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.

Nighbynight;
absolutely it would be a fair decision....more decisions like this should be put to the vote.....people living in Devon may be planning to move to the East end of London.....last time i checked people were allowed to move freely around the country...

@ the poster

GrumpyYoungFogey, by those standards the Gherkin should never have been built in the first place. Surely London's buildings were traditional enough! And obviously every single piece of architecture should be voted for by the people before being built.

The Swiss are being idiots here, and I will formally protest by never visiting there again. I wonder how much their economy would stand to lose if all Muslim business owners and countries that have a predominantly Muslim population withdrew all their dealings with them!

ok daftpunk - if you ever decide to do some work on your house that involves getting planning permission - make sure you put ballot papers through the doors of everyone in your town, actually we should all get a vote on it as it could affect all of us - hey one day we may move next door

Spoke to some Swiss friends tonight who are shocked about this. They said the referendum question was oddly phrased though so they think some people might have meant to vote "yes" to minarets but instead voted "yes" to no minarets.

daftpunk - actually, it is classic abuse of referenda.

Daftpunk: I like a bit of intelligent debate and differing opinions but here you are being racist and stupid. Look at that poster. Is it talking about buildings, or noise problems, or architectural compromise? NO, it is demonising a religious community, it is saying that this religious community is threatening and crowding out our Swiss country! It is saying that Muslims are not Swiss - that these things are not compatible. Replace that Swiss flag with a union jack and the minarets with synagogues - do you still not see? Because if you don't, then you really need to re-read your recent history and understand a little bit about what happens when we allow communities to be demonised in this way.

Daftpunk, really??? I suppose then seeing as Britain is predominantly Anglican, Catholic churches ought not to be built here? Or synagogues? Or temples? Or Buddhist shrines? Basically lets just ban all places of worship altogether!!

What a ridiculous argument!

at the poster too!!

Shocking, sad, but not surprising if you know what Switzerland is like. As MmeLindt said, very, very conservative. I read about it earlier and found the arguments to ban minarets distasteful and hate-filled. That's not to say that all Swiss are distasteful and hate-filled, just that I found the arguments of some to be. Many are lovely, welcoming to all and generous as I know from personal experience. Many also voted against this ban too, of course.

Switzerland's history is full of it closing itself off, pulling back, shutting others out. Look at it: not part of the EU (yet surrounded by it), doesn't fight in wars (but has an army to defend itself with). Every Swiss national has a place in a nuclear bunker, did you know that?

And I have family there - it's pretty but I couldn't live there.

But we're not talking your bog-standard dodgy looking skyscraper, though are we? Whether people in Devon should have a say in buildings in London is completely irrelevant. We're talking banning something that profoundly affects the right to practice religion freely.

i don't think adding an extra bedroom to my house is quite the same as building a minaret...

but as you've mentioned planning applications for domestic dwellings....alot are refused.

how very depressing.

yes they sometimes they are refused, sometimes it's a group of local residents that have put in objections when planning permission is requested, sometimes it's simply refused by the people that make these decisions.

It's not put to a public vote though

Europe seems to be entering a new era of intolerance, and I don't like it

agree nighbynight - we take the piss out of Nick Griffin but a lurch to the right looks like it's sneaking in

hassled, I think it is relevant that it was a nationwide vote, because this ensured that the decision was taken on propaganda and prejudice, rather than genuine local concerns (eg the street being too narrow for a big mosque, for example).

Morningpaper, spot on!

Yes, terrible thing, that democracy, isn't it? Sometimes you might even get a result you don't like.

and of course none of the "spires" (or whatever they call them) in this picture of the Zurich skyline even vaguely resemble a minaret do they?

Actually come to mention it - I presume as they only have 4 in Switzerland anyhow that the spire in the background of the picutre on the BBC page is a church or other building.

OK I'm not an architect - but they don't look THAT different to me.

morningpaper..

you might aswell say that 57% of the voters in Switzerland are thick and racist...

this decision was put to the vote....people have to learn to take decisions that don't go their way...

yes well you'd probably be about right with that comment.

but daftpunk - what do you think that the justification behind banning them was?

daftpunk, do you think that the poster linked to by mp is a fair representation of Islam?

When teh vote is swayed by lies, it loses credibility. It also loses credibility when you are asking people to vote about something that is not going to affect them personally.

OMG, I really hope thats a joke!