It was a casual Wednesday morning, like all others, when I was on my way to work. Routine traffic, routine weather. And then I see something which isn’t very routine.

The Swastika, the notorious symbol of the Nazis, a terrifying image of the brutal atrocities inflicted in World War II, is proudly draped on this car, with a pride usually reserved for khair nal aa, khair nal jaa motifs on trucks or ye sab merey maa kee dua hai on public transport.

But this is hardly the first time I’ve seen this symbol while driving. In fact, there seems to be a particular fascination with Nazi symbols among young people, many of whom choose their cars as their fascism fashion statement.

And for those looking to pimp their ride with SS pride, look no further than Daraz.pk! On Pakistan’s most popular shopping site you can buy, with no apparent issue, a Swastika ‘fashion’ sticker for your car, or motorcycle or laptop. You can complement it with a Swastika flag logo, or another sticker with Hitler’s face. And for those looking for a more personalized gift, you can also purchase a Swastika design ring.

Speaking of personalized gifts, you can always shop at Hitler Reloaded, which is a real clothing brand in Karachi. For those not in Karachi, you can buy at the official website, which is cleverly rebranded to HR Clothing. This may be seen as a sign that maybe the diehard Nazi loving may have died down a bit, till you see the Facebook page.

It’s an odd obsession in a country where religion is an extremely sensitive subject, to the point where at one point the Prime Minister was seeking to lead a global campaign on religious defamation. How then can we explain the brazen casualness of people when it comes to celebrating the man responsible for the massacre of millions of people?

Anti-Zionism is a big selling point for the religious right, given our staunch opposition to the Israeli oppression of Palestinians, and our complex history with Jewish tribes. However, Judaism is different from Zionism – all Jewish people are not supporters of Israel, and many of them are harshly against atrocities faced by Muslims all over the world, including in Palestine.

But we fail to make these distinctions. In the absolutist worldview of many, hating all Jews is completely justified, and loving Hitler fits well into our “enemy of my enemy is my friend” frame. Even if it means openly admiring genocide.

And therein lies the rub. We hate the fact that Muslims are seen as terrorists because of an ‘image problem’ by the West. Yet many have no trouble making such generalizations when it comes to Jews, or for that matter, other religious communities like the Hindus. Such stereotypes are the real reason why religious defamation is a problem. The issue is not that people aren’t aware they are offending other communities. The issue is that they are, and they don’t care. In fact, they relish the idea. For them, it’s a sadistic ‘fair game’: if ‘you’ (insert West, Jews/global conspirators/India/CIA/Illuminati/whoever is the flavor of the month) are not going to respect our religious beliefs (insert blasphemy laws/belief in Islam/establishment of caliphate), then we reserve the right to offend you as well (insert holocaust denial/Hitler loving). Because two wrongs make a right, right?

This sentiment was exacerbated when Pakistan was being blacklisted for religious freedom violations by the US. In our myopic worldview, we were bound to see this as yet another conspiracy to defame Pakistan, and insult our religious beliefs. We won’t place the violent reaction to the Aasia Noreen verdict, or the hateful campaign against Dr Atif Mian as a possible reason for these developments. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom Report 2022 included Pakistan on a list of countries that “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom” during 2022 . The report particularly voiced concern on violence in the name of blasphemy, as the narratives of extremist elements have limited the space for religious inclusion.

Wow. Nazi swastika being flown by communist rats at #StudentsSolidarityMarch in Pakistan. There was a reason Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah rebuked both communism and National Socialism (Nazism) in the same sentence

Pakistan Sabz-Hilali rehay ga!#CrescentOverSickleAndSwastika https://t.co/iNX5bTH6k6 pic.twitter.com/NgtOFo8hbE

— Asfandyar (@BhittaniKhannnn) November 29, 2019

We refuse to introspect, and we refuse to be exposed to other possibilities. When will we understand that religious defamation is a two way street? We can’t just harp on about religious offense, when many among us do the exact same thing to other religious minorities within Pakistan. If we have a problem with others insulting our religion in the name of ‘freedom of speech’, how can we insult others’ religions in the name of ‘love for the Prophet (PBUH)’? We are in a perpetual circle of denial and offense, doing the very thing that we are staunchly opposed to!

Before our government fosters ambitions of globally preventing religious defamation, it would be well advised to begin from home, where anti-semitism can be used to sell something as mundane as shirts and ties. We need to educate the public not just on aspects that offend us, but also aspects that offend others, and why. We need to educate others on recognizing hate speech aimed at others instead of just being outraged. We need to read on the history of such images, and the banality of evil that they represent. And we need to empathise with those who have suffered, instead of dismissing them as sub-human conspirators, all because they have different beliefs from us.

And to get the ball rolling, here’s a little information about Hitler that Swastika lovers might not know:

During World War II, the Jews of Europe were housed in concentration camps where they were worked to death or put in gas chambers where they were killed, and their bodies put in mass graves. Suffering from torture, starvation and disease, some became so exhausted and forlorn that they lost the will to live. They became empty vessels, bereft of life, waiting for their inevitable death. Jean Emery, one of the survivors of the Auschwitz camps refers to these individuals as “a staggering corpse, a bundle of physical functions in its last convulsions”. The management of the camps had a special name for these individuals, comparing them with the people of the Orient and the East, who they considered as fatalistic, dirty and uncouth.

They called them “Mussalmanner”. That is German for “Muslim”.

So before we invoke our ‘love’ for the Nazis, do think about what they thought of us.