Doudou won't like it: Swiss "Far Right Forces" vote on minaret ban

* Not one article in the press without the  obligatory ‘far right’ smears. Where do they clone these pathetic wankers who write that crap?

Guardian

Far right groups in Switzerland have collected enough signatures to force a nationwide referendum on banning minarets, the distinctive towers of Islamic architecture.

* Resistance is growing and the politically correct multi-culti progressives are becoming increasingly unhinged…

In what is being seen as a sign of growing Islamophobia in Europe, more than 100,000 Swiss citizens signed a petition to halt the construction of minarets.

Under Switzerland’s direct democracy rules, that level of support is enough to trigger a referendum. The Swiss interior ministry today confirmed a vote would take place, without setting a date.

The petition was launched by Ulrich Schlüer an MP from the controversial (there is that BS-word for all seasons again..) Swiss People’s party, which was accused of racist campaigning last year.

In a bid to get immigrants’ families deported if their children had been convicted of violent crime, the party ran an advertising campaign showing three white sheep on a Swiss flag kicking out a black sheep with the caption: “For more security.”

The president of Switzerland, Pascal Couchepin, said the government would recommend that voters rejected the proposed minaret ban.

The organisers of the petition argue that the minarets, which are used on mosques, are a symbol of political and religious claims to power, not just a religious sign.

Schlüer said last year: “We’ve got nothing against prayer rooms or mosques for the Muslims. But a minaret is different. It’s got nothing to do with religion; it’s a symbol of political power.”

Schlüer’s point is validated by the subscription-only Brill Online Encyclopedia of Islam, which states in its entry on minarets: “[T]hroughout the mediaeval period, the role of the minaret oscillated between two polarities: as a sign of power and as an instrument for the adhan (call to prayer). As for the legitimacy of this latter polarity, however, the same minaret entry also points out that “It [the minaret] seems on the whole unrelated to its function of the adhan calling the faithful to prayer, which can be made quite adequately from the roof of the mosque or even from the house-top.”

If Schlüer’s camp wins the referendum, the Swiss parliament must pass a law enshrining a minaret construction ban in the constitution.

Opponents say such a ban would violate religious freedom.

* Killing infidels and Jews is also part of the Muhammedan religion. Would these opponents against common sense and sanity grant Muhammedans that freedom also?

More than 310,000 of Switzerland’s 7.5 million population are Muslims, according to the federal statistical office.

The UN “expert on racism”, Doudou Diene, has said the campaign is evidence of an “ever-increasing trend” toward anti-Islamic actions in Europe.

* Take it to Mecca, Doudou. Come back when the Arabs allow a church or a synagogue… or just rub it…

Fitzgerald’s comment:

Of course the minaret is not necessary. It cannot be argued that Muslims need to have minarets from which a non-existent muezzin will utter the (not permitted because of sound zoning laws) Call To Prayer, or where, if a Call To Prayer is allowed, it is played and then amplified electronically, and there is no conceivable need for height.

Are there any devices that tell the time in Switzerland? Yes, there are. Do Muslims all over the world now have access to clocks, and watches? Yes, they do. Do they possess, on their calendars, in their fancy agenda books (oh, those rich Arabs, with their briefcases and their agenda books, and their Rolex watches, and their everything, all of it so completely, grotesquelly, undeearned, unmerited), or even homelier models for the just-us-folks Muslims, telling them the exact time of each of the five canonical prayers, in the tiniest town or village anywhere in the world? Of course they do.

The minaret is merely a sign of power, a sign of dominion over the churches and synagogues. Why do you think according to the Shari’a no church or synagogue can be built higher than a nearby mosque? Why do you think that mosques were always built on the highest ground — for a nice example, see the mosque in Grenada, opened a few years ago (the Spanish government thought it would be a great idea, a demonstration of real “tolerance” for Muslims that would somehow be reciprocated — it wasn’t), that looms over a convent and a church, and with its Call to Prayer has disrupted the quiet lives of the nuns, who actually dared to protest. To no avail.

Minarets are claims of power, claims to dominance. That is what they are. And that is what these Swiss, called – you know what they were called — “far right-wing” Swiss, have properly identified. And have petitioned for a referendum to be held.

I saw today, at 2 p.m., on the French channel, a French-language report from Switzerland. It showed the petitions being delivered with their 114,685 signatures. There was some patter about the government “being worried.”

But think of it. If it is just a “far-right party” that was behind this petition, then the Swiss government should have no trouble at all holding a referendum on the matter. After all, how many votes can these “extremists” in this “far-right party” possibly get?

Why, practically none. I’m sure that those nearly 115,000 signatures constituted the entire membership of that “far-right party.”

I’m sure you’ll agree. So surely the Swiss government will obey its own rules, and now that the approriate number of signatures has indeed been gathered, will hold that referendum.

Switzerland is a democracy, isn’t it? You know, William Tell, and a citizen’s army, holding out for months in mountain redoubts against possible totalitarian enemies that might invade from without, and all that? So what could possibly be wrong with holding a referendum, and Letting The Swiss People Speak?

Could it be that the invasion they are worried about is not one that any citizens in mountain redoubts can repel, but consists of those already within the country, and growing in numbers, and in power, and in ability to influence the ability of the Swiss government to respond, as demonstrated most vividly in that Swiss government’s reluctant or even hostile response to this very petition by its very own citizens, for a referendum on minarets to be held?

Posted by: Hugh  at July 8, 2008 7:16 PM