I agree with Jon about asking. If something seems incongruous, it makes sense to do that. Symbols and symbolic gestures often are passed down years and adopted, and what they mean to one particular group is more important than assigning meaning based on what another group used them for in the past. You may choose not to use the gesture yourself, but if it's sybolic to what a group of folks, it just makes sense to find out what it's symbolic of to them, or you may wind up believing things about them that aren't true.

I once went to a party when I was in Korea. It was on the rooftop of an apartment buildings, since space is at a premium and rooftops are often residents' common areas. I looked around at the town below and saw many huge, bold swastikas painted on buildings and signs. I thought "Wow...I didn't know there were so many Nazis in South Korea!" I didn't automatically BELIEVE it though, because it just didn't seem to make sense. I asked, and was told the symbol marked Buddhist temples. The arms of the symbol pointed in the opposite direction from the ones on a swastika. I could have gone on insisting they looked too much like swastikas and been bothered every time I saw one, but I couldn't have done anything about them. The Nazis got the swastika and the salute from somewhere else, anyway. The Ku Klux Klan seem to like crosses, but I don't think Christians are going to give those up without a fight.