Mosque Minarets Banned in Switzerland

Who says that only the (mostly uneducated) Muslims who show intolerance towards other’s religious followers? The (educated) Swiss Christians do as well. They even cannot stand to see a minaret.

The “Yes” vote – to amend the constitution in favor of banning minarets – stunned experts who had predicted the measure would be rejected. It also sent ripples of anxiety across the country’s Muslim community, which makes up about six percent of Switzerland’s population.

Some 57.5 percent of voters backed the initiative, which was championed by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party. The party argues that minarets are a symbol of Islamic political power. There are only four minarets in Switzerland and they will not be affected by the ban.

Public opinion polls ahead of the election predicted that the measure would be rejected, and the Swiss government had urged citizens to vote against it.

Some Swiss leaders justifies the move arguing that the minaret is a symbol of disintegration rather than integration.

The minaret “is a political symbol against integration; a symbol more of segregation, and first of all, a symbol to try to introduce Sharia law parallel to Swiss rights,” Ulrich Schluer said in a telephone interview. Schluer is one of the leaders of the Egerkingen Committee, which authored the bill, and member of parliament with the conservative Swiss People’s Party.

Well, what if Muslims in other parts of the world, where they are in majority, are having similar opinion against their Christian counterparts? What would Westerners think?

Tags: Politics, switzerland

This entry was posted on November 30, 2009 at November 30, 2009 and is filed under Asides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

arif
November 30, 2009 at 1:57 pm

Diskrimanasi!!

ldii
November 30, 2009 at 3:56 pm

I’m glad to live in Indonesia the most democratic and freedom country in the world.

Swiss Minaret Ban and Muslims Reponse
November 30, 2009 at 11:42 pm

[...] are the Muslims response over Swiss votes banning the construction of minarets in the country? Here’s what a Swiss imam, Youssef Ibram, imam at the Geneva mosque, has to [...]

akhlis
December 1, 2009 at 8:37 am

It can be justified, frankly speaking. I’m a moslem and I guess as a good moslem, each of us has to observe the law and society where we live. Moslems who live in Swiss must do the same for the sake of living harmoniously with others. Minarets are important but even a mosque can be called a mosque without having a minaret. It can be intimidating to people from other religious groups and they are entitled to their opinion. As long as what we sacrifice isn’t related to the substantial parts of Islamic teaching, I don’t think there’s no reason to get alarmed. A single towering minaret is not worth a peaceful life. I think we’d better show the world how tolerant and respectful moslems are to other people.