![Walter Wobmann, president of the committee "Yes for a ban of Minarets", looks at a campaign poster in Egerkingen, Switzerland, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009. Swiss citizens on Sunday vote on the initiative launched by the right-wing group on whether the construction of further minarets should be banned in Switzerland.](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/hash/de/fe/defed275a7550782499592a83e37d45a.jpg "Walter Wobmann, president of the committee "Yes for a ban of Minarets", looks at a campaign poster in Egerkingen, Switzerland, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009. Swiss citizens on Sunday vote on the initiative launched by the right-wing group on whether the")
The efforts of Islamophobes seem to be bearing fruit. Muslims in the West are finding it harder to practice their religion freely. Today Swiss voters passed a measure to ban construction of Minarets on Mosques built in Switzerland.
First some of the German states ban head scarves for Muslim public school teachers, than the French ban the right of Muslim females to wear a burqa and now this. What's next? Jail people for practicing Islam?
Swiss People's Party labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. To begin with they got 100,000 signatures to hold a referendum on the issue by using scare tactics. Then they posted banners all over Switzerland which showed minarets as missiles rising from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman.
Amazingly this kind of racist behavior was not only tolerated but also received a stamp of approval from the people who claim to be symbols of human rights and freedom of religion. Today Swiss really should their true colors and exposed themselves as being a very intolerant nation.
Muslim communities everywhere are concerned about the decision to impose the ban. America's largest Muslim civil liberties organization has also condemned the measure.
In an open letter to President Obama, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote:
"I also urge you to use the opportunity presented by your prime-time address to repudiate the decision of Swiss voters to deny Muslims in that nation the same religious rights granted to citizens of other faiths. Our nation's silence on this flagrant denial of religious freedom would send a very negative message throughout the Muslim world, which must improve its own record on religious rights."
Many Muslim groups are calling for a boycott of the Swiss products. A blogger has posted a list of the Swiss products on a forum asking the Muslim community to boycott them.
To view a list of the products please click here
Comments
Good on the Swiss. I think they have voted correctly on this one.
I think the Swiss need to be applauded for having grown a spine for the first time in their history and doing something RIGHT for a change.
And I disagree with several of your suggestions in this article -
first, you call them 'Islamophobes'. Well, last I read, phobia was an 'irrational fear'. In this case, the fear has a strong basis in violence by Islamofascists and the 7th century rhetoric being spewed out in local Mosques.
second, I don't see anything racist with either banning head scarves or a veiled woman on a poster. If anything, it is simply exposing the racial segregation and an 'us vs them' culture that Islam encourages.
lastly, you are not helping your Muslim brethren by defending their 7th century beliefs...go read the Koran for once and I hope you realize that the problem is intolerant Islam. Islamophobia, if anything is only a reaction and a valid one.
Islam has NO place in our countries. Let me ask you. How are Christians treated in your countries where the majority of people are Muslims? Christians are KILLED even. Wake up buddy, we are sick of your sick twisted religion. Our nations are better than yours for a reason and that sure isn't ISLAM.
I think the law is totally GHEY. If someone owns the land, he/she should be able to put any freakin structure on it Those intrusive people who want to pass laws on what people can build on their property are the same types who want to take away my God given right to bear arms. Those people can be checked by the democratic process. Swiss Muslims should be relieved that it is only a vote. Some of the oldest Christian communities in the world are located in Iraq and are being decimated by killings and subsequent emigration. The Christian population went from 800000 to 500000 from 2003 to 2008. If that isn't ethnic cleansing, I don't know what is. Oh, guess who's killing the Iraqi Christians? Are Muslims in Iraq and other countries protesting these atrocities? Here in the US, I need not worry about the spread of Islam and Sharia law. My compatriots and I are armed and ready if someone is going to TRY to force me to pray 4 times a day and observe Ramadan.
1)The Swiss can decide what they want in their own country.
2) In the last 60 years, how many churches have been constructed in the muslim countries? Zero!
3) In the last 60 years, how many mosques have been constructed in Europe? Thousands!
