View Full Version : Swiss voters back ban on minarets
skylinedrive
11-29-2009, 12:40
Swiss voters back ban on minarets
Swiss voters have supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, official results show.
More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban.
The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People's Party, (SVP), the largest party in parliament, which says minarets are a sign of Islamisation.
The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland's image, particularly in the Muslim world.
The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Bern, says the surprise result is very bad news for the Swiss government which also fears unrest among the Muslim community.
Our correspondent says voters worried about rising immigration - and with it the rise of Islam - have ignored the government's advice.
"The Federal Council (government) respects this decision. Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted," said the government in a statement, quoted by the AFP news agency.
“ This will cause major problems because during this campaign in the last two weeks different mosques were attacked, which we never experienced in 40 years in Switzerland ”
Tamir Hadjipolu Zurich's Association of Muslim Organisations
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the result reflected fear of Islamic fundamentalism.
"These concerns have to be taken seriously. However, the Federal Council takes the view that a ban on the construction of new minarets is not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies," she said.
She sought to reassure Swiss Muslims, saying the decision was "not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture".
Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims and has just four minarets.
After Christianity, Islam is the most widespread religion in Switzerland, but it remains relatively hidden.
There are unofficial Muslim prayer rooms, and planning applications for new minarets are almost always refused.
Supporters of a ban claimed that allowing minarets would represent the growth of an ideology and a legal system - Sharia law - which are incompatible with Swiss democracy.
But others say the referendum campaign incited hatred. On Thursday the Geneva mosque was vandalised for the third time during the campaign, according to local media.
Before the vote, Amnesty International warned that the ban would violate Switzerland's obligations to freedom of religious expression.
'Political symbol'
The president of Zurich's Association of Muslim Organisations, Tamir Hadjipolu, told the BBC that if the ban was implemented, Switzerland's Muslim community would live in fear.
"This will cause major problems because during this campaign in the last two weeks different mosques were attacked, which we never experienced in 40 years in Switzerland.
"So with the campaign... the Islamaphobia has increased very intensively."
Sunday's referendum was held after the People's party collected 100,000 signatures from eligible voters within 18 months calling for a vote.
SVP member of parliament Ulrich Schluer said the campaign had helped integration by encouraging debate. He rejected the charge of discrimination.
In recent years many countries in Europe have been debating their relationship with Islam, and how best to integrate their Muslim populations.
France focused on the headscarf, while in Germany there was controversy over plans to build one of Europe's largest mosques in Cologne.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8385069.stm
Published: 2009/11/29 16:30:28 GMT
© BBC
greenberetTFS
11-29-2009, 13:22
Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims and has just four minarets.
At last we see some backbone in their country........:D Hopefully other nations will follow,including US ..............;)
Big Teddy :munchin
Team Sergeant
11-29-2009, 13:29
Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims and has just four minarets.
At last we see some backbone in their country........:D Hopefully other nations will follow,including US ..............;)
Big Teddy :munchin
That backbone may be too little too late for the Swiss......
Swiss Approve Constitutional Ban on Mosque Minarets
Sunday , November 29, 2009
AP
GENEVA —
Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.
Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland's international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there.
"The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights," said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was "grief and deep disappointment."
The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People's Party labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiative was approved 57.5 to 42.5 percent by some 2.67 million voters. Only four of the 26 cantons or states opposed the initiative, granting the double approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.
Muslims comprise about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. Many are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and about one in 10 actively practices their religion, the government says.
The country's four standing minarets, which won't be affected by the ban, do not traditionally broadcast the call to prayer outside their own buildings.
The sponsors of the initiative provoked complaints of bias from local officials and human-rights group with campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman. Backers said the growing Muslim population was straining the country "because Muslims don't just practice religion."
"The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls," the sponsors said. They noted that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared mosques to Islam's military barracks and called "the minarets our bayonets."
Anxieties about growing Muslim minorities have rippled across Europe in recent years, leading to legal changes in some countries. There have been French moves to ban the full-length body covering known as the burqa. Some German states have introduced bans on head scarves for Muslim women teaching in public schools. Mosques and minaret construction projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have been met by protests.
