 Switzerland isn’t forcing people to go live there if the flag offends them.
Switzerland: Mostly-Muslim advocacy group calls for less “offensive” flag
As described below, this arrogant move comes amid a larger climate of legal jihad aimed at making Switzerland stop being Switzerland, all while saying it’s the Swiss thing to do. “Immigrants Want Cross Removed from Swiss Flag,” by Soeren Kern for Hudson NY, September 26 (thanks to JW):
An immigrant group based in Bern has called for the emblematic white cross to be removed from the Swiss national flag because as a Christian symbol it “no longer corresponds to today’s multicultural Switzerland.”
Oscar Freysinger couldn’t be reached for comment. His answering service said he went to the gun-shop to stock up on ammo….
Ivica Petrusic, the vice president of Second@s Plus, a lobbying group that represents mostly Muslim second-generation foreigners in Switzerland (who colloquially are known as secondos) says the group will launch a nationwide campaign in October to ask Swiss citizens to consider adopting a flag that is less offensive to Muslim immigrants.
Switzerland isn’t forcing people to go live there if the flag offends them.
In a September 18 interview with the Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung, Petrusic said the cross has a Christian background and while the Christian roots of Switzerland should be respected, “it is necessary to separate church and state” because “Switzerland today has a great religious and cultural diversity. One has to ask if the State wants to continue building up a symbol in which many people no longer believe.”
In the interview, Petrusic said Switzerland needs new symbols with which everyone, including non-Christians, can identify. As an alternative to the current Swiss flag (see image here), Petrusic proposed the former flag of the Helvetic Republic (see image here) which was officially introduced in 1799 and consisted of green, red and yellow colors. “Those colors are similar to the current flags of Bolivia and Ghana and would represent a more progressive and open-minded Switzerland,” Petrusic said.
The proposal to change the Swiss flag has been met with outrage across the political spectrum and is sure to fuel anti-immigrant sentiments in Switzerland.
Sylvia Flückiger a councillor with the conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) said the demands are: “Totally unacceptable. With our Swiss flag there is nothing to change. The next thing you know, they will demand even more, that we change our constitution.”
Marianne Binder, spokeswoman for the center-right Christian Democrats (CVP) said: “This is just what was missing, that we need to change our flag. The Swiss flag is part of Swiss identity, precisely because it is inviting for all to want to be involved…even the immigrants.”
Stefan Brupbacher, general secretary of the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) said: “This is utter nonsense. The Swiss cross is an extremely successful and valuable global brand. It is a symbol of success and quality. We will tightly hold on to it, out of love for Switzerland.”
The issue of Muslim immigration to Switzerland has been a hotly debated topic in recent years and the flag controversy is sure to add fuel to the fire.
At this point, it is probably a poorly calculated overreach.
The Muslim population in Switzerland has more than quintupled since 1980, and now numbers about 400,000, or roughly 5% of the population. Most Muslims living in Switzerland are of Turkish or Balkan origin, with a smaller minority from the Arab world. Many of them are second- and third-generation immigrants who are now firmly establishing themselves in Switzerland.
The new Muslim demographic reality is raising tensions across large parts of Swiss society, especially as Muslims become more assertive in their demands for greater recognition of their Islamic faith.
The ensuing controversies are fuelling a debate over the role of Islam in Swiss society and how to reconcile Western values with a growing immigrant population determined to avoid assimilation.
Swiss courts have been jam-packed with Islam-related cases in recent years. In one case, Muslim parents won a lawsuit demanding that they be allowed to dress their children in full-body bathing suits, dubbed “burkinis,” during co-ed swimming lessons. In another case, a group of Swiss supermarkets created a stir by banning Muslim employees from wearing headscarves.
In August 2009, the Swiss basketball association told a Muslim player she could not wear a headscarf during league games. In August 2010, five Muslim families in Basel were fined 350 Swiss Francs ($420) each for refusing to send their daughters to mixed-sex swimming lessons.
In September 2010, the secretary of the Muslim Community of Basel was acquitted of publicly inciting crime and violence. The charges were pressed after the 33-year-old made comments in a Swiss television documentary saying that Islamic Sharia law should be introduced in Switzerland and that unruly wives should be beaten. The judge said the defendant was protected by freedom of expression.
In November 2010, Swiss voters approved tough new regulations on the deportation of non-Swiss immigrants convicted of serious crimes. The measure calls for the automatic expulsion of non-Swiss offenders convicted of crimes ranging from murder to breaking and entry and social security fraud.
