The people of Switzerland voted Sunday to ban the construction of minarets in their country. Some 57.5% of voters and a majority in 22 of Switzerland's 26 cantons (the equivalent of a state or province).
I can smell the freedom from here...Andrew E. Mathis
This vote was eleven kinds of wrong, for some reasons that ought to be obvious. or one, our First Amendment principles ought to dictate to us that the mere expression of religion in the form of architecture shouldn't be banned. This is why we have a First Amendment to begin with — not to protect points of view that are popular, but ones that are deeply unpopular.
Anyone disagreeing with that basic principle should read the unanimous decision in the 1969 Supreme Court case Brandenburg v. Ohio, where the court reaffirmed that any speech is protected, as long as it is not libelous, seditious, or likely to cause an immediate breach of the peace (e.g., shouting "fire" in a crowded theater).
Building a minaret does none of these things.
OK, I know: Switzerland isn't the United States and shouldn't be held to our standards. That's probably true. It's one of the things that Switzerland enjoys via its militant neutrality: It can pass laws like this one that are immensely intolerant. (Any country in the European Union, for instance, would get a censure for enacting such a law. Switzerland is actually a member of the U.N., if only for the last seven years, but it's not likely that such an action will be taken up there either.)
The really scary thing, or things, about this law are not mentioned in the above link from the BBC, by and large. The article mentions, e.g., that the Swiss are now concerned that they will be a target for terrorists. How justified is this concern?
Based on Switzerland's terrorism statistics, not very.
Is there some Muslim fifth column coming up in Switzerland as we speak? Based on the fact that about 4% of the Swiss population is Muslim, I'd say, again, no. Germany has more Muslims and has never had an al-Qaida attack.
So what is Switzerland afraid of? You've got me.
What scares me about all this is that a country with a Muslim population of about 350,000 and that has not been subject to terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists is passing a law that restricts the free exercise of religion. You know how many minarets there are in Switzerland? Four. You read that right: Four.
One Swiss politician made a statement on the initiative after the vote. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf of Bern (the capital) stated:
The outcome of today’s vote reflects the concern among the population that our national and social order could be eroded by yielding to fundamentalist Islamic tendencies. Conversely, there are concerns among well-integrated Muslims in our country that they could be segregated from society and debased. The popular initiative gave vent to the fears felt by both sides.
She also noted that Swiss legislators will take the issue to the European Court of Human Rights. (Switzerland's constitution does not afford judicial review of legislation.)
The party behind this initiative, the Swiss People's Party (SVP), which is also the country's largest party, split in the aftermath of the 2007 federal election because of the rise of a more moderate wing. This wing, now called the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland, is led by none other than Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.
That Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf seems to oppose this law may indicate the ideology behind the law more greatly than anything else. What it may indicate is that, by pushing this law, the SVP was scapegoating a tiny religious minority for false reasons of national security and national identity.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but we've seen this kind of thing before in Europe. It doesn't look good now, no matter what faith is on the receiving end and no matter what country is dishing out the treatment.
Source: examiner.com/
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