The Swiss Minaret Problem

Religious leaders 'deplore' Swiss vote to ban minarets
ENI-09-0937

By Stephen Brown
Geneva, 30 November (ENI)--Religious leaders in Switzerland and abroad have warned that a referendum in which Swiss citizens voted for a constitutional ban on the building of minarets in their country undermines social harmony.

"The Lutheran World Federation regrets that some sectors of Swiss society and politics found it necessary to take the issue of the construction of minarets in Switzerland to a referendum, and to force a decision for or against a ban," the federation's general secretary, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, told Ecumenical News International on 30 November.

The Lutheran leader's statement followed the Swiss vote the previous day in which about 57.5 percent of those who voted supported a ban on the construction of minarets being added to the country's constitution.

The Geneva-based LWF groups about 69 million Protestant Christians worldwide.

The initiative for banning minarets was backed by the Swiss People's Party, which is on the far right and opposes immigration to the country.

Those who supported the ban said the minaret is a "symbol of political power" in a mainly Christian country and that constructing minarets is not a theological requirement in Islam.

A poster campaign in favour of the ban depicted a woman in a body-swathing burqa in front of minarets styled as missiles sprinkled on a Swiss flag, with the word "Stop" on it.

Noko said that while there may be a legitimate interest in preserving and protecting a specific Swiss historical and cultural heritage, "this action has framed this interest in explicitly sectarian terms vis-a-vis Muslims".

The LWF leader, who is also convenor of Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa, stated, "It thereby undermines efforts at inter-religious understanding and harmony in Switzerland, and the Swiss reputation and heritage of tolerance and hospitality."

After Christianity, which accounts for 76 percent of the Swiss population of 7.6 million, Islam, with almost 4.5 percent, is the second biggest religion in Switzerland.

In Rome, a Vatican official said he supported the stand of Switzerland's Roman Catholic bishops on the issue.

"I have the same position as Swiss bishops, who yesterday affirmed that the result of referendum is a heavy blow to religious freedom and to integration," said Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliò, president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

Babacar Ba, the Geneva ambassador of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, was quoted by the swissinfo.ch Internet news site as saying he was surprised and disappointed by the result.

"It is a bad answer to a bad question. I fear that this kind of thing is simply a gift to extremism and intolerance," said Ba. "I think we must be very vigilant in the face of the upsurge of Islamophobia."

The Swiss Council of Religions - which groups Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders - said it "deplores" the approval of the referendum to ban minarets.

"It does not solve any problems," stated the council, saying that the decision should not be understood as evidence of a "general anti-Islamic sentiment" in Switzerland but rather as an expression of widespread societal insecurity.

"Jews, Christians and Muslims must work together with all other groups of society to make an even more resolute stand for the protection of civil rights and liberties, for the dialogue with the Muslim population, and for the path of integration," it stated.

Switzerland holds frequent referendums at federal, cantonal and the local level, "The minaret ban will not solve any problems but will create new ones," the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches said in a statement. "Religious communities now have a special responsibility to make a contribution to a peaceful coexistence."

The federation's president, the Rev. Thomas Wipf, said, "The universal validity of human rights, particularly the right to free exercise of belief, are achievements that must not be abandoned."

The United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, described a ban on the construction of minarets as being contrary to Switzerland's obligations under international human rights law and constituting "a clear discrimination" against the country's Muslims.
 
"I have deep concerns at the negative consequences that the outcome of the vote will have on the freedom of religion or belief of members of the Muslim community in Switzerland," said Jahangir, a human rights lawyer from Pakistan.

The result of the vote adds one sentence to the Swiss constitution: "The construction of minarets is prohibited."

There are currently four minarets in Switzerland and they will not be affected by the vote.

The Swiss government, the federal council, said in a statement distributed in Arabic as well as in other languages, "the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted". [Ecumenical News International Copyright, reprinted by permission]

Comments

[John FB]

I'm no fan of Islam, especially in its more fanatical, misogynistic varieties.

At the same time, if you can ban the construction of iconic religious architecture because it identifies the Islamic religion, what's to keep someone from banning a crucifix on a church steeple because it's particularly "Christian"?

You either believe in religious freedom or you don't.

[Margaret]

We're very used to the idea that the government has no vested interest in the rise of one group or another. Whereas apparently the Swiss feel they have something to preserve.

It's the same problem you have when those who hate liberty use the electoral process to get in power and silence dissent. What do you do?

[Hermann]

I live in Canada and I have seen the coming of the veils. These totally covered humans who might or might not be females, since you have no way of telling, are now a common sight at the local grocery stores here. This didn't happen twenty years ago and Canada has lost the fight to stop the spread of this group. I think Switzerland is totally in its right to stop this prehistoric cult from taking anymore space in this very pretty country. Why don't don't liberal minded morons try and build a nice non-muslim place of worship in a muslim country and see how far they go. Muslims call everybody else infidels and so we should return the favour. They are no more special than anybody else and so they should follow the rules of the country they live in. If they don't like it they can just move somewhere else. Long live Switzerland! Canada let a storm come in and it will be just a matter of time before they start voicing their "rights". Not for this Canadian!

[Deacon Michael D. Harmon]

Obviously, there's a chance for the Swiss to make a deal with the Saudis. For every Christian church opened to public worship in Saudi Arabia, Muslims can build a minaret in Switzerland. For every synagogue, they get 10!

Since that's not going to happen, the issue will be moot. Oh, by the way, this vote does nothing to affect mosques or Muslim worship -- just minarets, period. Perhaps the Swiss like their cities the way they look now. My city has a historic presevation ordinance downtown that prohibits major architectual variations from structures' current appearance.

