The surprisingly clear vote in favour of banning minarets expresses unease with various causes. The implications too will no doubt be controversial. One thing is for sure: Switzerland’s politicians have underestimated immaterial concerns. More significant that the direct consequences of the vote are the indirect ones and the atmosphere it has caused. Switzerland is not…
Tariq Ramadan: Voters were drawn to the cause by a manipulative appeal to popular fears and emotions. Posters featured a woman wearing a burka with the minarets drawn as weapons on a colonised Swiss flag. The claim was made that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Swiss values. (The UDC has in the past demanded my…
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.: The banning of minarets appears to be a cowardly move that contradicts Swiss commitments to religious freedom and tolerance. Singling out minarets in this ban is tantamount to isolating Islam and relegating it to second-class status – all protests to the contrary notwithstanding. The Muslim minaret is the central architectural symbol…
The director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, expressed concern today at the outcome of the referendum held in Switzerland on Sunday on the ban of the construction of minarets. “A blanket prohibition of minarets is not consistent with OSCE commitments on freedom of religion or belief…
After the Swiss ban on minaret construction, many other European countries wonder how they would decide in case of a referendum, and they claim almost unanimously that they would choose to ban the ban. In the Finnish capital of Helsinki, mosques and their minarets seem to be welcome. This is the view of Helsinki’s city…
