The Swastika: A Symbol of Goodness or Hate?

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interesting article

seriously, it borders on madness

It certainly doesn’t seem like something that will happen any time soon. When Israeli-American researcher Avrahaum Segol was playing around with Google Earth’s online satellite imaging tools in March 2008, he noticed that the Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home in Alabama looked like a swastika from the air and immediately went up in arms. Although the old-folks’ home had already spent $1 million on a design modification after complaints from a US senator, that obviously wasn’t enough – now it’ll be forced to fork up more cash and make a second attempt to disguise its shape.

It seems Mr. Segol spends a lot of time on Google Earth, because he’s the same guy who back in 2007 pointed out that a US Naval Base in San Diego, California also looks like a swastika from the air. He called the Alabama retirement home its “sister swastika,” and said that they were both part of a tangled, government-funded conspiracy to honor Nazis.
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John Mock, the architect who designed the buildings back in the 1960s, called the allegations ridiculous. “There was no malicious intent,” he told CNN in 2007. “It’s four L-shaped buildings – and whether you look from the ground or the air, it still is.”

But that didn’t stop the Navy from spending about $600,000 to alter the building. When asked about the decision, Morris Casuto, the Anti-Defamation League's Regional Director in San Diego, said, “It doesn’t make any sense that a building on government property would be built in the shape of one of the most hated symbols in human history.”

Wow. Okay, while that’s harsh, maybe it’s to be expected that the government wouldn’t want such public buildings to have any chance of being associated with the Nazis. But surely everyone knows that the swastika is a sacred symbol in India, and that a Hindu’s use of it is religious and perfectly innocent, right?

Wrong.

In November 1998 Devinder Paul Kaushal, a devout Hindu from New Delhi, found his employment of over twelve years at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency hotel terminated after he used window cleaner to spray a swastika on a mirror he was cleaning. The image was immediately wiped away, but Kaushal's co-workers were taken aback, and complained. Kaushal made efforts to explain to his seniors that in his religion the swastika is a prevalent image associated with auspiciousness. But they were not convinced. He was asked to resign, and when he didn’t, was fired days later.

Speaking to Hinduism today, Kaushal said he had no knowledge of how deep the revulsion for the swastika runs in the West: “I did not mean to offend anybody. Now that I have learned more about it, I do feel sorry for the holocaust victims. But people should also be aware that this is our religious symbol. We Hindus have been using it long before anybody else. It is very hard for me to get this through to the public.”

Kaushal attempted to sue the hotel giant for religious discrimination, seeking reinstatement, back pay and damages. But amazingly, he failed. An Illinois federal court found that he did not have a right to display a swastika as an accommodation for his religious practices, stating, “The swastika is so offensive to so many people that its public display…with the sanction of management is unthinkable.”
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Archeological evidence of the swastika goes back 7,000 years. It's a natural geometrical form that can't help arising among a people who develop the technology of weaving. It is a sacred symbol for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Mithraists: one billion people.

It's a shame that Hitler got hold of it, but he was only one of many.

It can go in either direction. I wonder how many "left-handed" swastikas go unreported because nobody's looking for them. It is bound to pop up in architecture and other engineering disciplines. I'm sure you can find it on circuit boards.

Hitler insulted all of the religions that use the swastika as a sacred symbol, but he was an asshole so his insults are no surprise.

The people who want to outlaw all use of the swastika are also insulting all of those religions. What's their excuse?
 
When I first saw the swastika in my own home, I was taken aback. Funny huh? But I strongly support Kaushal's case, and it is a tragedy that he failed.
 
Just a symbol.

People have the feelings of Love, hate or "Good luck" and attribute it to the symbol.

This symbol doesn't give a shit if you like it or not.
 
When I'm using GPS in Japan little Swastika's mark the positions of Buddhists Temples on the map... not to mention they are all over the Buddhist Temples. I think people need to get a life and get over it.
 
I think Indians should start using swastikas as much as possible. I'll put some on my bags, get some jewelry etc.

Hindu homes have swastikas as ornament, adornment or design, in some way or the other.

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This Siegel idiot is just that - an idiot. (Strongly reminds me of a few posters we have/had around this place.)
 
Why is Segol searching for swastikas from space? Maybe he needs something better to do with his time.
 
It just means lucky.
Thank goodness Hitler did not choose the Shamrock as his symbol.
Bang goes the St Patrick's day Booze-up.


I'm glad that in India, they are still using it.
 
lightgigantic said:
John Mock, the architect who designed the buildings back in the 1960s, called the allegations ridiculous. “There was no malicious intent,” he told CNN in 2007. “It’s four L-shaped buildings – and whether you look from the ground or the air, it still is.”
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john mock knew exactly what his building would look like from the air, so did the people that built the building.

the swastika itself holds no special meaning.
what killed the swastika was hitler and his infamy.
 
well, when I see it I don't think happy thoughts. I don't know anyone who does either (except people here) Where I used to work a girl got fired for drawing swatikas on her shoes and refusing to change them.
 
The inanity of a design seen from space that upsets someone having to be "fixed" so everybody's happy underlines the childishness and insecurity of certain people (in a little country we all know about).

Would Israel demand the same thing if someone found a natural formation that looked like a swastika, you could find in Google? What if an astronomer found something like the "face" on Mars that resembled one? Or a swastika nebula? Would this idiot get all upset and demand that something is done about it?
 
Orleander said:
well, when I see it I don't think happy thoughts. I don't know anyone who does either (except people here) Where I used to work a girl got fired for drawing swatikas on her shoes and refusing to change them.
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How stupid. I hope she wasn't Indian.
 
Swastikas remind me of home. I read recently that some native American tribes had it as a religious symbol. Thats incredibly awesome to me.

I found this excellent site on reclaiming the swastika:
http://reclaimtheswastika.com/photos/

Jackie Kennedy in a Navajo costume

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