Didn't see this posted... 57% of Swiss voted in a referendum to ban the construction of any minarets in the country. Der Speigel: Headlines like this along with growing trends of previously fringe right wings movements entering into the mainstream (see Austria's recent elections) make me uneasy. Switzerland has long had a tradition of religious freedom and as a refuge for people. The CFC of Switzerland itself has said that banning construction of minarets will do little to counter Islamic extremism. If anything, this marginalization of Muslims could lead to them feeling ostracized and sympathetic to terrorists. Swiss actions that are intolerant at heart (but supposedly for tolerance in lip-service) may ironically lead to many Muslims to side with the very group they wished to attack in the 1st place.. The posters that the right wing parties/groups swamped Switzerland with for the past couple months:
A nicer article in The Economist, good read. http://www.economist.com/world/inte...y.cfm?story_id=15017128&source=most_commented The return of the nativists A surprise vote to bar new minarets suggests that suspicion between faiths and cultures, even in calm democracies, runs deeper than liberal types admit THE result was not what was expected by decent, right-thinking people, the sort who think religions can rub along together. To the shock of their government, and the dismay of onlookers ranging from the Vatican to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (which groups 57 Muslim countries), the citizens of Switzerland voted by a comfortable margin (57%, with majorities in 22 of the 26 cantons) for a ban on mosques having any new minarets. In a Europe that is criticised, in various parts of the world, for sliding lazily towards a Muslim-dominated “Eurabia” or else for clinging stubbornly to the remnants of Christian theocracy, the referendum on November 29th was the most dramatic move any nation has made to limit the visibility of Islam. And it happened in a land where Islam has never been very visible. The most striking feature of Geneva’s 30-year-old mosque is its modesty: its minaret (one of only four in the country) merely matches the height of the building, even though permission existed for a much taller one. And the Muslim call to prayer has not been heard in Switzerland, except (during the referendum campaign) from anti-Islamic activists trying to alarm the public. Muslims in Switzerland are numerous (about 400,000, mostly from the Balkans and Turkey) but not especially zealous. Yet among its many effects, the result will strain relations between the Swiss and the Turks. Atilla Toptas, a Turkish-born Swiss legislator, said the campaign stirred up feelings that were as much anti-Turkish as anti-Muslim. Anti-minaret agitators pointedly referred to a poet once quoted by Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “The mosques are our barracks…the minarets our bayonets.” (Mr Erdogan made the allusion long before he took national power, and it landed him in jail.) Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said he was shocked by the Swiss vote and hoped that the decision would be reversed. And he may well be right; the decision could be overturned either by Switzerland’s supreme court, or by the European Court of Human Rights. But the ballot was still a troubling landmark in Europe’s dealings with Islam, and in the global relationship between the monotheistic faiths. Among groups with a stake in good ties between Islam and the historically Christian West, there was an instant sense that the challenge they faced might be bigger than people thought. “Support for the most extreme forms of religious violence is falling off, but we may have underestimated the suspicion that persists between followers of our faiths, especially when they are not well informed,” said Alistair MacDonald-Radcliff, an Anglican priest who is director of a forum called C1 World Dialogue, led by eminent figures in Islam and Christianity. Awkwardly for those who like to accentuate the positive, some of the commonplaces of interfaith discussions are implicitly challenged by the vote. For example, whenever Christians and Muslims talk politely, the point is often made that today’s world no longer divides into geographical areas where one faith or another predominates. For liberal-minded Muslims, the old split between Dar al-Islam (the realm of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (the realm of war) hardly applies to an era in which some of the happiest adherents of their faith live as minorities. And in the West, the old term “Christendom” is generally used with a touch of irony, if at all. But the right-wing Swiss People’s Party struck a chord by telling voters that there was still a binary choice: either they would be subjected to misogynism and cruel punishments in the name of Islam, or else their existing culture, based on liberal Christianity, would prevail. Minarets were shown as a menacing force: on posters, dark shapes (resembling both minarets and missiles) rose from a Swiss flag. The resonance of such tactics may embarrass French and German politicians, both on the centre-left and the centre-right, who have predicted that Muslims will soon be integrated as their fellow citizens get used to them, and as their ties with homelands like Turkey and Morocco weaken. In the view of Jonathan Laurence, a professor at Boston College, the vote may be seen as a setback for strategies based on bringing Islam into the European mainstream by encouraging Muslims to “emerge from the basement” and build more visible places of worship. And the Swiss vote will certainly give heart to politicians in Italy who are resisting mosques in frankly nativist terms. They include Roberto Maroni, Italy’s interior minister, who is a senior figure in the anti-immigrant Northern League. Its leaders hailed the Swiss result and called for a similar ballot in