4) Every islamic commentator speaks about "discrimination"!
5) When in Rome, do as the Romans do!
6) Are the muslims in Europe listening?
Unfortunately, I have to agree with the disappointment that Switzerland leaders have with the result of the vote. However, the leaders of Switzerland have themselves to blame for the result. Even with polls suggesting that the vote wouldn't go forward it seems that only those who have a strong opinion on the issue voted.
The history of the relationship between Christianity, Judaism and Islam is more complicated that some are willing to admit. I always say that the relationship is that of three brothers.
Being a Christian I have to admit that this is Islamphobia.
Fear mongering has won again.
Dr Mr Muslim
You say the Swiss have finally shown their "true colours", well so have Muslims. All throughout Europe Saudi Funded wahabi mosques shelter radical hateful clerics who preach harm against Europeans, the same clerics who espouse the virtues of multiculturalism yet stab the culture which welcomed them in the back.
Meanwhile a good proportion of Muslims in the UK wish for Sharia law to be implemented and actually agree that whilst the means of execution was wrong, the overall cause of the London tube bombers was "just." Who the hell are you to argue for tolerance, when those who follow your religion are the most intolerant people on earth. For too long Muslims like you have played the victim card to evoke sympathy and bar any criticism toward them.
Maybe if you acted like civilized human beings and not bomb trains in London and Madrid, throw riots ovr cartoons, kill Dutch filmakers and make death threats to politicians Europe would not resent you so, too late
I like the points you made in your article.
How others can say this is not racism and prejudice is beside me.
Read Lebanon's history and learn westerners. You shall
have civil wars in every of your nations
when muslims reach 40% of each population. You will become
us.
When a Christian can exercise his/her right of eating during Ramadan on the streets of any Islamic country, then all Muslims have the right to attack the Swiss decision. I would suggest to those so-called moderate Muslims to focus their energy on improving themselves and their society FIRST, then you can put all the blame on others. The biggest enemy of Islam has been Muslims themselves through self-victimization. Mr. Anwar, I challenge you to have the courage to write a similar article in Syria, KSA or Iran about giving Christians the same rights as Muslims. Stop using our system against us. If over-building mosques and being over-zealous about ones religion was not flaunted in our faces and was such a peaceful act, then believe me we would be the first to embrace it. You want to impose your beliefs on us and expect to roll with it!!! Like they say in Arabic: If the camel could see his lump, he would fall and break his neck.
This kind of legislation is no different from the bans in Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia of Crosses/Steeples. The Swiss ban is a continuation of precisely the kind of intolerance we're trying to fight in the Arab world.
Rather than banning Minarets in Switzerland, the Swiss (and all freedom-loving people) should lobby Gulf countries to allow Crosses and Steeples. Intolerance is wrong, whether it's Christians banning Minarets, or Gulf-Muslims banning Crosses.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
Very well said Omar.
Dear Chad, practicing one's religion freely is a basic human right. No society should ban or impose restrictions on any one's right to practice religion. Any country, Muslim, Christian or Jewish is wrong to do that and should be condemned for it. History has shown that Muslim majority has lived very peacefully with other religious minorities in the past.
Opression is never the answer.
"History has shown that Muslim majority has lived very peacefully with other religious minorities in the past."
Tell this to the Ba'hai.
... or atheists.
Guys Guys, just when thing, everyone says Islamophobia, no one is afraid of Islam! Like Red says, we are always ready for them, and it is on them that we are scared, we do not want them to hurt themselves, so we are protecting them :) and like Lebanese said, revise the history of the Lebanese, and u will see what intolerance is, and what a Christian Resistance can do!! A million Christians against the Middle East!
Waiting for a ban on Islam: very soon I hope.
the Swiss are out of their minds, what does this accomplish? it just fuels hate, bigotry, and the isolation of Muslims in Europe which in turn is very likely to fuel extremism among young Muslims. Thank God we live in a free country like America where such an abominable thing would never happen...
We are at war. Crush the Islamists before they crush us.
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