Swiss ban mosque minarets

U.S. Muslims denounce Swiss minaret ban
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Switzerland's decision to ban minarets has angered Muslim-Americans who have called the vote "xenophobic and bigoted," officials said.

The minaret ban, passed by Swiss voters on Sunday, heightens a general concern by Muslims in the United States about the challenges faced by Muslims living in Europe.

It also drew denouncements from several major U.S. newspapers, Swissinfo reported.

"Our fear is that the ban is going to further alienate a growing population of Muslims in Europe," said Faiza Ali of The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim-American group.

Ali cited other examples of challenges faced by European Muslims, including French resistance to burkas worn by some Muslim women and opposition in parts of Europe to Turkish membership in the European Union.

CAIR has called on U.S. President Barack Obama to denounce the minaret ban, saying that America's silence would send a negative message to the Muslim world.



Copyright 2009 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 12/04/2009

An Extraordinary Vote in Switzerland

The Swiss vote to protect diversity from the
threat of radical Islam
Dear Elaine,

How did one of the most tolerant countries in the world reach the point where over 57% of its people voted for a constitutional amendment to ban the construction of minaret towers on mosques?

Couple this surprise vote with the public statements opposing the burqa by Sarkozy in France and the growing strength of Geert Wilders’ political party in the Netherlands, and it would appear Western Europe is indeed waking up to the threat of radical, political Islam.

Two items stand out in the story below (yellow highlights added). First, the vote in favor of the constitutional amendment was 20 points higher than polls were predicting. This means people were not telling the truth to pollsters, most likely out of deference to political correctness. But when they had a chance to cast a private vote, their true feelings were revealed.

Second, the political party that brought the referendum to a vote seems to have focused on the threat of political Islam and shariah law. It would appear that Swiss voters were able to distinguish the threat of political Islam and its shariah law from the practice of religion—which is what Americans are going to have to do if we are to protect our security and freedoms.

The effect of the Swiss vote could be summarized as follows: “We are going to protect diversity and freedom of religion by no longer surrendering to Islamist intolerance of diversity and freedom of religion.”

Contrast this with the astonishing words of Gen. George Casey, in response to the Ft. Hood terrorist atrocity perpetrated by jihadist Nidal Hasan:

"What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here."

More and more Europeans are realizing that, in order to protect diversity, political Islam and creeping shariah must be stopped. They are realizing that “diversity” is a casualty in any society that embraces or tolerates political Islam and shariah law.

For what could be more antithetical to diversity than a supremacist political ideology bent on imposing its will, its god, and its law, on all “infidels,” through any means necessary?

This is the hard truth many in Europe are finally coming to realize. With your continued help and support, hopefully this truth won’t be so difficult for America to come to grips with.


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Swiss ban mosque minarets in surprise vote

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 29, 6:40 pm ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091129/ap_on_re_eu/eu_switzerland_minaret_ban

GENEVA – Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.

Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland's international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there.

"The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights," said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was "grief and deep disappointment."

About 300 people turned out for a spontaneous demonstration on the square outside parliament, holding up signs saying, "That is not my Switzerland," placing candles in front of a model of a minaret and making another minaret shape out of the candles themselves.

"We're sorry," said another sign. A young woman pinned to her jacket a piece of paper saying, "Swiss passport for sale."

The referendum by the nationalist Swiss People's Party labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiative was approved 57.5 to 42.5 percent by some 2.67 million voters. Only four of the 26 cantons or states opposed the initiative, granting the double approval that makes it part of the Swiss constitution.

Muslims comprise about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. Many are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and about one in 10 actively practices their religion, the government says.

The country's four standing minarets, which won't be affected by the ban, do not traditionally broadcast the call to prayer outside their own buildings.

The sponsors of the initiative provoked complaints of bias from local officials and human-rights group with campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman. Backers said the growing Muslim population was straining the country "because Muslims don't just practice religion."

"The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls," the sponsors said. They said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared mosques to Islam's military barracks and called "the minarets our bayonets." [Editor’s note: Najmadin Erbakan, former Prime Minister of Turkey, is on record stating “…we are coming here [to Germany] to take control of your country…”] Erdogan made the comment in citing an Islamic poem many years before he became prime minister.
Anxieties about growing Muslim minorities have rippled across Europe in recent years, leading to legal changes in some countries. There have been French moves to ban the full-length body covering known as the burqa. Some German states have introduced bans on head scarves for Muslim women teaching in public schools. Mosques and minaret construction projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have been met by protests.

But the Swiss ban in minarets, sponsored by the country's largest political party, was one of the most extreme reactions.

"It's a sad day for freedom of religion," said Mohammed Shafiq, the chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a British youth organization. "A constitutional amendment that's targeted towards one religious community is discriminatory and abhorrent."

He said he was concerned the decision could have reverberations in other European countries.

Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.

The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government had spoken out strongly against the initiative but the government said it accepted the vote and would impose an immediate ban on minaret construction.

It said that "Muslims in Switzerland are able to practice their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before." It took the unusual step of issuing its press release in Arabic as well as German, French, Italian and English.

Sunday's results stood in stark contrast to opinion polls, last taken 10 days ago, that showed 37 percent supporting the proposal. Experts said before the vote that they feared Swiss had pretended during the polling that they opposed the ban because they didn't want to appear intolerant.

"The sponsors of the ban have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way," said Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich. "Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore."

The People's Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previous years against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.

Geneva's main mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.

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Associated Press Writers Shafika Mattar in Amman, Jordan, Eliane Engeler in Basel, Jennifer Quinn in London and Giovanni Fontana in Rome contributed to this report.
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