But the Swiss ban in minarets, sponsored by the country's largest political party, was one of the most extreme reactions.
"It's a sad day for freedom of religion," said Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a British youth organization. "A constitutional amendment that's targeted towards one religious community is discriminatory and abhorrent."
He said he was concerned the decision could have reverberations in other European countries.
Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.
The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government had spoken out strongly against the initiative but the government said it accepted the vote and would impose an immediate ban on minaret construction.
It said that "Muslims in Switzerland are able to practice their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before." It took the unusual step of issuing its press release in Arabic as well as German, French, Italian and English.
Sunday's results stood in stark contrast to opinion polls, last taken 10 days ago, that showed 37 percent supporting the proposal. Experts said before the vote that they feared Swiss had pretended during the polling that they opposed the ban because they didn't want to appear intolerant.
"The sponsors of the ban have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way," said Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich. "Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore."
The People's Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previous years against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.
Geneva's main mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,577668,00.html?test=latestnews
mojaveman
11-29-2009, 15:13
Good for the Swiss.
I would have thought the day I saw a picture of a minaret with the Matterhorn in the background that it would have been all over for them. Muslim prayer called from a minaret and yodelling just don't seem to go hand in hand. The blonde Swiss Miss cocoa girl with a burka?
Maybe some of the other countries in the EU will follow.
incarcerated
11-29-2009, 16:38
The Swiss model:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6936267.ece
Women lead Swiss in vote to ban minarets
From The Sunday Times
November 29, 2009
Matthew Campbell
A right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques in a referendum being held in Switzerland today has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women.
A “stop the minarets” campaign has provoked ferment in the land of Heidi, where women are more likely than men to vote for the ban after warnings from prominent feminists that Islam threatens their rights.
Forget about tranquil Alpine scenery and cowbells: one of the most startling features of the referendum campaign has been a poster showing a menacing woman in a burqa beside minarets rising from the Swiss flag.
It seems to have struck a nerve in Langenthal, a small town near Bern where Muslims plan to put up a minaret next to their prayer room in a bleak former paint factory.
“If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas,” said Julia Werner, a local housewife. “Before you know it, we’ll have sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be Swiss any more....”
Switzerland and the Minaret
Sunday's vote keeps European heads in the sand about Muslim immigrants.
Nearly 58% of Swiss voters Sunday cast their ballots in favor of banning the construction of new minarets in the Alpine republic, a surprise result that led at least one Swiss member of parliament to declare that "the foundations of Switzerland's direct democracy have failed."
That is clearly wrong. Swiss direct democracy shows its mettle when Swiss voters use it to stand up to their political elites, as happened here. Having said that, Sunday's vote, for all the hand-wringing leading up to it, was a decidedly mild-mannered sort of protest. The construction of new minarets is banned, but the building of mosques is unaffected, and the vote does not affect the four existing minarets in the country. Nobody's freedom of worship is threatened, but a symbolic message has been sent.
But what message, exactly? The vote betrays an undercurrent of fear among the Swiss—a fear that is not without cause. There is no denying the connection between radical imams and terrorist acts. Nor should anyone look away from the fact that too many European Muslims flatly reject the norms of their host countries, sometimes in ways that are criminal: honor killings, child brides and the like.
Yet banning minarets does nothing to address that fear. It merely makes it less likely that the average Swiss will be confronted by a visible symbol of Islam upon his skyline. Thus, even as a symbolic gesture, it seems to encourage a head-in-the-sand approach toward the 5% of Swiss who are Muslim. In much of Europe, this is the norm anyway, the result of political correctness and cowardice.
Rather than being a blow against that attitude, Sunday's vote seems only to reinforce it. Banning minarets won't do anything to assimilate Switzerland's or Europe's Muslims, or to ensure that economic opportunity is available to everyone of whatever creed, or to deal with Western Europe's demographic problem of too few newborns.
The ban, in other words, does too much and too little at once. Too much because it becomes a very visible and easily exploited symbol of supposed European intolerance. But it accomplishes too little because it seeks merely to hide from view the problems that gave rise to the fear of the minaret in the first place.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703939404574565674154159110.html
Team Sergeant
11-30-2009, 09:31
And the clock is ticking......
