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November 30, 2009
Switzerland Says NO To Muslims! Three Cheers For the Swiss!
A pedestrian walks past a display advertising the initiative against the construction of new minarets in Switzerland, in Geneva Photo: REUTERS
This is a POWERFUL picture! No way we could do something like that over here. ~ Wild Thing
Switzerland appears to have backed minaret ban
Voters in Switzerland appeared to have backed a call to ban minarets from mosques, according to early exit poll results.
Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.”
According to the respected gfs.bern polling institute an estimated 59 per cent of voters backed the ban. A majority of cantons were also in support of the initiative.
“A majority have voted for a nationwide ban on the construction of minarets,” said the institute’s director Claude Longchamp, speaking on Swiss Radio DRS.
For the Swiss constitution to be changed, the majority of the electorate and a majority of the cantons are required to vote ‘yes’.
A survey two weeks ago showed 53 per cent said they would reject it. Both the government and parliament had rejected the initiative.
Commentators had said the country risked international pariah status and a backlash across the Muslim world if a ’yes’ vote was achieved.
If the exit polls prove correct it will be a huge shock and Switzerland risks international pariah status and a backlash across the Muslim world.
Sunday's vote was forced by members of the far-right Swiss People's party (SVP) which has provoked a national debate over immigration with powerful billboard images.
The stark "stop" posters depicting a Muslim woman in a burka against the backdrop of a Swiss flag studded with missile shaped black minarets have been banned in many towns.
Hanspeter Rentsch, an executive director at the watch company Swatch, has warned that the referendum, and the poster propaganda, could damage Switzerland in the eyes of the world.
"The 'Swiss' brand must continue to represent values such as openness, pluralism and freedom of religion. Under no circumstances must it be connected with hatred, animosity towards foreigners and narrow-mindedness," he said.
Campaigners demanded the referendum to halt "political Islamisation" by amending the Swiss constitution to add a clause stating "the construction of minarets is prohibited".
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the Swiss justice minister, has suggested that a vote for a ban could fuel Islamist radicalism and violent protests, such as those that greeted Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2006.
"This is not an appropriate instrument for combating religious extremism. It risks the opposite, of serving the cause of fanatics," she said.
But Oskar Freysinger, an SVP MP, compares warnings of anger in the Muslim world to the arguments used by "appeasers" of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
"It is what Chamberlain thought in Munich in 1938. If these are the consequences, it is the proof that what we are doing to defend ourselves is legitimate," he said.
The vote is required because campaigners got over 100,000 signatures on a petition against minarets triggering a vote under the Swiss constitution.
The campaign followed a row over a minaret in the tiny town of Langenthal, in the Bern canton of Switzerland.
Earlier this year Langenthal's 750 Muslims asked for planning permission to add a minaret, 30 feet high, to their mosque in a town with 11 churches and 14,500 inhabitants.
The reaction to the apparently harmless request has polarised Switzerland and crossed borders to feed into British, French, Dutch and Austrian fears over Islam and national identity.
"This minaret is a symbol of conquest and power which marks the will to introduce Sharia law as has happened in some other European cities. We will not accept that," said Ulrich Schueler, an SVP politician and leader of the "stop" minaret campaign.
Muslims have rejected the argument that a minaret symbolises Muslim power. Mutalip Karaademi, leader of Langenthal's Muslim community and of Albanian origin, accused Mr Schueler of telling "dirty lies".
"A minaret is a symbol nothing more. It s nice to see a house of god with a minaret or a church steeple or cupolas on a synagogue," he said.
"They call us terrorists. They call us Taliban, so many labels all wrong. They insult us. We love this country, almost more than our own. Our children were born here."
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Wild Thing's comment.......
My family is from Switzerland so this makes me very happy.
First notice how the writer of the article is a TOTAL liberal and against the ban. heh heh
A tall minaret is a sign of domination of the surrounding area, proclaiming that all land within sight of the minaret is Islamic land.
This is one Kalyan Minaret is in Bukhara,Uzbekistan Throughout the eight centuries of its existence, it served a watchtower and lighthouse for trade caravans, the guard-post for observers to notify the city of approaching danger remains in place.
It also makes a great observation point and firing position over the surrounding neighborhood, which might have been its original point.
