It's official, the Swiss are islamophobes. What is considered a large turn-out, 57% of those voters voted "Yes" to ban minarets. The government is going to respect the peoples choice and put this into the Swiss constitution. I think this is totally backward and that the voting topic misses the point. The Swiss are already known for being xenophobes, and I think the government could have done more to educate people about the consequences of such a decision. It is not going to stop Islam in Switzerland, it is just going build a larger divide between the "traditional Swiss" and the Islamic community (many of whom are Swiss).
In another backward decision, the voters voted "No" on the Weapons export ban. 68% voted against. This one is easier for me to see how poeple voted this way, since it would have had a significant impact on the economy.
Is there any news of this in NZ, or elsewhere?
Yeah, metafilter covered
Yeah, metafilter covered it:
"Swiss voters moonlight as architecture critics"
http://www.metafilter.com/87041/On-Architectural-Criticism
I'm curious as to what sorts of rationalisations were used in favour of the ban. "They're too pointy! Someone will lose an eye on one of those things!"
I saw a story in the dompost
I saw a story in the dompost today that was saying that a swiss feminists were pro the bill. I guess the bill went through after they went to press.
Here is the stuff.co.nz story and heres the bbc one.
Heya Craig, long time no
Heya Craig, long time no hear. How are you?
Their too ugly was one of the reasons, there were billboards around with minarets all over Switzerland, next to all the famous church towers. But this is an unlikely scenario. The main reason however is the fear of Islam and the growing Islamic population, a couple of quotes (from Swissinfo.ch) explain some of the concerns:
"Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure and impure – we don't have that in Switzerland and we don't want to introduce it"
and another quote:
"However, society wants to put a safeguard on the political-legal wing of Islam, for which there is no separation between state and religion"
I think it's deeper than that. The Swiss are very patriotic. But over the years their have been a growing number of foreigners entering Switzerland, some to work, some were refugees. With this they foreigners bought along their culture, their dress and their behavior. They also did the work the Swiss generally did not want to do themselves, such as the lowest paid jobs. In the 90's there was a large influx of ex-Yugoslavs entering Switzerland, many of whom are Islam. The crime rate rose and other things "degenerated" (relative to the Swiss norms). There is a bitterness in the Swiss, usually it's unspoken, but sometimes when it is spoken it can be rather ugly.
Would the Swiss also
Would the Swiss also disapprove of this image?
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