Want to bet islam unleashes another terrorist attack some where in Switzerland very soon?
Ret10Echo
12-01-2009, 09:57
T.S. The Islamists don't need to launch an attack...the Western World will issue a self-inflicted handover...
Notes from the EURO-press:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Europe's press says Swiss ban sends wrong signal
European papers are dismayed by Switzerland's popular vote to ban the building of minarets. Some fear it will backfire, sending the wrong signal to the Muslim world and setting a precedent for other parts of Europe.
Several papers criticise the type of democracy practised in Switzerland, which allows ordinary people rather than elected representatives to decide on such matters. However, one popular Swiss tabloid defends the ban as a starting point for a debate on tolerance.
Thomas Kirchner in Germany's SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
This referendum is a disaster for Switzerland. Such a ban on construction exists nowhere else in Europe. If those six words - 'the construction of minarets is forbidden' - are in the constitution in the future, they will violate... freedom of religion and the prohibition of discrimination. They also blatantly violate the European Convention of Human Rights.
Juergen Dunsch in Germany's FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
Ultra-democratic, cosmopolitan, tolerant: this is how the Swiss have always liked to see themselves. But, in voting to ban any further building of minarets, the country has now revealed other traits: traits that testify to bigotry, timorousness, and a wish to isolate themselves.
Mathieu von Rohr in Germany's SPEIGEL ONLINE
The ban will damage Switzerland's credibility as a mediator in the eyes of Muslim countries, whether it be as a diplomatic representative of the US in Iran or in the conflict between Armenia and Turkey. And finally it will cause massive damage to the relationship between the Swiss and the Muslims living in the country, promoting exactly that isolation from the rest of society which the initiative was supposedly intended to address.
Editorial in Denmark's POLITIKEN
The signal has been sent. There is now a European country which openly acknowledges that it does not tolerate the sight of the symbols of a major religion. The fact that the decision will benefit completely the wrong forces in both the Muslim minority in Europe and in the Muslim world is self-evident.
Editorial in Denmark's BERLINGSKE TIDENDE
The moment we resort to special bans on religious symbols - including the building of minarets - we have also lost our belief in our own cultural foundation... Self-respect is the first step on the path to mutual respect - religious bans, on the other hand, are the complete opposite: undemocratic, un-Christian and un-Danish.
Taha Akyol in Turkey's MILLIYET
This is a sign that when the masses become authoritarian, democracies too can easily become authoritarian.
Erdal Safak in Turkey's SABAH
Demands to build minarets have already been refused systematically. That's why only four of 200 [Swiss] mosques have minarets. Despite that, the two extreme rightist parties aimed to legalise the ban, which was actually being applied, by making it a matter of referendum. Their intention was to gather political credit through an enmity against Islam by exploiting the public fear. And they have succeeded.
Editorial in Spain's EL PAIS
The danger today is of allowing... legitimate public concern to be monopolised by populist or far-right parties. Their toxic language has little to do with integration and a lot to do with fear.
Michel Lepinay in France's PARIS-NORMANDIE
No-one today could guarantee that if asked the same question, the French would have rejected a planned ban on minarets. Who thinks the death penalty would have been abolished if the French had decided in a referendum? In our democracy, the people's elected representatives are there to take decisions on their behalf and to shoulder the unpopularity that may ensue.
Dominique Garraud in France's LA CHARENTE LIBRE
The lesson of the Swiss minarets vote is valid for all democracies: its absurdity shows the dangers of referendums known as 'popular initiatives', a blessing and a fearsome weapon for all extremists who know how to surf the irrational fears of public opinion.
Christoph Wehrli in Switzerland's NEUE ZUERCHER ZEITUNG
The minaret provided a symbol for the threatened state of our identity, and banning it sent a message about who is in charge. In that respect, the initiators managed to pull off a stroke of genius. 'If it makes no difference, it can do no harm,' many of those voting 'Yes' will have told themselves. However, some harm to the climate of coexistence and to Switzerland's already damaged reputation is inevitable.
