Jewish org joins forces with Indo-Canadian groups to disassociate Nazi symbol of hooked cross from swastika, revered by Hindus
ByAnirudh Bhattacharyya
Mar 23, 2025 11:37 AM IST
The development comes as a law enforcement agency and a municipality in Canada have also dropped allusions to the swastika as a hate symbol
Toronto: A leading Jewish advocacy organisation has joined forces with Indo-Canadian groups to disassociate the Nazi hate symbol of the hooked cross from the swastika, which is revered by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. That development comes as a law enforcement agency and a municipality in Canada have also dropped allusions to the swastika as a hate symbol.
Demonstrators hold a banner reading “The Panama Canal is Not For Sale” with a picture of US President Donald Trump with a swastika during a protest in Panama City on January 20, 2025 (Photograph for representative purpose only). (AFP)
Demonstrators hold a banner reading “The Panama Canal is Not For Sale” with a picture of US President Donald Trump with a swastika during a protest in Panama City on January 20, 2025 (Photograph for representative purpose only). (AFP)
In a statement, B’nai Brith Canada said the Nazis adopted the Hakenkreuz or hooked cross to represent that movement in the 1920s. In September 1935, the Nazi party adopted “an emblem containing the Hakenkreuz as the imperial and national flag of the Third Reich. This symbol contains features that render it distinct from the sacred Swastika and has become synonymous with hate and bigotry. Unfortunately, the Hakenkreuz and Swastika have been unduly conflated in the West for decades,” the statement said.
“It is a historical injustice that the meaning of the Swastika has been wrongfully maligned by reference to the Nazis,” B’nai Brith’s Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy Richard Robertson said.
“We must not allow the continued conflation of this symbol of peace with an icon of hate,” he stressed.
Peel Regional Police recently removed reference to the swastika as a hate symbol from its website after advocacy from the Vishwa Jain Sangathan Canada.
Hindu, Jain and Buddhist groups have endorsed B’nai Brith’s campaign for the federal government to ban the public display of Nazi symbols.
“With B’nai Brith Canada’s campaign, we will surely be able to bring awareness to Canadian communities about the sacred nature of the Swastika while banning Nazi symbols of hate, such as the Nazi Hakenkreuz,” the Sangathan’s president Vijay Jain said.
Rishabh Sarswat, president of the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) Canada, called the effort to prohibit the public display of Nazi iconography a “historic moment” for Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and Jains. CoHNA Canada said, “We look forward to continuing to grow our partnership with B’nai Brith to combat the growing hate and promote understanding and mutual respect through accurate terminology and action.”
“Hindus and Jews have a centuries old foundation of friendship and allyship that continues today. This concrete step to delink our sacred Swastika from the Nazi Hate Symbol, the Hakenkreuz, greatly strengthens the bonds of our friendship,” Ragini Sharma, president of the Canadian Organization for Hindu Heritage Education (COHHE) said.
Meanwhile, the city council of the town of Whitby in Ontario has corrected a previously passed motion that sought to ban the ‘Nazi Swastika’. The word Swastika has been deleted from the amended motion after advocacy efforts by the Jain organisation.
These advocacy successes have come even as Indo-Canadian politicians like New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh have, in the past, conflated the swastika with the Nazi symbol.
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