UPDATE: Armaros opines, "Funny how nobody seems to see the difference between a Minaret and a Mosque. A Mosque is a place of worship, the Minaret is a symbol of triumph like an Arc of Triumph. More here: More than a coincidence: Minarets, geography and power and here: 'These are Turkey's ballistic missiles'.
I wonder if the UN would be as accommodating if the Israeli government found fund the building of 'Zionism Towers' taller than any other place of worship around and fitted with mega speakers blasting the Hatikva 5 times a day !!! Or just very tall Israeli flags with loud speakers." Swiss minaret ban discriminates against Muslims, says UN expert.
"Muslims protest (Freedom-loving, islamosupremacy-non-appeasing) Swiss ban on Islamic "bayonets" (a.k.a. minarets) in Geneva.The article continues - with a repeat of the Swiss vote to ban symbols of islamosupremacy and finishes with a short discussion on muslims' reactions (you'll never guess - they're insulted):
At 7 AM today, a small group of young Muslims (mostly students) gathered near a statue of Swiss General Dufour (see above photo in Tribune de Geneve article -link below) and began constructing a model minaret out of paper and wood.
A Swiss observer of the event -interviewed for this report wondered why the Muslims decided to hold their protest at the site of the statue as General Dufour was the person responsible for bringing the last religious war to an end in Switzerland.
(Apparently) The muslim demonstrators did not receive permission from police to hold their public demonstration until 9 AM at which time they began constructing their minaret model (a.k.a. "bayonet" of jihad).
To a round of applause, the construction was completed at 11 AM. The demonstration continued until evening and the minaret was dismantled."
"The decision to ban minarets in Switzerland garnered a widespread response from around the world (it did?) not just from the Islamic world - all of whom condemned the referendum.Tribune de Geneve article -with photo of "minaret" and demonstrators in front of General Dufour's statue:
In particular, Muslim nations reacted extremely negatively to the vote, claiming that the Swiss were violating religious freedoms and insulting the feelings of the muslim community not only of Switzerland but around the world. Switzerland's neighboring nations also (allegedly) coldly reacted to the decision. International organizations (unnamed of course) labeled the referendum as one of "prejudice and fear" and considered it to be a discriminatory"
Related: Europe unites to deplore Swiss ban on minarets - Times Online
Which Europe?
The Swiss and European establishment united today in deploring yesterday's decision by Swiss voters to outlaw the construction of minarets but conservative leaders warned that the referendum showed genuine fear over Islam on the continent.
Swiss officials, media and business leaders voiced shame over a vote that they say will stigmatise the country's 400,000 Muslims and stain Switzerland's name in the Muslim world. In contrast, hard right leaders in France, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands hailed what they depicted as a triumph for the people against the elite.
Le Temps, Geneva's establishment newspaper, said: "The vote was inspired by fear, fantasies and ignorance." Damage to the country's international standing would be spectacular, it said. "Vengeance, boycotts, retaliation ... this clash with Islam could cost dearly."
Tagesanzeiger, the Zurich daily, said that the vote, staged on the initiative of the nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP), showed the country's deep division between outward-looking modernisers and a traditionalist backlash. The 57 per cent approval of the minaret ban would "strengthen the international isolation of Switzerland even among western nations," it said.
Spencer weighs in: "'Vengeance, boycotts, retaliation ... this clash with Islam could cost dearly.' Don't resist Islamic supremacism! It might make the Islamic supremacists angry!"
UPDATE: The Clash (hat tip Meir)
Europe has faced the onslaught of Islam since the Crusades. In recent days, the Fatwa on Salman Rushdie, or the uproar on the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammad, shook the sensible, non-religious, non-hardliner and free-spirited souls of the average Europeans, who were increasingly with the belief that these “immigrants” to their land can’t intermix with their culture.
In the UK, with Muslims constantly protesting British society, chanting that “Anglian soldiers go to hell”–(but surprisingly not protesting against terrorists who blow up mosques in Afghanistan)–the UK has even created Sharia Law courts for civil cases among Muslims, with the ability to support forced marriage and marital rape, for example.
Now we are seeing a great uproar from the sickening politically correct crowd, deploring the ban. (I am an India, a born Hindu, a practicing non-believer, and trust me I am disgusted with political correctness of the people of our country.)
They are saying that it is undemocratic to ban minarets. But what is beyond my comprehension, is that democracy is calculated by the majority of people voting, and in this case, they voted for the ban, so there should not be any problem with that, should there?In recent days, Europe is fighting a different crusade. Again. In France, Switzerland, in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands…everywhere.
This is probably the beginning of what could be the defining moment of our life and times…
Read it all.
UPDATE: Minarets and Islamic Supremacism Andrew Bostom on November 30, 2009:
The venerable Brill Encyclopedia of Islam (EOI) entry on minarets makes plain that minarets are a political statement of Islamic supremacism. Interestingly, given current Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s provocative statement while mayor of Istanbul (the full statement was quoted in a NY Times story http://www.kurdistan.org/Washington/nyt.html [1] by Stephen Kinzer from 2/16/1998: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes are our helmets, the minarets are our swords, and the faithful are our army”), cited by opponents of minaret construction in Switzerland [2]—the observations from the Brill EOI about the Ottoman perspective on minarets are of particular note.
From the official Brill Encyclopedia of Islam entry on the minaret:
“It seems on the whole unrelated to its function of the adhān [q.v.] calling the faithful to prayer, which can be made quite adequately from the roof of the mosque or even from the house-top. During the lifetime of the Prophet, his Abyssinian slave Bilāl [q.v.], was responsible for making the call to prayer in this way. The practice continued for another generation, a fact which demonstrates that the minaret is not an essential part of Islamic ritual. To this day, certain Islamic communities, especially the most orthodox ones like the Wahhābīs in Arabia, avoid building minarets on the grounds that they are ostentatious and unnecessary. … It must be remembered, however, that throughout the mediaeval period, the role of the minaret oscillated between two polarities: as a sign of power and as an instrument for the adhān.”
[Re: Ottoman minarets]: “These gigantic, needle-sharp lances clustered protectively, like a guard of honour, around the royal dome, have a distinctly aggressive and ceremonial impact, largely dependent on their almost unprecedented proportions; the pair of minarets flanking the Süleymaniye dome are each some 70m. high.”
