NYC Store Slammed for Selling Swastika Earrings

Earrings are a Buddhist symbol, not a Nazi one, store's owner says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 12, 2012 1:00 AM CST
NYC Store Slammed for Selling Swastika Earrings
These earrings show a sign of prosperity in Tibetan Buddhism, the store's manager insisted.   (YouTube)

A Brooklyn jewelry store found itself under attack from city lawmakers for selling earrings in the shape of an ancient Buddhist symbol now much better known for its association with the Nazis. The swastika earrings on sale at the Bejeweled store represent "the most hateful symbol in our culture, and an insult to any civilized person," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer charged.

The store's manager disagreed. "It's not a Nazi symbol," she told Fox. "I don't know what's the problem. My earrings are coming from India as a Buddhist symbol." The swastikas on the earrings are angled like Buddhist ones, not Nazi ones, but that didn't dampen lawmakers' outrage, Gothamist notes. After a city councilman paid a visit, the store's owner agreed to stop selling the earrings, reports the New York Daily News. (More swastikas stories.)

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