Also in November, Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga said the approval or extension of residency permits should be closely linked to the efforts immigrants make to integrate themselves. “Compulsory schooling must be respected. Children should attend all courses and exceptions made on religious or other grounds, for example in swimming classes, should no longer be possible,” Sommaruga said.
In December 2010, the Federal Commission on Women’s Issues called for Islamic burqas and niqabs to be banned in government offices and in public schools. The government-appointed committee said the move would prevent gender discrimination.
In January 2011, a 66-year-old Turkish woman living in Bern was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for encouraging the father and brothers of her daughter-in-law to carry out an “honor” crime against her for her “risqué lifestyle.”
In May 2011, voters in canton Ticino, in Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region, collected enough signatures to be able to launch a referendum that would ban burqas, niqabs and other Islamic head dresses. If the referendum goes ahead, it will be the first time in Switzerland that citizens have been asked to express an opinion on burqas.
Also in May, Swiss Defence Minister Ueli Maurer said increasing numbers of Swiss Muslims are training in Islamic militant camps in countries like Somalia and Yemen. In an interview with the SonntagsZeitung newspaper, Maurer also said that under current Swiss laws it is difficult to prevent Islamists from raising funds.
The SVP has described the minaret is a “symbol of a religious-political claim to power and dominance which threatens — in the name of alleged freedom of religion — the constitutional rights of others.”
The SVP has backed its claim by citing a remark by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has implied that the construction of mosques and minarets is part of a strategy to Islamisize Europe. The pro-Islamist Erdogan has bragged:“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.” Erdogan has also told Muslim immigrants in Europe that “assimilation is a crime against humanity.”
In recent years the number of mosques in Switzerland has mushroomed; there now are over 200 mosques and up to 1,000 prayer rooms dotted across the country. Critics fear the mosques are facilitating the establishment of a parallel Muslim society — one that is especially welcoming to Islamic fundamentalists.
Now is the time for the Swiss to remove their Muslim problem, whilst they still can.
Its all about symbols:
Islam must dominate, the cross, the synagogue or the Hindu temple must be destroyed. That’s why the Bamian Buddhas were blown up, that’s why in Indonesia, Pakistan and Egypt the churches are burning, and that’s why the first Muslim minister-designate called for a state school crucifix ban the moment she took office.
Islam must dominate and must not be dominated.
Indigenous people of France
Who could be behind a party called The indigenous people of The Republic in France?
An Arab, Algerian, to start with the spokeswoman, Houria Bouteldja, Parti des Indigènes de la République (PIR)… Laying the grounds for future domination
“The next thing you know, they will demand even more, that we change our constitution”
This is exactly what’s happening in another country where the cross is part of the flag.
What’s wrong with the Norwegian Constitution?
– It protects the country’s sovereignty, and its history
Thorbjørn Jagland, Nobel committee member, and Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland of Council of Europe is working to adjust the Norwegian Constitution to the Human Rights. Or, could it be to adjust it to the Cairo Declaration of 1990?
http://www.coe.int/T/SECRETARYGENERAL/SG/
European Court of Human Rights introducing, last year “the right not to be offended”, referring to Italian crucifix in schools
http://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR/Homepage_En/
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10008625
Coffee, I need a translation, this is good!
Like I said in discussion on”Creeping Sharia”, it is just a matter of time before Muslims in the UK demand that the crosses be removed from all British flags…As a matter of fact there are many European flags that have crosses emossed in them. Are they going to demand they all be removed?
The muzzies are overstepping the line, but extra attention is required to monitor those that will let them get away with it.
Over my cold dead body they can change our Swiss Flag with the “Schwiizerchrüüz”. If these inbreds try, they will suddenly remember that almost every Swiss Man has his Army-Gun at home.
Are all those countries with a cross in the flag, going to remove it – not to offend the muslims?
What will be the motives promoted by the PC brigades, to make the European peoples resign, and agree to remove the crosses? And, how about New Zealand, and Australia PC brigades?
Creeping sharia
No memory, no identity. Everything ready to start giving the peoples the choice – convert, get status as a dhimmi, or die.
Sheik, the flag story translated
One of the comments, with ideas to new flag
“If ever the flag, or The Constitution, or Sovereignty is threatened, your duty is to show up at the camp armed with an AG3 and an MG3″, I once learned. Is that now?”
