Sheetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.
“My decoration said ‘Happy Diwa.
Asian faiths try to save the swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler standardmedia.co.ke - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from standardmedia.co.ke Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In the West, the swastika is often equated to Adolf Hitler s "hakenkreuz" or the hooked cross a symbol of hate that evokes the trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. Over the past decade, as the Asian diaspora grew in North America, calls to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol became louder. These minority faith communities are being joined by Native Americans whose ancestors used it in healing rituals.
As Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism grow in North America, so too have calls to reclaim an emblem that for millennia has been an icon of well-being, not hate