Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

Hindus opposing EU swastika ban

The Nazis hijacked the symbol from its Hindu origins
Hindus in Europe have joined forces against a German proposal to ban the display of the swastika across the European Union, a Hindu leader said.
Ramesh Kallidai of the Hindu Forum of Britain said the swastika had been a symbol of peace for thousands of years before the Nazis adopted it.

He said a ban on the symbol would discriminate against Hindus.

Germany, holder of the EU presidency, wants to make Holocaust denial and the display of Nazi symbols a crime.

Mr Kallidai said his organisation was writing to European lawmakers to highlight the issue

[In the U.S., the Klan is allowed to have its symbols, in France and Germany being viewed as a holocaust denier could land you in jail.
Of course, such views are repugnant. I think the Hindus have a point.
Germany is trying too hard to seem to wash itself from its past. If displaying a swastika should be a crime, then why shouldn't cartoons of Islam be a crime? Does Europe understand the implications of these double standards?]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6269627.stm

[On the other hand]

Good for the Hindus. Even if the ban could somehow be restricted to neo-nazi usage of the swastika, it would still be pretty pointless. Do the people proposing this ban really think that racist propagandists are going to be hindered simply by not being able to display a swastika? A lot of the worst racists aren't neo-Nazis, and are in fact publically anti-Nazi. (Hello, Jewish Defense League!) Furthermore, the actual neo-Nazis have proven themselves rather adept at coming up with alternative icons that get the message accross.





So to be truly effective, they'd have to ban not only swastikas, but anything that could be construed as resembling a swastika. I don't know how you'd go about even beginning to write such a law.

[ella]

IIRC, displaying a swastika in public other than for scholarly purposes already is a crime in Germany, but Hindu and Jain temples are excluded, according to German law.

[Rteacher]

There's a fairly comprehensive article on swastikas in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

[Big_Bird]

Just come across a relevant article:

A blanket ban on Holocaust denial would be a serious mistake

[cbclark4]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQa4YkjSZyU&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLfm2s3PIdA&mode=related&search=

cbc

[happeningthang]

Why exactly do there need to be laws against holocaust denial anyway?

[cbclark4]

I think it's considered hate speech or some such.

cbc

[dogbert]

Europe must seem like a real crazy place to a Hindoo.

The people eat beef, but ban swastikas.

[jmbran11]

I thought the original swastika symbol (before alteration) was a Buddhist symbol. Isn't that why you see them sometimes in Korea? Are there Korean Hindus?

[Nowhere Man]

Buddhism, which started in India, borrowed it from Hinduism, which is older.

[thepeel]

They should respect that it has a negative meaning for us, and we should accept that it does not have the same meaning for them. We, and they, ought to act accordingly when around each other. Problem solved.

About the Holocaust denying laws. They should not exist. But, I think that they do exist in Europe as a means to criminalize certain faaar-right groups. Maybe our Belgian friend can comment on this more?

[Privateer]

[Milwaukiedave]

I saw a story about this on CNN this afternoon. They had a woman (I can't remember her name) that represented Hindus and she made an interesting analogy. She said banning the swastika would be the same as banning the cross for Christians (because the KKK burn crosses). Not sure if I got that down right, maybe someone else saw it and can correct me.

[jmbran11]

Or like banning the star of David because Satanists used pentagrams?