Similar to people migrating to another country and refusing to learn their language, but expecting them to provide everything to you in their native tongue What is amusing is that many of these posters who are criticizing Switzerland for their actions also criticized the previous administration for being too imperialistic minded.
So what if America votes to ban playing country music? Hey, it's the voter's country - if people who play country music don't like it, they can move somewhere else.
Actually most of the Muslims in Switzerland blend in really well and aren't that religiously inclined according to the article. And are they guests? They are citizens. If they are guests, than you are a guest here in America as well.
The difference, which should be as plain as the nose on your face, is that the USA doesn't have a 'native tongue' or a 'native culture' (except the ones we already killed) or 'native religion' and was specifically designed to not have any of these things but rather be an aggregator of the detritus cast off by other societies. If you want to live in a homogeneous, monolithic culture you should move to Europe somewhere. Otherwise, welcome to the USA. Send us your tired, your poor, and all that other stuff that the good lady says. I can't imagine why anybody would think that such a homogeneous country as Switzerland would find it easy to deal with this. I think a lot of concepts that are generally considered positive are get mixed around. The Swiss are notorious for being democratic, and not prone to war. I've never heard anybody talk about how flexible and multicultural the Swiss are. I think people are just assuming the latter because of the former, which does not necessarily follow. See The Sonderbund War which came close to causing a world war 60 years before WWI.
I wonder if some of y'all have taken American history? Do some of you know why people left Europe to come to America? I hope this never happens in America. I hope we don't aspire to be like Saudi.
I live in Switzerland. It is FAR from homogeneous. Your point is still valid, as the HC is not a melting pot per se with 40 minorities, rather a highly regionalized tri-chotomy. Also, contrary from popular perception, Swiss natives in general are not all-accepting, no-questions-asked progressives in a personal sense. This is a cultural reputation which is true on a mass scale, but that does not translate to the identity of the average individual. This is not to say they are intolerant, just more "to each his own". These referendum I have to imagine is largely symbolic, though. I can't remember the last minaret I've seen. Anything the government passed can be brought to referendum, and I believe only 50,000 votes are needed to veto the bill. Swiss do this frequently, and generally just to send messages that are almost always in the interest of preserving Swiss culture (like resisting EU membership), although this one is a bit confusing.
I think he means that the majority always rules. If the majority of America votes to ban something (i.e. same-sex marriage, just an example I am in no implying that this number is real) then the minority that gets shafted has to suck it up or go elsewhere. We should not be using countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia as benchmarks for what Switzerland is justified in doing. Can they? Of course it's their country. But for those of you like DaDakota who shrug this off as no big deal fail to put yourself in the shoes of the minority. It must suck for a Christian to live or be a citizen in Saudi Arabia but most likely that Christian comes from a society with much higher standards of living or at least a more tolerant society. He doesn't view SA in the same light as most of the Muslim immigrants in Switzerland. When you're a poor immigrant coming from a relatively worse country into one that is supposedly free/tolerant/open-minded/secular and then all of a sudden a considerable number of people symbolically try to limit something that is culturally significant for you, where does that put you? Even though Mathloom pointed out that Minarets are Turkish in origin, most Europeans are too ignorant to know that and instead view the minaret as an Islamic symbol. Europe is the only viable other place besides America for 'oppressed' Muslims to see how good some people can have it. If the notion of a free Western society becomes a BS/hypocritical idea for these immigrants, that will only add more supporters for extremists in Islam and hurt integration more than anything.
Does 'Their" include the Moslem citizens too? or is it not 'their' country. Basically you saying . .. someone could do what ever to you and yours and say . . well . .its our country . . . .and if you don't like it. . move! Rocket River
Again, unrelated to Islam. If the citizens of Switzerland have a legitimate reason to stop construction of minarets, then that's up to them.
<br> I agree with the above poster when he asks the question: who are they? Whose country is it? I'm sorry, I didn't realize we lived in an age where being of a certain race/reliigon/sex determined your citizenship. Like people have pointed out, Switzerland is a neutral country that is also a democracy. DD, in all honesty, your blatant Islamic hate is kind of annoying. Scratch that, it is really annoying.
He has no hate for any single religion. He has hate for all religions. So don't feel discriminated. I don't understand what them being internationally neutral has to do with anything.
So because it might negatively affect tourism it is okay to belittle a group of people and their beliefs? Burning American flags is not good for country morale, but it is within the law. It should be perfectly within the law to build their places of worship the way they want as long as it isn't hurting anybody. I have very little respect for the Muslim faith, but this is pretty ridiculous imo.
DaDaIdiot and Aroundtheworld never cease to surprise me with their ignorance and bigotry against islam. by the way, Mr. Aroundtheworld, before you go around making ridiculous assertions about how "christians are treated" in the middle east, perhaps you should do like me, and visit several countries in the middle east. because all your going to see is complete freedom and unbelievable tolerance toward christians (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and yes, even Saudi arabia.. you might want to google this city called "Jeddah" in the KSA where many americans and Europeans happily reside and exercise their religious freedom to the fullest)..
I must say, Saudi is the exception. I don't think they allow churches. The others, however, are all tolerant. This is the birthplace of Christianity.
Yes it is their country and they can decide what they want and yes tourism is a big part of their economy too. The problem though is that many of the tourist they get are rich Muslims who also patronize other Swiss industries like banking and luxury goods. If Muslims decide that Switzerland is hostile to Islam and decide to take their money elsewhere its not going to be good for the Swiss. Sure countries can be xenophobic and paranoid if they want but in a global economy such things aren't without consequence.
Sure it does, it includes whomever has the right to vote RR....and they voted against it. Fine, that is their right as well....people are getting far to whiny these days....if this is what the Swiss want, fine, it is not like they are setting up gas chambers...... And if the Muslims say "Well screw you, we won't come spend our money there" too, then that is a consequence. Big deal. DD
