Swiss minaret ban gains momentum

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Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

aadil77 said:
atleast they haven't banned the hijab and niqab, have they?

and what about church spires? they should ban them as well
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Italy just ruled to ban crucifixs in the classroom.
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

I dont have opinion about this issue. Depends what stands behind Swiss decisions. If they want to ban minaretes, because these buildings are against some secular rights, so imho its bad decision. But if the Swiss want to ba minaretes to defend their christian tradition (which is less lilely, to be honest), i could support that.
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

I wouldn't support it on the grounds that Switzerland is a free country that is developed and democratic, and anyone should be able to exercise their religion/religious traditions.
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

Media says that most Swiss people voted for banning the minarets.
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

They are doing it for secular reasons? Are they going to ban steeples also?

What a ridiculous vote.
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

Uthmān;1252786 said:
Women lead Swiss in vote to ban minarets
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You can understand their concerns, however; no Muslim country (well, Saudi Arabia, but that never counts) has banned anything to do with churches; beautiful churches exist in Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan and the like, yet the populaces of those countries aren't asking for a ban on churches.
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

Switzerland appears to have backed minaret ban

Voters in Switzerland appeared to have backed a call to ban minarets from mosques, according to early exit poll results.

muslimswitzerland_1519983c-1.jpg

A pedestrian walks past a display advertising the initiative against the construction of new minarets in Switzerland, in Geneva
Photo: REUTERS
Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.”
​

According to the respected gfs.bern polling institute an estimated 59 per cent of voters backed the ban. A majority of cantons were also in support of the initiative.

“A majority have voted for a nationwide ban on the construction of minarets,” said the institute’s director Claude Longchamp, speaking on Swiss Radio DRS.
​

For the Swiss constitution to be changed, the majority of the electorate and a majority of the cantons are required to vote ‘yes’.

A survey two weeks ago showed 53 per cent said they would reject it. Both the government and parliament had rejected the initiative.

Commentators had said the country risked international pariah status and a backlash across the Muslim world if a ’yes’ vote was achieved.

If the exit polls prove correct it will be a huge shock and Switzerland risks international pariah status and a backlash across the Muslim world.

Sunday's vote was forced by members of the far-right Swiss People's party (SVP) which has provoked a national debate over immigration with powerful billboard images.

The stark "stop" posters depicting a Muslim woman in a burka against the backdrop of a Swiss flag studded with missile shaped black minarets have been banned in many towns.

Hanspeter Rentsch, an executive director at the watch company Swatch, has warned that the referendum, and the poster propaganda, could damage Switzerland in the eyes of the world.

"The 'Swiss' brand must continue to represent values such as openness, pluralism and freedom of religion. Under no circumstances must it be connected with hatred, animosity towards foreigners and narrow-mindedness," he said.

Campaigners demanded the referendum to halt "political Islamisation" by amending the Swiss constitution to add a clause stating "the construction of minarets is prohibited".

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Swiss justice minister, has suggested that a vote for a ban could fuel Islamist radicalism and violent protests, such as those that greeted Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2006.

"This is not an appropriate instrument for combating religious extremism. It risks the opposite, of serving the cause of fanatics," she said.

But Oskar Freysinger, an SVP MP, compares warnings of anger in the Muslim world to the arguments used by "appeasers" of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

"It is what Chamberlain thought in Munich in 1938. If these are the consequences, it is the proof that what we are doing to defend ourselves is legitimate," he said.

The vote is required because campaigners got over 100,000 signatures on a petition against minarets triggering a vote under the Swiss constitution.

The campaign followed a row over a minaret in the tiny town of Langenthal, in the Bern canton of Switzerland.

Earlier this year Langenthal's 750 Muslims asked for planning permission to add a minaret, 30 feet high, to their mosque in a town with 11 churches and 14,500 inhabitants.

The reaction to the apparently harmless request has polarised Switzerland and crossed borders to feed into British, French, Dutch and Austrian fears over Islam and national identity.

"This minaret is a symbol of conquest and power which marks the will to introduce Sharia law as has happened in some other European cities. We will not accept that," said Ulrich Schueler, an SVP politician and leader of the "stop" minaret campaign.

Muslims have rejected the argument that a minaret symbolises Muslim power. Mutalip Karaademi, leader of Langenthal's Muslim community and of Albanian origin, accused Mr Schueler of telling "dirty lies".

"A minaret is a symbol nothing more. It s nice to see a house of god with a minaret or a church steeple or cupolas on a synagogue," he said.

"They call us terrorists. They call us Taliban, so many labels all wrong. They insult us. We love this country, almost more than our own. Our children were born here."

Source:Telegraph
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

Thats ashame. What are the swiss going to ban next I wonder?
 
Re: Swiss move to ban minarets as 'symbols of Islamic power'

It's not Islam that's on a power trip here... :><:

It's not surprising really, there's the same anti Islam sentiment all over the rest of Europe, it's just being manifested in different ways- minarets in Switzerland, hijab in France, cartoons in Denmark, etc. People are just afraid of the potential danger they perceive Islam as.
 

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