Survey article: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147861505&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
1) The overwhelming majority of the 18,000 Swiss jews voted against the minaret ban. 2) A comparison between ban of minarets in Israel and ban of minarets in Switzerland is out of place. Israel(Palestine) is also the land of Islam where Muslims live for centuries. They should be allowed to build minarets and such a ban will never happen in Israel, it is not even a subject of debate here. It is obvious. There are many arab villages around my city so I hear the muazeen in dolby stereo.... from all directions... Switzerland is a SECULAR country. It provides refuge for 300,000 muslims (4% of the population) who ran away from their horrible countries and grants them freedom of religion as well as all other liberties of the west. 9 meter tall minarets that overtake the Swiss rural landscape is something that has no place in Switzerland. In Switzerland, new Churches are rarely built, and "atheism" is an official religious affiliation. There is always a shortage of new priests, so the Swiss church hire priests from south america! Switzerland is in the 21th century and one don't need to take it back to the 7th. I am glad that the Swiss were smart enough to pass this ban, and in two weeks I go to ski there
lol @SECULAR SECULAR only when it comes to Islam, otherwise everyone else is free to have their towers be it Churches or Temples and you were quick to tell that new churches are built rarely but forgot to mention that there are only TWO mosques in Switzerland which had minarets
I said: The swiss are secular people. I lived there. The laws of the state is what matters, the "laws of god" does not play ANY role in ANY aspect of life. this is what secular means new. And this is also unlike the countries where you belong. Most of the people I knew there registered as "atheists", including myself. These are two too many. There are hundreds of mosques (250 if I remember currectly).
Swiss are still better than Israelis in general. Although the act of the Israelis that was against the ban of minarits is appreciated. thanks for such Israelis.
you ATHEIST ? lol I wonder if the rest of Atheists that you are talking about are of the SAME KIND as YOU ? and TWO MOSQUES towers are too MANY for Switzerland, however the towers of temples, churches, synagogues etc don't count what a hateful twisted view of the world you have
Not at all. Let me clear it out for you. Do your best to understand, this is not rocket science. Everything which is related with religion of any kind I find to be Idiotic, primitive, absolete, etc'. I do not support the construction of any of the religious worship places, because they come in place of real education, to small (some of my friends) or big extent (you). At the same time, I am against the destruction of already existing structures, from the same philosophy that motivated me to be against burning of books (a point which you friend toothpic failed to understand, the "circular" stuff...), even the book of hate and violence called the quran or another one called "mein kampf". To illustrate further: Driving cars on Saturday is a huge sin in judaism, whereas minaret is not part of Islam, and Swiss muslims did just fine without minarets for 25 years. I would have been just as glad if the Swiss rejected a request by jews who live in a almost jewish-only street to block it for traffic on Saturday. Becuase I am against laws of "god" that come instead of laws of humans, a.k.a. secular But the jews will never dare to ask such a thing, they are humble. They keep their religion for themselves. The muslim do not: their religion is "the only true religion", "the fastest growing religion", and so on, and its glory should be displayed on "top of the mountains of the world". I hope that now you get it. Do you? Its not that complicated. You just have to think out of the jihadist mind for just a split second --> and everything will be fine p.s. (you know the difference between secular and atheist? I'm sure you don't... have a look at wikipedia).
Who are you to say how the swiss are supposed to live? What are the Islamic standards, what is the islamic way of life, do they live by better standards? The West is CIVILIZED!
Minarets are pretty. I like them. Architecture is cool. Considering there are minarets in Israel, where they kind of look like missiles, I really don't understand why the Swiss have a stick up their ass over the matter when Israel can put up with this seemingly controversial structure. What about Egyptian obelisks? Those carry just as sordid a history as minarets allegedly do, but those damn things are everywhere that is politically important. Mountains out of molehills situation this seems to be to both hide the intolerance of the Swiss or it's a subtle revealing of just how frightful foreign ideas can be when you don't understand them.
A statue depicting mohamed would be controvesial. The structure of the minaret itself is not controversial. What is controversial is the meaning and purpose of the structure, which are: "to present the glory of Islam", "to make Islam the 'worlds fastest growing religion'", "to call for prayer (also those who don't want to be called)", and nothing beyond that. It is not part of Islam - the religion - at all. And plays a main role in Islam - the political agenda. This is why the Swiss think that this structure do not belong in Switzerland, and they are right. So I guess you know about the Swiss even less than you know about Judaism. The first is OK, u're not supposed to know. But the second is not OK, for one who lives in a "jewish stronghold", as you described it. I live in an "Islamic stronghold" in Israel and I know more about Islam than many muslims.
I wish other people in so called democratic countries in europe could have their word to say concerning the minarets too.