—
2010
VG
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10008625
RULING THREATENS THE FLAG: Norwegian spectators celebrate with the Norwegian flag after the 2006 European Women’s Handball Championship victory (Big photo)
A ruling against the crucifix in Italian schools threaten the right to use
religious symbols in flags, 37 European lawyers have found.
“Erase the Christian cross
from your flag
and hoist it
pure and red”
the atheist Arnulf Øverland wrote. The poet was indicted of blasphemy for the lecture “Christianity, The Tenth Plague” 77 years ago.
Protocol: Submit your idea (of a new flag)
Cross in 20 flags
Now a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights may have concequences for the cross in the Norwegian, and in 19 other European flags.
The backdrop of this is a mother in Italy who didn’t tolerate that her child was imposed a crucifix in the classroom. In accordance with Italian law, crucifixes shall be displayed in all schools in the country, despite the fact that Catholicism as a state religion, was abolished 26 years ago.
The case was brought before the European Court of Human Rights, where the woman’s case was judged in her favor in November.
According to BBC, Italy’s Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said the crucifix was a “symbol of our tradition”, and not a mark of Catholicism.
The case has been appealed and will be heard in the near future.
“VÃ¥rt Land” says that the 37 lawyers think that the European Court of Human Rights have introduced the concept “the right not to be offended”.
VG DEBATT: Discuss the Norwegian flag here
FLAG: This is what the Norwegian flag has looked like since 1899. The flag was planted on the South Pole, on The North Pole, and on Mount Everest. (Small photo)
– Not a problem
A possible concequence of a final ruling may be that non-Christians can emand that flags with Christian symbols be removed in their presence.
– The ruling puts state and religion on an inevitable collision course, the
lawyers say, according to Kristelig Dagblad.
According to VÃ¥rt Land, the idea of removing the cross is not raising any particular enthusiasm among non-Christians in Norway.
– Norway is a Christian country. That this is mirrored in the flag, is not a problem, I feel, Shaoaib Sultan of the Islamic Council says to VÃ¥rt Land.
Frame
What is your opinion?
Do you think it is OK to change the flag?
O Yes, it’s OK
O No, it’s absolutely hair raising!
Vote
(see result)
—
“School crucifixes ‘do not breach human rights’
The hanging of crosses in public buildings is not compulsory in Italy but it is customary
Displaying crucifixes in schools in Italy does not breach the rights of non-Catholic families, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
The court ruled there was no evidence that a crucifix hung in a classroom would influence pupils.
The ruling overturned a previous decision made in November 2009, which angered the Roman Catholic country.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12791082
This is getting more ridiculous by the day. What next your neighbours dog? oops probably already on the go.
Denmark’s flag, white cross on red, the Dannebrog, is the world’s oldest state flag used by an independent nation.
God help the Brits then as it wont be long before the Mohammedans complain about the Union Jack which is composed of THREE Crosses. The Cross of Saint Andrew counterchanged with the Cross of Saint Patrick, over all the Cross of Saint George. And such is the Politically Correct Multi Culti stupidity of most of the UK populace and politicians that I am sure you will find people agreeing with them too.
The woman in Italy was not even Italian..She was an immigrant from some Northern country.
The efforts to destroy Christianity are multinational and multilayered.
It unites the Commies, the Atheists, the new age loons, the gaia worshipers, the homos and the Muslims.
I’m not even Christian, but isn’t that obvious?
Remove Muslims from lands with crosses on the flag.
Ban St Bernard dogs, too, and the little brandy keg.
j p maher has brought the best suggestion so far. It must be implemented forthwith, It is understood that the Maldives have amended the Constitution to state that anyone who is not a muslim ipso facto loses his citizenship and any rights in the State.
Do we need a new Hitler to exterminate islam?
The last one was a great admirer of Islam.
Here’s an even better idea: if it offends you, go home!!! We didn’t ask you to come here in the first place! If we started living in your country and started building cathedrals everywhere and told you to stop singing your national anthem, told you your flag is offensive and your laws must be changed to suit us, we’d all be shot at the first suggestion! What do you people want from us anyways??!!!!
you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself. one day you arrogant prick you will look back and see how wrong you are. so why should anyone listen to you now you idiot. yeah life is good in swiss though better without you.
how can you even believe your own crud. all muslim and islam countries are stuffed. you would think this would make alarm bells would ring