Boys run in front of a wall covered with swastikas, a symbol of hinduism
© AFP/File Douglas E. CurranBERLIN (AFP) - A call by Berlin earlier this month on fellow EU members to outlaw the swastika sparked outrage among Hindu groups who said it had been part of their religious symbols for nearly 5,000 years before the Nazis appropriated it.
The Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB), an umbrella organization of about 275 Hindu organizations, had announced a campaign to block the move.
The German justice ministry said in a statement it "will not seek to prohibit the use of specific symbols such as swastikas."
Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency, is trying to revive an initiative started by Luxembourg two years ago for tougher laws on the incitement of racial hatred and historical revisionism.
This includes "the denial or gross minimization of genocide out of racist and xenophobic motives," the ministry said, though it did not single out the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis in World War II.
Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has told EU counterparts that criminalizing Holocaust denial would help to stem a rising tide of right-wing violence in Europe.
But the proposal is expected to encounter strong resistance.
In 2005, Luxembourg's drive was blocked by Britain, Denmark and Italy.
Last week, Italy's new centre-left government published a draft law which proposes penalties of up to three years in jail for inciting racial hatred, but stops short of making Holocaust denial a crime.
Some 200 Italian historians had objected to the move.
The use of Nazi insignia is forbidden in Germany, where Holocaust denial was criminalized in 1985.
©AFP