Anti-racism group calls minaret ban unnecessary

The initiative to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland is discriminatory and unnecessary, according to two pro-minority organisations.

The society for minorities in Switzerland and the Swiss foundation against racism and anti-Semitism said in Bern on Tuesday that such a move to change the constitution had to be soundly rejected.

The anti-minaret initiative, which goes to a public vote on November 29, was proposed by members of the rightwing Swiss People's Party and a small ultra-conservative Christian party to counter what they describe as "creeping Islamicisation".

In their opinion, this includes the repression of women, such as forced marriages, and the spread of sharia law and parallel Islamic societies within Switzerland.

The government strongly opposes the initiative and has launched its own campaign against it.

Seven political parties, including three of the four represented in government, have announced their own campaign against the initiative, saying it is an unnecessary, unlawful provocation that endangers peaceful religious and cultural co-existence.

swissinfo.ch and agencies

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You would regret that i would be less prejudicious to comment over this issue as a citizen living in a Muslim country where the clash of fundamentalism and modernism goes on for centuries. My Swiss friend believe me that even opening such a debate and going public vote for minarets will be enough to take the whole country to enter a dead end street. Unfortunately Islam religion can not lead any nation to become a modern society and lift to high life standarts like any European country has. If you visit any Muslim countries you will understand what i mean. Islam is easy to be abused and a political tool to raise the mass against developed west nations. I advise you to protect your countries and dont let your life standarts to go down. Because you worked hard for centruies to build this up.

Sherif, the reason many people take this point of view about Islam is that we cannot rely on 'Moderate Musilms' to put the bad ones in their place. Moderate Islam is welcome, but only if you can control the crazy ones who infiltrate peaceful communities and start to fill them with radical hatred and pull everyone back into the stone age. When we try to point this out muslims close ranks and act like there is not a problem. You also need to draw a distinction between Goverment backed wars / occupation, something that none of us are in favor of, and Religious Backed Violence the two are completley different.And for example, Iraq and Afganistan are the the results of what happens when Islam ignores the dangers of Wahabism, none of this would have happenend if these splinter groups had been stopped by muslims themselves before these extremists did something stupid, like attack America. As for Human rights I agree with you that western human rights abuses have been a disgrace, but are still much better than many other countries i could mention.

I see that a lot of the posting are full of mistakes about Islam and mixing between the religion itself and some of the Muslims who CLAIM they know the religion best. These are two separate issues and I am surprised that most of you don't understand this difference. On the other hand, you talk about Muslims as if we are one single unit, which is not true. It is the same as saying all Christian countries are the same which is also not true. Different countries have different characters even if they share the same religion. I just want to remind you, since you see Islam is a violent religion, that it was European and Western christian countries who were the ones responsible for the biggest mass killing in human history in World War I&II, they were the ones responsible for the killing 6 million jews, they were the ones who killed one million in Algeria alone and other millions in Africa, Middle East and Asia when these millions were seeking liberation of their countries from Western Christian colonization that sucked all the natural and human resources of these countries who until now are suffering from this brutal oppression. Don't preach us on human rights and peacefulness, when your history and your present (Iraq, Afghanistan ...etc) is full of blood and massive human rights violations that involved killing millions of innocent people. It is time for the wise people on both sides to put a road map for future reconciliation and tolerance promotion, as banning building minerates is not going to solve these problems.

