Should the Swastika Be Banned? [View all]

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Sam Panthaky/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Hindu religious men gave final touches to a folk art piece shaped in the form of the Swastika on Oct. 24, 2011.

By Diksha Sahni, Wall Street Journal (Blog), January 13, 2012

New Delhi, India -- The Swastika, a Hindu and Buddhist symbol later associated with Nazi Germany, sparked fresh controversy as local authorities requested a store in a New York borough to stop selling Swastika-shaped earrings because they deemed them offensive.

“Let me be clear – a swastika is not a fashion statement. It is the most hateful symbol in our culture, and an insult to any civilized person,” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a statement, adding that selling the earrings amounted to a “hate crime.” Arguing that the sale of the Swastika earrings was “shocking to the sensibilities of all New Yorkers,” he demanded a recall of the earrings.

In an interview with Fox News, the store’s manager said the design of the earrings was “not a Nazi symbol.”

“I don’t know what’s the problem. My earrings are coming from India as a Buddhist symbol,” she said. In Hindu culture, the Swastika is depicted as an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles. In the Nazi version, the Swastika is tilted. The earrings could’ve been either.

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