Swiss Minaret Ban Brings out Worst in Most

Over the week-end, the Swiss held a few referenda, and one of them called for the banning of future construction of minarets in the country. Despite the confidence of the more liberal sectors of Switzerland that the plebiscite would go down to defeat, the thing passed with about 57% of the vote. Since then, some voices from the Muslim world have called for understanding and calm but a great many more have fallen for the usual victimhood line. Meanwhile, the Swiss are either delighted or embarrassed depending on how they voted.

A few quick facts are necessary to understand the situation for the utter nonsense it is. Switzerland is a country of around 7.5 million, about the size of New York City. Of that, 400,000 or so are Muslims, but only 40,000 of that total actually practice their faith. Less than half a percent of the population practice Islam. In all of Switzerland, there are four minarets, and depending on whom one believes, somewhere between 2 and 10 more were in the planning stage. Additionally while minarets exist to call the faithful to prayer, there is nothing that requires a mosque to have one.

However what should really just be a zoning ordinance has become an international, inter-faith issue. The Swiss People's Party, the right-wing yahoos who decided this was an important issue and put the initiative on the ballot, claim to be standing up for Swiss values. Meanwhile, many other parties in Switzerland say that the referendum was inherently un-Swiss due to its intolerance. The UN Human Rights Commission and the human rights crowd in Brussels are sure it violates religious freedom.

The whining from some segments of the Muslim world is shocking in its hypocrisy. While complaining that this is an anti-Muslim law, they seem to be silent on the absence of churches in Saudi Arabia, the fact that sharia law offers Jews and Christians only half the civil compensation a Muslim would get, and the fact that a Christian who converts to Islam is praised while a Muslim who converts to Christianity faces a death sentence. These seem to be more serious than a building code, regardless of the symbolic nature of that code.

Full marks to those in the Muslim world who have tried to lower the temperature of this stupidly incendiary act. The Gulf Times reports, "former dean of Sharia College at Qatar University, Prof Abdul Hamid al-Ansari, said that Muslims around the world should not be dragged into a battle with Europe's rising Far-Right." Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, Assistant Secretary-General for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said, "I would call upon all Muslims not to demonstrate or take to the streets. This simply gives ammunition to those who wish to portray us as violent extremists. We need to be dignified and challenge this through the democratic process that we have available to us as Europeans."

By and large, though, this whole sorry incident merely goes to show what a bunch of dunderheads humans can be. The Swiss right picked a fight over a tower. The call for Muslims to pull their money from Swiss banks in protest leaves one asking if they will lend it to Dubai. Now, feelings folks didn't even know they had are hurt. This is a very tiny planet, and it seems a shame so many want it all to themselves.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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