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Mohammed I will not believe a single word you have uttered until I have seen a huge, inarguably vocal grassroots movement - complete with marches and demonstrations at the Saudi (& similar) embassies (at least in free, western democracies - I know it will never happen within Islamic ones) held BY and FOR large numbers of "moderate" Muslims to protest and condemn in a completely unequivocal way (i.e. no attempts to drag Israel into the event for any reason or blame the west for Islam's many shortcomings), the violence done in the name of supposedly peaceful Islam, and in particular the damage that Wahabism, has done in this world, and calling firmly upon ayatollahs, mullahs and imams globally to repudiate the many repugnant sections of the Koran (such as the celebrated pedophilic practices of the prophet Mohammed himself (Criminal Sexual Abuse Charges Be Upon Him), the vilification of women, the call to turn Dar Al Harb countries into part of a global caliphate of Dar Al Islam, etc., etc.). But I'm not holding my breath because I know such an "Enlightenment" (Rousseau) style movement will never occur within Islam because any sort of rejection of any aspect of the Koran makes any Muslim an instant apostate and a candidate for death. The absolutism of Islam's stated political aims is incompatible with democracy, human rights and civilised conduct in an elightened world. Period and your attempt to claim otherwise is feeble and disingenuous.

Islam is not a race, so it is interesting to see the Anti racism lobby getting involved in this. I agree with some of the other postings here that Islam is only a religion of peace as long as you are doing what it says, as soon as you step out of line or criticise Islam you could end up dead, please tell me what is peaceful about that? There has to be something wrong with an idealogy that cannot stand the test of criticism and honest debate without the threat of violence. For example; a housewife phoning into a local swiss radio station said she would NOT be voting for a ban on minaretes because she was frightened of the possible violent reprecussions that might follow if the ban was accepted. I on the other hand will be voting for the ban, because i will not be bullied by Islam into voting against it.

It is very interesting the way Muslims project themselves and Islam as a highly peace loving, all culture welcoming religion. They never fail to highlight how they always mean peace. Yet, a Muslim organisation has still not been formed to reject the notion of religious countries which exist as Islamic Republics on this planet. For all practical purposes I have found them to be brutally repressive of ideologies (including Islamic) that do not bear the interpretation of the existing authorities. It is also high time not only the media, but the United Nations started calling for de-religionisation of politics and government in all countries. Religious governments are a threat to peace, irrespective of the religion...

@ James, Switzerland: Just as yourself, unfortunately and regrettably I have to find and rate this and many previous 'mind altering Pro-Minaret' front line articles on the 'swissinfo' homepage extremely shocking. I truly believe that 'swissinfo's' task is not to participate in or publish any opinions nor opinion poll results. Opinion polls should be banned or their questionable survey results (data) ever published. What do they serve anyhow? It is common knowledge that opinion polls can influence the decision-making of voters. Let the people (voters) speak at the 'ballot box' and decide on the issue without influence by and opinions of questionable sources. I certainly hope that the grass-root Swiss citizens will decide and vote in the interest of their descendants and Switzerland's future as an independent nation, free of internal upheaval caused by religious strife.

Mohammad-Thank you for your beautiful comment. It is one of tolerance, respect and true spirituality. May we all follow your example.

To suggest that somebody can 'islamize another person is the height of absurdity. This is a vague attempt to spread fear and disunity towards religion and culture,

Comment: It's truly shocking how this site and the liberal/left mainstream media are wilfully ignoring the ongoing Islamization of urban areas across Western Europe. (...) Too many public officials at every level see it as their primary responsibility not to preserve liberal civilization, social order, and public safety but to serve as exemplars of multicultural virtue – a role that compels them to avert their eyes meekly from the systematic barbarism that is destroying the lives of more and more innocent Europeans. You have been warned. And it is the grave responsibility of the journalistic profession to report this development. But on the whole, all that can be seen is a dereliction of that duty. And anyone who highlights the truth is branded as a racist and a bigot. We are living in dark times indeed.

1st we need to understand the swiss culture. In Switzerland everything goes to vote. Which is one of the many beautiful things about Switzerland. By the way this is one of the requests from God to prophet Muhammed (pbuh) and that is to seek others' opinions. The outcome of this debate will be a victory for democracy, mind you this is not the end, it is just a beginning on a long way. But, keep in mind, Muslims in Switzerland are your friends and partners on the road towards a better future. The outcome of this debate is a healthier society built on love and understanding.