[John]

Regretabbly I must agree with Herman. Let western countries play by the same rules as the Islamic countries. They slaughter priests, beat Christian girls, and deny the most fundamental rights to worship as one pleases. I am in no way suggesting violence, but why should we not act in such a way as to preserve Christianity in the west? Similarly, I am for the free expression of one's religious beliefs, but we cannot face aggressive Islam with a turned cheek.

[R.C.]

Religious freedom can only be applied with consistency to religions which believe in religious freedom.

As soon as Muslims can be with high accuracy sorted into two groups -- those who have added "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's" into their core beliefs, and those who hold to the historic version of Islam which denies such separation -- why, then, the former group of Muslims can experience the fullness of religious liberty...and the latter can be deported en masse.

But at this time, it is not possible to reliably make such distinctions. For this reason, Islam must -- perfectly logically! -- be regarded a faith which is mildly to firmly antithetical to religious freedom. As such, it falls in a different category than Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, and so on.

Hence the propriety of the ban.

[Monk Michael]

Just try to erect a new church building in most Islamic countries, or to ring church bells, or to have a tower or dome with a cross on its summit. While there are exceptions in practice, all of these are in fact banned by Islamic teaching and tradition.

Somehow, in the light of Islam's own traditions, a non-Islamic country deciding to ban minarets (the purpose of which is to project the call to worship over a wide area) just doesn't seem unfair. Especially since the mosque itself is allowed.

[Judy K. Warner]

There is background to the story which I haven't seen anywhere except a post by David Pryce-Jones on National Review, here.

Here's the relevant excerpt, though the whole thing is worth reading.

In a population of some seven million there are 400,000 Muslims worshipping in about 150 mosques, half a dozen of them with minarets. In the small town of Wangen, in 2005, the imam of a largely Turkish community applied to add a minaret to his mosque. He was allowed to do so, but the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan, a crypto-Islamist, had been unwise enough to issue a blanket defiance to Western countries: “Mosques are our barracks, domes our helmets, minarets our bayonets.” A politician by the name of Christoph Blocher picked up the challenge and made a national issue of it. A lawyer by training, he is a successful industrialist, the founder of the Swiss People's Party which has a right-wing platform, and he has been a government minister.

In other words, nobody would have thought of banning minarets had not Erdogan made minarets an issue of Islamic militancy. But the fact is that Europe is on its way to becoming subjugated by Islam, for both demographic and political reasons, and it is quite rational for Europeans to fight back.

Be wary of the label "right-wing." It is applied across the board to parties and people who want to defend their country and their culture, from fascist parties like the British National Party to Geert Wilders, the Dutch liberal who points out the dangers of radical Islam.

The Swiss had already shown some spunk, Pryce-Jones reports.

The ban follows quite a bit of contention which started when the king of Saudi Arabia bought a house on the shore of Lake Geneva. Launching a building program without first obtaining the requisite permits, he was obliged to stop and pull down extensions. Geneva already had a mosque, and when the Saudis wanted to build another one, the city fathers replied that permission would be granted only when the Saudis reciprocated by allowing the building of a church in Saudi Arabia.

As admirable as this is, one cannot go about resisting Saudi money and influence little case by little case. Saudi money has been the main engine of the radicalization of Islam worldwide, and until it is dealt with attempts to moderate Islamic radicalism will fail.

[Avinash Machado]

Many Muslim countries do not allow much freedom of religion. But they want other countries to grant Muslims freedom of worship

[Juli]

Religious freedom can only be applied with consistency to religions which believe in religious freedom.

That narrows it down.

[Michael Bauman]

The other side of the coin of religious freedom is the freedom to be against religion -- any of them or all of them. The Swiss, therefore, are entitled to maintain their way of life -- which historically has been fiercely independent (they are not joiners), neutral (they will fight only a defensive war), and Christian (their flag is a white cross on a red background, and their income taxes can be designated to support either the Protestant or Catholic churches in Switzerland, but not Islam). Islam is not compatible with the distinctive tradition of Swiss independence, Christianity, and neutrality. In Switzerland, Muslims are free to adjust to Swiss life and culture -- or not -- just as Switzerland is free to adjust to Islamic life and culture -- or not. In this case, not.

Put differently, the Swiss are not morally obligated to permit all kinds of architecture -- religious or otherwise. Architecture in Switzerland is carefully controlled. Nor are the Swiss morally obligated to give equal place and protection to all religions or religious practices. Indeed, a keen sense of morality would require them to make careful distinctions among the religions of the world, not all of which are equally worthy of protection in a nation committed for hundreds of years to independent, heavily armed, neutrality. You'll notice that armed Islam is anything but neutral.

For insight into the Swiss mindset, try John McPhee's brilliant little book, La Place de la Concorde Suisse.

[V-Dawg]

My first impulse on hearing about this was to see it as a danger to religious freedom. And I do not support the idea that just because Muslims oppress people in major ways that we therefore have a right to oppress them back (although admittedly in minor ways). Judy makes a good point, however, in bringing up the origin of the controversy. Minarets could be seen as an imposition of Muslim power, especially as they are often the source of the public Muslim call to prayer.
Looking at the bigger picture, I think one's position on the ban in large part depends on whether one sees it as the government's role to be Christian, while allowing other religions to exist, or to be mainly uninvolved in religion, simply allowing individuals (including government officials; I certainly don't think they should check their religion at the door) to exercise their beliefs as they see fit. I haven't decided between these two views, so I'm still uncertain about where to come down on the minaret ban.

[jakim novak]

The muslimans want too much in west world.
Other religions should not anything do in they world,
bur they ask everything they want,and still object..
So what is..??

[jakim novak]

Many Muslim countries do not allow much freedom of religion. But they want other countries to grant Muslims freedom of worship.

I agree with this post.They want to populate whole world
and others can ...?