Ralph Grosse-Bley in Switzerland's BLICK
Should we be ashamed of the 'Yes' vote for a ban on minarets? No, we are not ashamed! The 'Yes' vote was not a 'No' to freedom of religion, not a 'No' to making people feel welcome, and not a 'No' to people of Muslim faith. The decision is an exclamation mark that means: We have to talk! About the causes of the fear of Islamisation. About the fact that tolerance cannot be a one-way street.
Team Sergeant
12-01-2009, 11:42
T.S. The Islamists don't need to launch an attack...the Western World will issue a self-inflicted handover...
Notes from the EURO-press:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Europe's press says Swiss ban sends wrong signal
European papers are dismayed by Switzerland's popular vote to ban the building of minarets. Some fear it will backfire, sending the wrong signal to the Muslim world and setting a precedent for other parts of Europe.
Several papers criticise the type of democracy practised in Switzerland, which allows ordinary people rather than elected representatives to decide on such matters. However, one popular Swiss tabloid defends the ban as a starting point for a debate on tolerance.
Thomas Kirchner in Germany's SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
This referendum is a disaster for Switzerland. Such a ban on construction exists nowhere else in Europe. If those six words - 'the construction of minarets is forbidden' - are in the constitution in the future, they will violate... freedom of religion and the prohibition of discrimination. They also blatantly violate the European Convention of Human Rights.
Juergen Dunsch in Germany's FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
Ultra-democratic, cosmopolitan, tolerant: this is how the Swiss have always liked to see themselves. But, in voting to ban any further building of minarets, the country has now revealed other traits: traits that testify to bigotry, timorousness, and a wish to isolate themselves.
Mathieu von Rohr in Germany's SPEIGEL ONLINE
The ban will damage Switzerland's credibility as a mediator in the eyes of Muslim countries, whether it be as a diplomatic representative of the US in Iran or in the conflict between Armenia and Turkey. And finally it will cause massive damage to the relationship between the Swiss and the Muslims living in the country, promoting exactly that isolation from the rest of society which the initiative was supposedly intended to address.
Editorial in Denmark's POLITIKEN
The signal has been sent. There is now a European country which openly acknowledges that it does not tolerate the sight of the symbols of a major religion. The fact that the decision will benefit completely the wrong forces in both the Muslim minority in Europe and in the Muslim world is self-evident.
Editorial in Denmark's BERLINGSKE TIDENDE
The moment we resort to special bans on religious symbols - including the building of minarets - we have also lost our belief in our own cultural foundation... Self-respect is the first step on the path to mutual respect - religious bans, on the other hand, are the complete opposite: undemocratic, un-Christian and un-Danish.
Taha Akyol in Turkey's MILLIYET
This is a sign that when the masses become authoritarian, democracies too can easily become authoritarian.
Erdal Safak in Turkey's SABAH
Demands to build minarets have already been refused systematically. That's why only four of 200 [Swiss] mosques have minarets. Despite that, the two extreme rightist parties aimed to legalise the ban, which was actually being applied, by making it a matter of referendum. Their intention was to gather political credit through an enmity against Islam by exploiting the public fear. And they have succeeded.
Editorial in Spain's EL PAIS
The danger today is of allowing... legitimate public concern to be monopolised by populist or far-right parties. Their toxic language has little to do with integration and a lot to do with fear.
Michel Lepinay in France's PARIS-NORMANDIE
No-one today could guarantee that if asked the same question, the French would have rejected a planned ban on minarets. Who thinks the death penalty would have been abolished if the French had decided in a referendum? In our democracy, the people's elected representatives are there to take decisions on their behalf and to shoulder the unpopularity that may ensue.
Dominique Garraud in France's LA CHARENTE LIBRE
The lesson of the Swiss minarets vote is valid for all democracies: its absurdity shows the dangers of referendums known as 'popular initiatives', a blessing and a fearsome weapon for all extremists who know how to surf the irrational fears of public opinion.
Christoph Wehrli in Switzerland's NEUE ZUERCHER ZEITUNG
The minaret provided a symbol for the threatened state of our identity, and banning it sent a message about who is in charge. In that respect, the initiators managed to pull off a stroke of genius. 'If it makes no difference, it can do no harm,' many of those voting 'Yes' will have told themselves. However, some harm to the climate of coexistence and to Switzerland's already damaged reputation is inevitable.
