Call for Europe-wide swastika ban (moral, beliefs, hell, moral)

[NewsBot/WarnBot]

German politicians have called for Nazi symbols to be banned throughout Europe after Prince Harry was pictured wearing a swastika to a fancy dress party.

The Liberal group in the European Parliament says all of Europe suffered because of the crimes of the Nazis, so there should be a continent-wide ban.

A senior Christian Democrat said the proposal may be discussed at the next meeting of European

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/9928

[anders]

Just insane. Do they want to ban every Chinese and Japanese dictionary and font, as well as probably lots of historical Indian, Vietnamese and Korean ones, Buddhist pictures, symbols and thangkas, the symbol of the Falun Gong movement and innumerable others that I can't think of right now?!

It all comes down to how a symbol is used. The fact that Göring happened to like an age-old symbol from ancient India that he saw when visiting Swedish friends doesn't disqualify this symbol which is first attested in about 2000 BCE in Elam and the Indus valley. The swastika or tetraskele is a symbol of luck, no more, no less; in Hinduism above all a symbol of Shiva. Varieties of the same principle is the three-legged symbol, the triskele, which is found in Indonesia, in Venice, in the Isle of Man etc.

The people wanting a ban will have to prohibit viewing many pieces of art from the Maya and Navajo cultures, as well as rock carvings from the Swedish Iron Age.

[No*s]

I would have to agree, and go even further. When you start banning anything of the sort, you find yourself in the odd position of enforcing morality. That's not a good position to be in these days since technology makes communication so easy.

[michel]

[quote=NewsBot/WarnBot]German politicians have called for Nazi symbols to be banned throughout Europe after Prince Harry was pictured wearing a swastika to a fancy dress party.

The Liberal group in the European Parliament says all of Europe suffered because of the crimes of the Nazis, so there should be a continent-wide ban.]

/QUOTE]

I take note of the replies to the original thread, but do you all realise that, in Germany itself, it is a criminal offence to display Nazi symbols, which carries, I believe, a minimum of three years in jail!

[No*s]

Yeah, I was aware it was something like that. I was just talking about the idea of banning any idea. Let society clean itself up now that we have the ability to transfer information the way we can.

[michel]

Hi again no*t,

O.K, you have a poit; does the same apply to racial discrimination, sexual discrimination?

[No*s]

Hello again Michel

Those aren't beliefs, they are actions. I believe we can regulate actions to some degree, but not the expression of opinions. The problem comes in prosecuting those sorts of things, and I don't have any firm opinions on those. On one hand, I am appalled by the employer turning away a fellow on the basis of his religion or race, but OTOH, I am equally appalled by the results of government manipulation in that.

So...I really haven't made up my mind how best I think we should deal with that. I wish society could simply away with it.