Marco Villa

President Obama is keen to make well with the Muslim world. While bringing peace in Palestine is arduous is politically costly, Obama could take an costless and sentimental step that would greatly benefit his and the United State’s image in the Muslim world: decry the Swiss Minaret ban.

Swiss recently voted for a bigoted referendum that bans all Minarets - tall structure on Mosques - in the country. Out of the 150 prayer halls, only four have Minarets and none even broadcast the call to prayer. Thus the Minaret - whatever one may say about it - is not a common feature in the Swiss skyline and cannot even be heard. The Swiss far-right picked a convenient target for their Crusader-like, anti-Islam campaign. They know that banning Mosques is unconstitutional (as the Minaret ban is as well), so they settled for the un-Swiss architectural Minaret in order to send their message of hostility toward the 400,000 Swiss Muslims (4% of the population). This is a shameful act that should be condemned by the international community. Switzerland’s community of Muslims is peaceful and native European - 90% are Kosovars and Turks.

Unlike Spain and Britain, Switzerland hasn’t been bombed by Islamic terrorists. Unlike France, it hasn’t watched disadvantaged immigrant neighborhoods, home to many Muslims, explode in violent riots. Unlike Denmark, it hasn’t sparked global protests over “Muhammad cartoons” published in a newspaper or, as with the Netherlands, lost a famous and outspoken filmmaker to a gruesome murder carried out by a Muslim extremist.

So this is just old-fashioned Western antipathy toward Islam which in this case cannot even be excused by words about how the Swiss are just concerned about Muslim extremists. This is clearly an attack against Muslims in general. The measured passed 57.5%-42.5%. As one young Swiss stated, “I am ashamed to be Swiss.”

Tomorrow, Obama will address the nation on Afghanistan. He should take a moment to decry the Swiss ban and speak out in the unqualified right to freedom of religion. Doing so will portray Obama as a champion of the best of Western values - a defense of religious and minority rights - and endear him to Muslims. He should not let the moment pass without statement.

It passed 57.5% to 42.5%. The measure was opposed by the government, which quickly moved to state that it was “not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture” in an effort to assuage the concerns of the 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland (out of a 7.5m population). The far-right may claim that this doe snot constitute religious discrimination - and thus not a violation of the constitute - because it does not prevent Muslims from practicing their faith but only seeks to ban “foreign” architecture. But this is a lie. The Minaret ban is made to ostracize Muslims and make Islam less welcome in the country in the hopes of compelling - if not forcing - Swiss Muslims to leave. The Minaret - whatever one may say about it - is not a common feature in the Swiss skyline. Out of 150 prayer halls, only four have a Minaret and only two more are planned for construction. So the far-right such picked a convenient and unconstitutional anti-Islam screed. Shame on the Swiss people for going along with it.

The Swiss Minaret Ban
Marco Villa

So Switzerland - a nation that only gave women the right to vote in 1970 - voted over the weekend to ban the construction of Minarets in Mosques. The Swiss constitution recognizes the right to freedom of religion, but far-right parties wanted a referendum to add a simply sentence that will exclusively ban Minarets. It passed 57.5% to 42.5%. The measure was opposed by the government, which quickly moved to state that it was “not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture” in an effort to assuage the concerns of the 400,000 Muslims in Switzerland (out of a 7.5m population). The far-right may claim that this doe snot constitute religious discrimination - and thus not a violation of the constitute - because it does not prevent Muslims from practicing their faith but only seeks to ban “foreign” architecture. But this is a lie. The Minaret ban is made to ostracize Muslims and make Islam less welcome in the country in the hopes of compelling - if not forcing - Swiss Muslims to leave. The Minaret - whatever one may say about it - is not a common feature in the Swiss skyline. Out of 150 prayer halls, only four have a Minaret and only two more are planned for construction. So the far-right such picked a convenient and unconstitutional anti-Islam screed. Shame on the Swiss people for going along with it.

The government has not to draw up legislation to ban Minarets. Muslims should not despair. First, the community is too strong to be intimidates. Second, legislation will take at least a year to craft and even then it may be tossed out due to international pressure. Any Minaret banning will be in violation of several treaties Switzerland has signed. Even though it may be said that it banned a structure that was infrequent in the lives of Muslims, the symbolism behind the vote was more about Swiss intolerance toward Muslims and less about the Minaret (which, again, was an easy target).

The campaign on behalf of the far-right lead to some attacks against the Muslim community, including stone and paint throwing at a Geneva Mosque.

The Swiss community of Muslims is very tolerant and pluralistic, and extremism is very uncommon. 90% of Muslims in the country are native Kosovo Europeans and Turks. Veiling - which is controversial in, say, France and whatever the merits - is uncommon amongst Swiss Muslim women. Salafi ideology - prominent is places like Saudi Arabia - is nearly non-existent in Kosovo and Turkey, and that not transported with immigrants. In other words: this campaign supposedly against extremism is anything but because extremism is a non-issue. This is nothing else but Crusader-like hatred of Muslims.

Many wealth Muslims have billions in Swiss banks, and spend billions on Swiss travel and goods. Islamic banks (not to say banking by Muslims, but what is purely Sharia-compliant banking) is worth of $800billion. Let the Swiss Miss on that trade if they are going to disrespect Muslims like this.
http://marcovilla.instablogs.com/entry/the-swiss-minaret-ban/

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Source: http://marcovilla.instablogs.com/entry/why-obama-must-denounce-the-swiss-referendum/