Ralph Grosse-Bley in Switzerland's BLICK
Should we be ashamed of the 'Yes' vote for a ban on minarets? No, we are not ashamed! The 'Yes' vote was not a 'No' to freedom of religion, not a 'No' to making people feel welcome, and not a 'No' to people of Muslim faith. The decision is an exclamation mark that means: We have to talk! About the causes of the fear of Islamisation. About the fact that tolerance cannot be a one-way street.
There is no "tolerance" in islam. Every university student worldwide should be required to view this video.....
Afghan Taliban Begin Destruction of Ancient Buddha Statues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4xrpjR0_0o
When islam takes over Switzerland they will destroy every bit of Swiss history to include their most sacred Swiss symbols.
islam = no tolerance
greenberetTFS
12-01-2009, 11:51
They are coming at us all over the world and we are allowing it.............:mad:
Big Teddy :munchin
skylinedrive
12-01-2009, 11:57
................Ralph Grosse-Bley in Switzerland's BLICK
Should we be ashamed of the 'Yes' vote for a ban on minarets? No, we are not ashamed! The 'Yes' vote was not a 'No' to freedom of religion, not a 'No' to making people feel welcome, and not a 'No' to people of Muslim faith. The decision is an exclamation mark that means: We have to talk! About the causes of the fear of Islamisation. About the fact that tolerance cannot be a one-way street.
This is the only part of all those press clippings that is of any relevance, the liberal/leftist pundits won't get their heads out of their @rse...Europe is really up shit creek....the press is 99% old hippie-leftist- PC types, the mainstream politicians don't dare to disagree with any of the shit the "makers of public opinion" serve us in the medias....so the field is left to the nutjobs from the far right.
This is the only part of all those press clippings that is of any relevance, the liberal/leftist pundits won't get their heads out of their @rse...Europe is really up shit creek....the press is 99% old hippie-leftist- PC types, the mainstream politicians don't dare to disagree with any of the shit the "makers of public opinion" serve us in the medias....so the field is left to the nutjobs from the far right.
edit: my bad:S
LongWire
12-02-2009, 02:41
Ever been to Europe?
He Claims to be in Luxembourg..........
I would say that the rest of the EU is pissed because they are feeling the pressure, and probably don't want any more immigration diverted their way because the of the Swiss decision. Good for them, let the sheep here take note.
skylinedrive
12-02-2009, 09:30
He Claims to be in Luxembourg..........
I would say that the rest of the EU is pissed because they are feeling the pressure, and probably don't want any more immigration diverted their way because the of the Swiss decision. Good for them, let the sheep here take note.
I honestly don't think that it's about immigration, the numbers are not that overwhelming and there seems to be an agreement between the governments all over Europe that we have to put a stop to illegal immigration.
But I sincerely believe that we have gone too far with Political Correctness because all of our medias are in the hands of canapé-marxists & treehuggers.
Today it is fashionable to be, on one hand, tolerant of every muslim integrist excess but otherwise to strongly condemn every value or point of view as soon as it is, even remotely, conservative as fascist. And I'm not yet talking about that primitive anti-americanism that is strongly engrained in todays media in europe.
It is a taboo to touch the subject of the integration of muslims, or better said the lack of integration of muslims into our societies! The media and the mainstream politicians should ask themselves the question why the swiss voted against minarets instead of their hypocritical show of indignation!
Nowadays the same people who scream for their right to abuse and insult christian beliefs, bend over backwards to protect the religious feelings of muslims.......don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist, it's not that I feel myself attacked! But the same rights have to apply to everyone who chooses to live in a society and thereby consents to it's laws and rules...you can't have the crosses removed from classrooms and at the same time allow girls to wear hijabs at school.
I hope I have expressed myself clearly, english is not my native tongue! Sorry about that!
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/200912281637353840.html
Minarets and Europe's crisis
By Anas Altikriti
The mind is boggled by the fact that Switzerland, a country renowned for its tolerant nature, could come to see less than a handful of minarets as a threat to its identity and culture.
