazis and now perpetuate it on Palestinians in Palestine. In fact many who carry that torch come from USA to squat on and steal Palestinian lands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbPnF8Hvj0I
> This silliness of taking things out of context and then attacking them has got to stop.
A comment in a thread about a swastika should not be used as an opportunity to connect Judaism to Israeli policy. The discussion of the suffering of the Jews of Europe and their sensitivity to this symbol is orthogonal to that YouTube video you linked.
This is an example of a commonly used anti-semetic tactic to try and link these two together in order to justify lack of sympathy for Jews.
> millions of people in Europe
Many of whom immigrated to the United States after WW2.
> A comment in a thread about a swastika should not be used as an opportunity to connect Judaism to Israeli policy.
Fair point. I withdraw that and apologise for going off on a tangent. But I still don't accept that Nazis or Jews should have a say in the use of the symbol when used in the old ways as it was used before Hitler corrupted it.
And fwiw I agree that no one should try and suppress using the symbol in the old ways.
Context is important (putting it on a billboard in queens would obviously have a much higher chance of being misinterpreted) but cooler heads will prevail.
But in this context [not accusing you, just giving context for why I’m commenting at all] it’s just alarming when encountering a world view where people auto jump to jews are centrally organizing to try to control ~thing~. I understand it's very hard to quell this habit once it starts.
It's not that unusual to see swastikas in their appropriate context among the various Indian communities living in Canada; I've seen them on homes, temples and on Diwali holiday cards.
> "It's nothing with Hitler. We don't follow Hitler. We don't follow even extremist people right now, okay? We are a religion against that," he said. "Believe me I don't know that's his symbol. That's a Hitler's symbol? I don't know."
Naive is a little harsh, but maybe it's the right word. It's usually not trolling. When I was a kid, a family in our neighbourhood, recent Chinese immigrants, initially chose the English name Adolph for their son. They'd certainly heard of Hitler; but they were unaware of the intensity of the name taboo.
America is not that open minded. Even though the commercials say so. As long as we give folks privilege because of the color of their epidermis white/black/yellow/glow in the dark pink. If they can't get past realizing that it's performance that matters vs your shell. They will never get past symbol stories. Just the reality on the ground. No matter how much money you throw at it.
It's not "a white person." It's not about "PoC". It's the horror of the Nazis vs. some ancient symbol co-opted by religions (and AFAIK, one of many symbols in these religions, and never the main one), being on display in the US, not in Eastern Asia.
Nowhere in the mein kampf by Hitler does he call it a swastika, in the original German publication He called it haken Cruz which literally means hooked cross, it being a hooked Christian cross. t was a Christian bishop who translated it to English and translated hakencruz to swastika. Effectively taking the blame off Christianity and pushing it onto eastern religions
In German, there are no two terms for those, both are called "Hakenkreuz". And the Nazi ideology actually made references to eastern culture and peoples, claiming that Germans were descendents of the Aryan peoples: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/aryan-1
And while Nazi antisemitism was of course descended from the traditional christian antisemitism, there were also parts of the Nazi movement that called for a replacement of christianity by an "Aryan" or "German" religion, which seems to have been a mixture of Germanic/Norse religion and more modern esotericisms.
So yes, while eastern religions are blameless for what the Nazis made of their symbol, it also isn't of christian descent either.
Hitler wasn't a Christian, and it isn't a hooked version of the Christian cross. And it doesn't matter what he called it. This is about the symbol itself, as it's on display. It is seen as a Nazi symbol in the US. That's where these people live.
> taking the blame off Christianity and pushing it onto eastern religions
Nonsense. Nobody in their right mind blames Eastern religions for what the Nazis did.
Then why did the Bishop translate Hakencruz to Swastika? The words are completely unrelated, the symbology is more similar to the "hooked" version and nothing to do with Swastik which has dots on it. It was a clear attempt by the Church to wash their hands.
