Hindus Oppose Plan For EU Swastika Ban

[Guest guest]

(January 17, 2007): Hindus across Europe are joining forces to stop a

German-led move to put an EU-wide ban on the Swastika – a 5,000

year-old religious Hindu sign but now more known for being the symbol

of the Nazis.

 

Hindus in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK plan to

visit each EU capital, the European Commission and members of the

European Parliament to gather support to defy the German move,

according to press reports.

 

German justice minister Brigitte Zypries earlier this month called for

a Europe-wide initiative to tackle right-wing extremism to be put in

place and plans to push ahead with the idea using her country's

current presidency of the EU.

 

The initiative could lead to common laws across the bloc making it a

crime to deny genocide and display Nazi symbols.

 

Since its adoption by the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler, the swastika has

been associated with fascism, racism, and the Holocaust in the western

world. It is banned in Germany.

 

Meanwhile, the swastika also remains a symbol of some current Neo-Nazi

groups, with the German government - alarmed by a rise in far-right

crime at home - now pressing to harmonize the rules for punishing

offenders across the EU.

 

"That's not the fault of the Hindus," said Ramesh Kallidai, secretary

general of the Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB), according to AFP. "The

Nazi Party started using a Hindu symbol and abused it."

 

In Hindu tradition, it is one of the religion's most sacred symbols of

peace.

 

"It is almost like saying that the Klu Klux Klan used burning crosses

to terrorize black men, so therefore let us ban the cross. How does

that sound to you?" questioned Mr Kallidai, according to Reuters.

 

The forum is writing letters to European commissioners and MEPs to

explain that the swastika predates Nazi use by thousands of years.

 

"We've been using it for peaceful purposes, completely unrelated to

the use that the Nazi Party put it to," Mr Kallidai stated.

 

He said a possible ban on swastikas would be an abuse of human rights:

"Hindu ceremonies are never concluded without the swastika, so it's

actually discrimination against Hindus, an abuse of human rights."

 

Laws against denying the holocaust exist in Austria, Belgium, France,

Germany and Spain.

 

"Every time we see a swastika symbol in a Jewish cemetery, that of

course must be condemned. But when the symbol is used in a Hindu

wedding, people should learn to respect that," he said.

 

SOURCE: © 2007 EUobserver, All rights reserved

URL: http://euobserver.com/9/23284?rss_rk=1