The main campaign poster used by far right groups to rally against the construction of minarets in Switzerland depicted a Muslim woman in niqab standing before a multitude of minarets graphically rendered to look like missiles. [Good one.]
Switzerland's Commission Against Racism said that the campaign poster defamed the country's Muslim minority.
Neither the niqab nor the minaret is characteristic of the Muslim community in Switzerland but both have been regularly used to stoke the flames of hatred and fear against Muslims throughout Europe in recent times.
And it was that fear which pushed over half of Swiss voters to choose, by a majority of 57 per cent, to support the minaret ban called for by the Union Démocratique du Centre (UDC), a right wing populist party.
Switzerland's identity crisis
The vote revealed that Switzerland, like a number of other Western nations, faces a deep identity crisis which has nothing to do with Islam, sharia, immigration or any other red-rags that were waived by the far-right to increase European fears of Muslims.
The question the Swiss should really be asking themselves is whether the values of human rights, civil liberties and democracy - upheld so preciously by European nations - are practised as reverently as they are preached.
This becomes even more of a crisis when one recalls that among the crucial outcomes of the struggle between church and state throughout Europe was the emergence of these values as an 'alternative' to church dictate and the preaching of clerics.
Hence, the first serious problem with the referendum process is how a democratic society can begin to contemplate holding a popular vote on a matter that is regarded integral to the core themes of freedom and rights.
While it is only fair to assert that the Swiss government and most newspaper editors had urged voters to defeat the ban, it remains the case that the vote should not have been held in the first place. The very concept of a referendum in which the vast majority are asked to vote on a topic specific to the culture or religion of a minority group is in itself extremely problematic.
Imagine the furor that would certainly ensue should a country with an overwhelmingly Muslim population be asked to vote on whether its small Christian community should be allowed to build their churches [I've lived/worked in Muslim countries where this is already the case. What's the news here?] according to a particular design or method, or whether they would rather do without the church bells sounding from time to time.
Limits of democracy?
What next, one wonders, and how far does this appetite for 'democracy' go? Is it a matter of time before there is a referendum on whether or not Muslims should be allowed to practise their faith, or even be allowed to exist at all?
This might sound slightly melodramatic, [you think?] but a quick examination of where we were and how far we have come in so little time, offers quite a concerning assumption of where we might be heading.
The reader should bear in mind that the grand sum of existing minarets in all of Switzerland is exactly ... four. [When is the appropriate time to object? When there are 100,000?]
It is only a tiny fraction of the Swiss population which regularly encounters the sight of a mosque minaret.
The referendum becomes even more ludicrous when one discovers that there were precisely two applications for building permits which included the construction of minarets, and neither likely to be built within the next five years.
Therefore, since it was unlikely that the Swiss people were soon going to wake up to find themselves surrounded by a forest of minarets, this whole process begs the question of what the real motives were behind the referendum.
With most European governments continuously flaunting democracy, civil liberties and minority rights as the cornerstones of a national identity, it remains a mystery how the issue of minarets was presented as a challenge and a problem facing multi-cultural, liberal and secular Europe.
Can a civilised people be so ill at ease and low on confidence that the specific design of a handful of buildings be construed as a threat to the country's national heritage, identity and culture? [The people have spoken. You may not want to hear what they're saying.]
Questionable timing?
One wonders where this leaves the throng of Western commentators who persistently remind their audiences that Christians are disallowed from practising their faith freely or building churches in certain Muslim countries. In fact one wonders whether the ramifications of the Swiss vote on Christians and other minorities living freely among Muslim societies were ever considered.
Whatever the outcome, the impact of this ban on Muslims in Switzerland in day-to-day terms will be almost negligible. [That's exactly what you are hoping. But the Swiss seem pretty happy with their success.] Muslims pray in all sorts of buildings and in all sorts of venues, with minarets and without.
Indeed, figures suggest that most Western Muslims perform their daily prayers in buildings that are not classified as mosques in the first place. Which is why this was a non-starter on the scale of issues concerning the people of Switzerland; including Muslims.
Consider the referendum's timing: It comes following the so-called war on terror and coincides with the rise of far-right and fascist groups.
