THE French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has voiced sympathy for Switzerland's controversial decision to ban the building of minarets, calling on religious practitioners to avoid ''ostentation'' and ''provocation'' for fear of upsetting others.
Mr Sarkozy said he was surprised by the widespread criticism of the outcome of last month's referendum in Switzerland, when 57 per cent voted to proscribe the building of minarets in a country that has four, and is home to 400,000 Muslims. [The Sydney Morning Herald] Read more [via Political Correctness Watch]
France and the Swiss minaret vote …. the French civic contract requires everyone to practise their religion discreetly. The Swiss referendum vote against the construction of new minarets raises many legitimate issues. Can one really be expected to answer yes or no to such a complex question, as the Swiss were asked to do? [Guardian Cif] Read more
Majority oppose mosques and minarets A majority of Belgians oppose building mosques. Almost 56.7% don't want mosques to be built in Belgium, and 61% don't want one in their neighborhood, according to a survey conducted by iVOX for Le Soir Magazine. [Islam in Europe] Read more
Islamic Religious Persecution …. Islamic governments are in no position to complain. They tend to not only violate human rights, but also persecute Christians, Jews and other religious minorities.
…. Muslim nations are almost unique in their willingness to persecute religious minorities to promote religious ends, as is evident from the State Department's latest report on religious liberty abroad.
Even the most moderate Islamic states often fall far short of respecting religious minorities. For instance, Morocco detained converts from Islam to Christianity, expelled Christian missionaries, and restricted ``non-Islamic materials and proselytizing.'' Many other Islamic states are far worse. [Korea Times] Read more
Why Boycotting Swiss Cheese is Not a Good Idea More and more people are calling to boycott the Swiss industry to punish them for their vote against the minarets. So after the Danish cookies, we are told to give up the Swiss cheese, the Swiss chocolate with the purple cow, the Swiss watch and as proposed by a Turkish minister, we should close our Swiss bank accounts ….. [MuslimMatters.org] Read more
Don't Blame the Swiss .... No one quite says what the real issue is, but everybody knows: As grotesquely unfair as a referendum to ban minarets may have been to hundreds of thousands of ordinary, well-integrated Muslims, I've no doubt that that the Swiss voted in favor primarily because they don't have much Islamic extremism—and they don't want any, either. [Slate] Read more
