Swiss ban minaret construction

I’m conflicted. I can’t stand religion, but I know they’re singling out one over another which isn’t fair. Oh well.

What I spozed to do? Cancel my vacation? Wait…

“The Swiss have approved a ban on the construction of minarets”

I don’t think they are tearing down anything, just preventing the construction of more minarets.

EDIT

Ok, now that I actually read the article, this is just some political fear mongering:

“There are an estimated 160 mosques and prayer rooms in Switzerland, mainly in disused factories and warehouses. Only four of them have a minaret, including the mosques in Geneva and Zurich.”

Unless there was an announced plan to massively build minarets on the remaining 156 mosques, this plan was strictly a political move to limit the cultural invasion from the arab communities…

Yeah, but it’s discriminatory. I too mirror Midnight Son’s mob rule sentiment. Ahhh, the wacky, xenophobic, voting Swiss majority… Whatcha gonna do, eh?

I’m not a fan of religion, but I’m even less of a fan of religious discrimination. This ban sucks.

Tin foil hat time! The Pope has Swiss Guards! Therefore, this is really a Papist plot against the Religion of Peace!

more beer!

I smell the next Dan Brown novel!

takes a shot

Seeing all the claims that this is racism, intolerance and religious discrimination in this thread really makes me think about this. Why shouldn’t the swiss be allowed to ban such a construction? Seriously, why? They are a sovereign democratic country that can adopt any municipal and construction laws they want. Seeing that there were only 4 minarets in the entire country I agree that this is a political maneuver to gain popularity, but I don’t see why they shouldn’t be allowed to be allowed to veto the construction of buildings that may alter the architectural landscape and heritage of the country.

It serves only a cosmetic use, and is in no way vital to the practice of the muslim faith. I am sure that if I would go and want to build a 50 foot flying spaghetti monster in downtown Zurich, I would draw the same opposition. Especially if I would want to build 156 more all over the country…

It’s their country, and they make their own rules. I know it must suck for minaret aficionados, but if you want to enjoy all their western society joys, you gotta let it go.

Well trolled sir.

Is that poster warning the public about minarets, or ICBMs?

Why would you say that I trolled? Is this thread only for people who oppose minaret construction?

Wait, what? Did you just reverse your argu-- what?

no, but you have to be honest. If you agree with the racist right wingers in Switzerland, just say so, don’t come spouting some disengenuous bullshit about how this is a perfectly fine law because they only have 4 in place anyway, and besides minaters are uggo.

There already are laws here that prohibit building stuff that would be wildly out of place in their position. This is why, for example, you couldn’t build a skyscraper right in the old city of Berne, and also why you wouldn’t see a minaret mushroom up right next to the federal court or something. The minaret thing is completely unnecessary.

And yes, this initiative is fear mongering bullshit. People are absurdly afraid that once them uppity muslims get a place to worship, they’ll be all up in public places with their burkhas and jihads, flaunting their strange ways because we gave them a foothold in our vulnerable country. Debates were awash with slippery slope arguments and that “Muslims don’t really need minarets” thing. I’ve seldom been so ashamed of my country.

funniest part being, of course, that there’s already 150 thousand of them here, in a country of what, 6 million? Foothold was probably in the 70s or whatever, but now they’re boogeymen

Well your Muslim population is almost up to 5%. Soon you might even have one living in your neighborhood!

Well put.
Our local racists are looking to yours and want the same, even though we don’t have a single minaret, because of the existing building codes (and sometimes misuses of said codes to keep undesirables to build what they like).
Muslims are more or less the only religion in this country without their own opulent place of worship instead they’re relegated to old factories and warehouses - even the Scientologists have better housing.

I almost voted for the Nihilist party at this local election because one of their campaigns was against church bells on sundays (the only religion here with a license to noisepollute). Their poster read:
“I don’t fuckin’ care about your worship - I’m hungover!”

Finally a political movement I can get behind. Walter Sobchak was wrong, man.

this thing that the people ranting and raving about Switzerland should note is that this is the same “direct democracy - what could POSSIBLY go wrong” idea that led to pearls like Prop 8, similar gay marriage legislation elsewhere in the states, Hezbollah getting elected in Lebanon, etc. The SVP has been riding the direct initiatives all the way to recognition and relevance ever since Blocher rose to prominence, and this won’t help one bit. But it’s not a uniquely Swiss phenomenon

The great part is that they got enough votes to receive public funding every year until our next election (only like $3.000 a year, but they promise to spend it on free beer)