The timing coupled with the racist and inflammatory discourse that has guided this process, the images that adorn the campaign posters as well as those who have promoted this ban, indicate that Europe is in the throes of an Islamophobic trend gathering pace as a result of the gross failures of official economic, social and political policies.
Already, celebratory remarks from far-right and racist figures, including Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of the radical-right Austrian Freedom Party, and Marine Le Pen, the vice-president of France's National Front, have reverberated from various corners of the European continent.
Dutch deputy Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom has gone as far as to suggest that they will be following the example of their Swiss compatriots and pursuing a ban on mosque minarets in the Netherlands. The pioneers of Europe's enlightenment movement must be turning in their graves.
Integrating Muslims in Europe
While I acknowledge statements made by various commentators regarding the need for the Muslim community in Switzerland (and throughout Europe) to do more to integrate and prove their worth to their respective societies, I would warn against asking too much of a community under so much scrutiny and pressure.
Building mosque minarets was never seen by Swiss Muslims as central to and inseparable from their faith or religious practise. Equivocally, Switzerland should not have made the banning of minarets a pivot about which it defines its national identity and culture.
The construction of minarets is a right - one that bears no effect whatsoever on the vast majority of the Swiss people. By voting to ban this right, it is Swiss - and Western - values which become poorer and less meaningful.
The only way forward is for a realisation that Europe is not built solely on a Judeo-Christian heritage, but that Muslims too have played a vital and significant role in shaping modern day Europe through contributions of culture, arts, politics, law, theology, science, medicine and dozens of other disciplines.
There must be a realisation too that the 30 million or so European Muslims have become part of the European social fabric, through an invaluable contribution which they have made over decades if not for centuries. [Definitely, but having a subset of muslims practicing extreme violence, like blowing up Euro citizens, tends to discolor that. You are not doing enough to identify and discredit them amongst your ranks.]
By singling them out as suspects and potential enemies within, European societies are creating wide-spread instability and future uncertainty for everyone on the social, economic and political levels.
For a Europe that still commemorates the tragedies that occurred when it played host to a concerted attack on one of its own communities nearly 70 years ago, it is a serious over-sight and a case of horrific negligence to allow the same to happen again, only against a different victim.
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Anas Altikriti is the CEO of the Cordoba Foundation, a London-based think-tank concerned with building bridges and improving understanding between the West and the Muslim world, through research, training and conflict resolution.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Source: Al Jazeera
The Reaper
12-02-2009, 15:48
How many Christian churches with steeples do you see in Saudi Arabia?
How many public crosses?
I would point out the examples of European nations which are now overrun with mosques, minarets, and Muslims and who wish they could turn back the clock to when there were only four minarets.
TR
The first Minaret was built 100 years after Muhammed died, so its an invention later added to the religion. (like the traditional full-covering hijab)
And the original purpose was to shout out prayer 5 times per day, putting that up in a European city sounds to me more like religious harassment then democracy or freedom of speech or whatever they want to call it.
Nowadays the purpose would be more a symbol and a landmark for the muslims, a little something to remind them of home if you like...
Which could be just okay i guess, as long as the architecture was in line with that of the rest of the city
A real issue is that Iran and probably other states (Saudi arabia?) are financially backing the building of mosques in europe.
Like the first mosque to be constructed in Copenhagen.
This is pretty horrifying cause it implies that there are large forces subtly attempting to culturally invade Europe and "sneak-islamize" us.
Now the real question is why... and the answer gotta be that we've fucked em up and not many decades ago the arab world woke up and figured out the western world was their enemy.
Compare this to African states, Nigeria in particular, we're literally raping the country, looting and pillaging and doing whatever the fuck we like.
Major oil companies have for the most part been able to do whatever they like.
It's just not an issue cause the people there are way to depressed and crushed to stand up for themselves like certain arab groups have
What im trying to say is that most of the people who are now going against us and whom we in turn label as terrorists and mistreat even more are people
or ancestors of people who we've abused and mistreated in horrible ways before and right now their just getting back at us for it.
This actually got me a bit riled up... late night forum trolling:rolleyes: goodnight!