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Religion
See other Religion Articles

Title: Swiss move to ban minarets
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
URL Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6676271.stm
Published: May 28, 2007
Author: Imogen Foulkes
Post Date: 2007-05-28 22:14:56 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 242
Comments: 7

A row is brewing over religious symbolism in Switzerland. Members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently the largest party in the Swiss parliament, have launched a campaign to have the building of minarets banned.

They claim the minaret is not necessary for worship, but is rather a symbol of Islamic law, and as such incompatible with Switzerland's legal system.

Signatures are now being collected to force a nationwide referendum on the issue which, under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, would be binding.

The move has shocked Switzerland's 350,000 Muslims, many of whom have been campaigning for decades for more recognition for their faith.

In theory Switzerland is a secular state, whose constitution guarantees freedom of religious expression to all. In practice however mosques in Switzerland tend to be confined to disused warehouses and factories.

Across the country, there are only two small minarets, one in Zurich and one in Geneva, neither of which are permitted to make the call to prayer. In Switzerland's capital Berne, the largest mosque is in a former underground car park.

Plans rejected

In the small town of Langenthal, just outside Berne, plans to build a very modest minaret have been put on ice following thousands of objections.

Langenthal's mosque is housed in a former paint factory on the outskirts of town.

Mutalip Karaademi, an ethnic Albanian who has lived in Switzerland for 26 years, was at first pleased when his proposal for a 5m-high (16.5ft) minaret was approved by the local authority.

But following a vociferous campaign against the plans, including a petition with thousands of signatures, the cantonal government in Berne delayed the project indefinitely.

"We are very disappointed," said Mr Karaademi. "We just wanted to do our mosque up a bit, with this small minaret and a tea room. We actually thought it might promote dialogue."

Mr Karaademi is also bitter at what he sees as unfair discrimination against his faith. "I even gave them a written undertaking that we would never make the call to prayer," he said. "They seem to think we are all criminals or terrorists - that's like saying all Italians are in the mafia."

Islamic law

But supporters of a ban on minarets say they have no intention of preventing anyone from practising their faith.

"We don't have anything against Muslims," said Oskar Freysinger, member of parliament for the Swiss People's Party.

"But we don't want minarets. The minaret is a symbol of a political and aggressive Islam, it's a symbol of Islamic law. The minute you have minarets in Europe it means Islam will have taken over."

Mr Freysinger's words may sound extreme, even paranoid, but this is a general election year in Switzerland, and the campaign against minarets is playing well with voters.

A recent opinion poll for one Swiss newspaper found that 43% of those surveyed were in favour of a ban on minarets.

"We have our civil laws here," insisted Mr Freysinger. "Banning minarets would send a clear signal that our European laws, our Swiss laws, have to be accepted. And if you want to live here, you must accept them. If you don't, then go back."

Growing resentment

It's a harsh message for Swiss Muslims, many of whom were born in Switzerland. There are fears that the campaign against minarets will provoke growing resentment against Swiss society.

"I think Swiss Muslims will be angry and bitter over this," said Reinhard Schulze, professor of Islamic Studies at Berne University. "And we know that anger and bitterness among a community can lead to radicalisation, even to militancy."

The Swiss government is extremely nervous about the prospect of militancy among Swiss Muslims; three cabinet ministers have already spoken out against the campaign to ban minarets.

There is also a growing fear that the debate will damage Switzerland's traditionally good relations with the Arab world.

But the Swiss People's Party is powerful. If the minaret campaign is, as some suspect, a vote-grabbing ploy ahead of October's general election, then it is a successful one; the party is riding high in the opinion polls.

A constitutional amendment forbidding minarets will have to be approved in a nationwide referendum. In the meantime, no minarets are being built anywhere in Switzerland; the controversy has created a situation in which no local planning officer wants to be the first to approve one.

In that respect, the People's Party may have got what it secretly wanted all along, an unofficial ban on minarets.

So for now, Switzerland's Muslims will continue to pray in abandoned buildings, many with the growing feeling that they are tolerated only as long as they remain invisible.

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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)

There you have it,, Switzerland, the most tolerable country in Europe demonstrating how Islam phobia runs deep.

But for thousands of years, in any Islamic country with Christian population, you will hear church bells ringing almost every day and all day Sunday. That is truth, not fiction.

Spreading Christianity is punishable under the law of israel, I don't see any Christian protesting, do you?

Now Muslim should learn their lesson.

Max  posted on  2007-05-29   1:39:30 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Max (#1)

All Muslims should be expelled from Europe and the U.S.

Freeper motto: I read, but do not understand, I write, but make no sense, I think, but nothing happens.

YertleTurtle  posted on  2007-05-29   4:59:01 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: YertleTurtle (#2)

All Muslims should be expelled from Europe and the U.S.

Muslims don't have a straglehold on the U.S. Gov't. Muslims aren't demanding hate/thought crime laws. It isn't Muslims bleeding this country dry with their endless wars and whining.

Get rid of the jews, then worry about the Muslims. My guess is that when the jewish problem is eradicated, the Muslim problem will magically vanish.

I do not say this lightly, but anyone who cannot handle the content of another's speech may not be suitable for this forum. Such a person may be better suited for a forum whose moderators control and steer the forum's ideas and speech in a given direction. -- Christine, Freedom4um

Esso  posted on  2007-05-29   8:46:47 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Esso (#3) (Edited)

Muslims don't have a stranglehold on the U.S. Gov't. Muslims aren't demanding hate/thought crime laws. It isn't Muslims bleeding this country dry with their endless wars and whining.

Very true, I've made the same contrast about other groups, like the Armenians (BTW, Tom Lantos, the creator of the Reparations bill for Jewish Holocaust survivors, refused Armenians the right to officially declare their genocide, a genocide).

http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Tom_Lantos

Holocaust survivor and Armenian Genocide denier.

...Lantos said that while he was "profoundly moved and anguished by the Armenian people's horrendous suffering," he remained unconvinced that the massacres they endured technically constitute genocide.

http://www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=205
Lantos took a leading role in the 106th Congress in attempting to block passage of legislation recognizing the Armenian Genocide. As a senior member of the House International Relations Committee, which had jurisdiction over the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.R. 596), Lantos worked feverishly to strike all mention of the word genocide from the legislation. Despite his best efforts, Lantos failed to secure passage of an amendment that would have struck the word genocide from the bill.

"It is most unfortunate that Tom Lantos has stained his distinguished legislative career by actively working to deny the Armenian Genocide," commented ANC Government Affairs Director Ardashes Kassakhian.

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." ~George Washington

robin  posted on  2007-05-29   9:19:17 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: YertleTurtle (#2)

you are a well deserved jewish dog, you earned it, you deserve it, and they are screwing you good

Max  posted on  2007-05-29   18:09:54 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Ferret Mike (#0)

I know that under Ottoman rule Christian churches were not allowed to ring their bells, and, as a matter of fact, I can't say I remember hearing any church bells ringing during the many months I have spent in Turkey (whereas the calls to prayer from mosques were sometimes loud enough to interfere with sleep.)

To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.

aristeides  posted on  2007-05-29   18:13:13 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: YertleTurtle (#2)

All Muslims should be expelled from Europe and the U.S.

Well don't stop there.

BTW, if the US and Israel would leave the ME alone, then there wouldn't be so many Muslim refugees looking for a safe place to live.

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." ~George Washington

robin  posted on  2007-05-29   18:21:54 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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