Swiss vote to ban minarets in referendum

[mateykatie]

Switzerland has voted to ban the construction of mosque minarets in a national referendum. 57% supported the ban.

Here is the BBC story.

Women voted for the ban more than men according to the Times.

This seems pretty horrible to me. I always thought the Swiss were tolerant but obviously not.

The Swiss are not very tolerant, I am afraid.

Switzerland was the last country in Europe to give women the vote, not until 1971.

Racism is sadly quite common here. I live near the border to France and often see the police checking the passports of foreigners. I have never been stopped on the street and asked for my passport but then I am a caucasian female.

They have not banned the building of mosques, btw, just the minarets.

Its shocking to say the least! How on earth can a prayer hall for any religion be seen as being divisive?

Does that mean all the church steeples should be banned in non-Christian countries?

A very sad indiction for the Swiss!

Hardly a surprise to anyone who knows the Swiss demographic, nor that it was the French speaking cantons(around Geneva and Basel city) who voted against the motion, Zurich was quite close. A very conservative and introspective nation. They incarcerate and deport asylum seekers quickly too.

Tolerant the Swiss??? one thing is that they don't care enough to get involved in other countries' problems and a very different thing is to be tolerant.

Maybe they'll trade for some churches in Saudi?

Er Nick... many of them are.
You can be imprisoned for daring to attend a church service in Saudi/Or Sudan. Or Chad. Or Afghanistan. Or Yemen.

I think it's Sweden that's supposed to be quite tolerant. If that's what you were thinking of?

'I bet if islam was seen as a 'white' religion there would be less of an issue'

What a load of paranoid victim status crap.

Nutters is nutters whatever their colour.

I think its a vile ruling.
I think the ban on girls wearing scarves in french schools is vile too.

Now that is paranoid.

Its a slippery slope to a Islam ruled universe if we have pointy domes on buildings and girls cover their hair

Moondog, they are all already perceived as pretty intolerant countries already. But the Swiss pride themselves on their democracy and tolerance. That's what I find distasteful.

That said, Saudi has revised its attitudes, and apparently attending church in private there is no longer punishable by law (still a bloody intolerant place though, and I speak from experience!)

They are democratic , they vote on everything ! There is normally a range of iseus for each voting day. A lot of the more rural areas are very conservative and resist any change internal or external. Imagine having a minaret amidst the image of chocolate box wooden chalets and white capped mountains. The campaign has been deliberately targetted so as to suggest a threat to the fundamentals of Swiss society. It is basic NIMBYism

I heard something on the news here recently about the Swiss and Catholics.

It was very interesting, that the Catholics were not allowed to build churches, as late as 1847.

Catholics in Lausanne were not allowed to build a spire for their church until 1932, and not allowed to ring the bells until 1948.

I agree with Lizs. They are incredibly democratic, but very very conservative.

The 'yes' vote surprised many here.

Oh dear, that is bad news. But it was skewed from the start - why give people in rural areas, who will obv never see a mosque, the power to decide if a mosque has a minaret in Zurich?

Why not?
People in urban areas have long decided what goes on in the sticks.
Or is that ok as the country bumpkins don't know what is good for them.

It is pretty pointless asking people to vote on an issue that doesn't directly affect them, especially when it is an emotive issue that can be whipped up into hysteria (wooo! the muslims are coming to get us!) as seems to have happened in this case.

riven, actually islam is a white religion in france and germany, as most muslims are north african, or turkish.

Fancy people thinking their country is quite nice as it is and not wanting alien architectural intrusions. What a load of bastards eh?

Good on the Swiss.

It's fucking disgraceful and if you think this is acceptable you are the sort of brain-dread idiot that thinks Nick Griffin is a reasonable man

Mind you women only got the vote in Switzerland in 1971 so maybe they are all just dim

I hope that all Muslim business/countries pull their business out of Swiss banks and the country is bankrupted

Yours tolerantly etc.

don't have a problem with this....it went to the vote.....the vote was against the buildings....

what's there to complain about..?

well, they are quite happy to accept muslims as guest workers, as long as they keep quiet about their faith, it seems.

there was a similar kerfuffle in Munich a couple of years ago, I remember seeing a newspaper with a huge headline saying "40m towers over Mch" or some such thing, and a pasted up photo showing enormous minarets over the Munich skyline, clearly designed to scare people.

Mainstream religion takes different forms. We live in an era where travel is common, and many people move to different countries.
people should get over it.

well, daftpunk, suppose the planning application for the first mosque in the East end of London had been put to a referendum...and there were lots of posters in rural Devon and Tunbridge Wells saying that the burkas were coming...do you think that would result in a fair decision?

I read this on the Guardian site earlier and was appalled by it. Minarets are so important - it's undisguised religious intolerance and bigotry, and nothing less. And 6% of people living in Switzerland are Muslim - not an insignificant minority.

It's a BUILDING

You have BUILDING REGULATIONS for buildings

This is basically like banning synagogues

here are the nice, balanced campaign posters

at that poster.
It really is no joke.

I live in rural bavaria, and if an anti-british poster similar to that appeared, I would be terrified, tbh.