Earrings that resemble swastikas are causing an uproar in Greenpoint, a northern neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.

Bejeweled, a store that features some religious jewelry, started selling the earrings six months ago. Owner Young Kim told CBS station WCBS in New York that the earrings had been selling without controversy until a customer took a picture of them and posted it online, where it went viral.

"The way that it would be worn by many who would walk around with those earrings would be conveyed as a hateful message," City Councilman Steve Levin told WCBS.

The swastika is still used in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism in India, and has been used by Buddhists in China. The reversed image of the swastika gained prominence as the symbol of the Nazi Party and has been associated with anti-semitism ever since.

Bill Akin with the Soka Gakkai Buddhist Association told WCBS that the symbol originated as a Sanskrit symbol of peace and prosperity. The earrings face the traditional way swastikas face, not the way the Nazi symbol does. However, he admitted that the meaning has been tarnished - no matter which way the swastika faces.

"This is a symbol we've only seen associated with Nazi Germany," Akin said. "I think the Nazis manipulated and twisted both the fundamental meaning of the symbol as well as the physical appearance of the symbol."

The shop owner argued to WCBS through a translator that the jewelry was made in India and was never meant to incite hate. She has apologized for selling the earrings and has pulled them from the shelves.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57357870/swastika-earrings-cause-stir-in-brooklyn/


I would of kept it because its not the same!!!

 

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they go both directions and they always have. hitler took the swastika from buddhism or hinduism. i forget which one specifically. but regardless of that fact, it is no longer an acceptable symbol in the west. you cannot wear it going either direction or slant w/o people thinking it's the swastika and that you are for jew slaughter here.

 

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now reading the comments i genuinely want to murder everyone on that page. holy fk. if hitler used a slanted cross (yes i know that becomes an x) would christianity have lost one of it's major symbols? what about the crescent moon of islam? would that have been done away with? america was full of swastikas before the war. i hate this country so much.

 

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You do realize they are the exact same symbol at a different orientation? It would be really easy for someone to confuse them. That said, a symbol does not offend me.

 

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Time to boycott krispy kreme, because they are just one K off from K K K. Hey its close enough right?

 

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So its safe to assume its due to the stupidity of people?

"The way that it would be worn by many who would walk around with those earrings would be conveyed as a hateful message," City Councilman Steve Levin told WCBS.

guy is a moron.

 

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First Amendment of the Constitution says people have the right to express them selves how ever they want.

 

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Expert testimony there.

 

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