Italy. Anti-Muslim feeling is strong in many Italian cities, such as Genoa where critics of a mosque project held a candle-lit protest on December 1st. Europeans, who are used to being told off by Americans for being too soft on Islam, have in recent days found themselves being scolded for the opposite reason; their continent is failing to live up to the ideals of pluralism and free speech that were a European gift to the world. Freedom House, an American lobby group, called the Swiss vote a “dangerous backslide” for religious liberty in a country that prided itself on tolerance. Reza Aslan, a California-based writer on Islam, said the Swiss vote would be seen as “an appalling violation” of basic rights, even by Americans who did not much like Islam. In his view, the ballot laid bare an “institutional racism” in Europe which contrasted with the restrained reaction of Americans to the shoot-out at a Texan army base in which a Muslim officer killed 13 people. Although populist Islam-bashing obviously exists in the United States (on talk radio, for example) it will never—in Mr Aslan’s opinion—gain real political respectability. Meanwhile, for all the unhappiness that the Swiss vote triggered in the Muslim world, there was no immediate sign of the street violence which broke out after Pope Benedict XVI quoted an anti-Muslim Byzantine ruler or when the Danish press published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. (The anti-Danish protests peaked several months after the drawings came out; this time lag suggested to some that they were the result of a calculated stirring, not a spontaneous outburst.) If the reaction in Muslim-majority states has been muffled, that could be because certain of them share the Swiss voters’ belief that the world really does divide into Huntingtonian blocks, where one religion or another prevails, and the rest exist on sufferance. There is virtually no Muslim land where religious minorities and dissident Muslims enjoy unimpeded civil rights, like the right to build places of worship without big bureaucratic hurdles. Western governments, including the Vatican, have refused to play a game of reciprocity, where the freedom of their own Muslim citizens is held hostage to the status of Christians and other minorities in the Islamic world. But as the Swiss vote suggests, European governments may find it hard to resist populist calls for a tit-for-tat approach—unless they take a leaf from America’s book and a draw up a simple, transparent set of legal rules for all faiths. If they do, it will be harder for Swiss zealots to argue that today’s architectural feature implies tomorrow’s stoning.
it really doesn't sound like a big deal untill you think about the cross being banned in a country. WHich is exactly why the swiss are so stupid. They will accomplish NOTHING by this except attract hate.
So where's the outrage about the treatment of Christians (and members of other religions) in Saudi-Arabia and, to a lesser degree, in most other predominantly Islamic countries? Muslims are free to practice their religion in Switzerland. This vote was largely symbolic.
Sure, they banned the building of tall minarets.....so what? If they want to move to a country with minarets feel free......it is their country... DD
This is noteworthy because the Swiss have always claimed they are a "neutral" country. Also, they are a western democracy whom Americans can closely identify with. Saudi-Arabia, on the other hand, has never claimed to be a neutral state (since all the 911 bombers came from there) and they are predominantly Islamic ...which Americans cannot closely identify with. Personally, I find this very surprising.
I agree with your general sentiment, but Switzerland isn't a theocracy. The Muslim countries are for the most part so their rules are religious. not the best response but it is a factor
You do realize that tourism is a big part of their economy, right, and Minarets don't exactly fit in with their traditional look. I really don't see any big deal here at all. DD
Turkey claims to be a secular country. However, Christians do not have the same rights as Muslims in Turkey.
Isn't Turkey the most religious country in the world? Or something like that? (fundamentalist, number of people who believe in a personal god, creationism, etc.)
What's next, will Saudi Arabia prevent the building of Christian Churches? Oh wait.... pfft. The blending in of Muslims in Europe has been a complete failure. They are unwilling to assimilate into the culture and it's really pissing off their gracious hosts - a step like this in Switzerland was bound to happen. You'd think that when you're a guest in another person's country that you'd do a little better job of fitting in.
Hahaha Awesome stuff. First off, minarets were kind of invented by Turkey. They are not in any way a core part of religion. A Muslim can pray almost anywhere. A minaret falls more into Islamic art than anything else IMO. Secondly, don't compare Saudi to Switzerland. Firstly because we're not 3 years old. Secondly because Switzerland is seen by many as an example to follow while Saudi is not even a decent model of what it's trying to achieve internally. It's like fresh apples and rotten oranges. Finally. It's ok. We'll own Europe soon. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6-3X5hIFXYU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6-3X5hIFXYU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Hahahaha That video makes me crack up I swear. Some people will believe anything. Anyways, good for Switzerland and good luck to Muslims who have nothing better to do than complain about minarets.
This is racism and xenophobia at work in the heart of Europe. So much for Switzerland being progressive and liberal. Saudi Arabia is one of the worst regimes in the world. It's unfortunate that the US supports it, because without American support, I don't think the regime would last long.