"a backlash across the Muslim world if a ’yes’ vote was achieved"
Hello, the Swiss are armed, including machine guns, and also in the Army there (from the age of 14 till senior citizen). The Swiss still require national miliary service . They require you to maintain arms in your home as long as you’re in the army, which is more or less all able bodied males. After retirement, you’re given the option of retaining the weapon. The Swiss maintained huge fighting complexes hewn deep into the rock guarding critical roads throughout the country. If you look carefully at the mountain sides as you drive around Switzerland you can see just make out the camouflaged positions that are there. Many are no longer in use however. Plus the mines under the roads. I would think twice about reacting if I was a Muslim.
This is huge. This is great, it's wonderful. . It’s not just a slapdown of muzzies. It’s a slapdown of tearfilled liberal kiss up people to Islam and Muslims. I am soooo glad they ignored the un-patriotic businesses like Swatch, who advocated for the minarets for "diversity" sake.
The Dutch have Geert Wilders and yes he too is not supported a hundred percent by everyone, but the ones that love their country do support him, and in Italy there is backlash also.
"They call us terrorists. They call us Taliban, so many labels all wrong. They insult us. We love this country, almost more than our own. Our children were born here."
And there it is. They ( the MUSLIMS in Switzerland) admit they haven't assimilated but have kept themselves apart. Which country would they defend? Not Switzerland. A very telling, and probably unintended admission there. So, Switzerland is not their country, and they do not love Switzerland as much as they love their own country, whichever country that might be. So then get the heck out and go back to your Muzzie land.
"This minaret is a symbol of conquest and power which marks the will to introduce Sharia law as has happened in some other European cities. We will not accept that," said Ulrich Schueler, an SVP politician and leader of the "stop" minaret campaign.
VERY True and this ban is a good start!
The Swiss are one of the few peoples that actually get to VOTE on just about everything. And whatever the voters say, that’s the law. I wish we did that here, if we did can you imagine how socialized medicine would be voted down big time and so many other things.
Switzerland has never seen itself as an immigrant nation. To that end the country makes it very difficult to become a Swiss citizen. Part of the process includes being accepted, by vote, by the majority of a canton’s (more or less equivalent to our counties) voters.
There are all sorts of subtle and not so subtle biases toward foreigners at every level of Swiss society. Everything from wages, supervisory positions and housing are affected. I am not surprised that the Swiss voted to ban minerets. It remains, at it’s heart, a fairly conservative nation despite its embracing national health care and a few other socialist trappings.
The world has got to stop thinking of Islam as a religion, it is their law and they live under it no matter what country they live in. Also Islam is a law which they look to enforce onto others. Friends of mine in the UK have told me about how how areas have been taken over, people have been killed because they were white or Christian, or even of they got lost in their area. Churches have been attacked and burned. Pubs have been forced to close or been attacked, firebombed.
Posted by Wild Thing at November 30, 2009 03:50 AM
Comments
The Swiss always being NEUTRAL even when SHARIA LAW wants to rule the world? The Swiss actually respect LIFE - their LIFE - and not wanting to be blown to... Swiss cheese? Imagine that!
Oh My Allah, er God!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at November 30, 2009 09:28 AM
Three cheers for the Swiss. Hopefully this is the start of all of Europe saying no to the muslims. I am sure the muslims are angry and will retaliate against the Swiss. muslims are always angry about something so screw them.
Posted by: TomR at November 30, 2009 10:41 AM
"Hopefully this is the start of all of Europe saying no to the muslims." It is a little late for that, TomR. But it IS a start.
We can expect a violent back-lash. muslims don't like for anyone to not let them have their way.
Posted by: BT in SA at November 30, 2009 10:44 AM
Isn't it interesting that countries like Switzerland and France are taking the lead against islam? The US is no longer calling the shots on anything anymore because we have an appeaser muslin coward cowering under his desk @ 1600 Pennsylvania. BLOWBAMA needs to go!
Posted by: Eddie (Enemy of the State) at November 30, 2009 11:30 AM
Is obama going to threaten the Swiss for putting out the trash.
Posted by: Mark at November 30, 2009 12:18 PM
Who would have guessed Switzerland would have a backbone? I'm really surprised. My cousin Nancy lives in Basel with her Swiss husband Urs but they are huge liberals for Obama. She even dropped me as a friend on facebook for being too conservative for her. She dropped her own cousin. Nice. But this is a start. Now if other nations would also take up the plight. But America won't. We just have to all be so PC and it's ticking me off! They hurt my family. There is a huge hole where someone used to be. That person isn't here anymore. It's their fault and they should be punished, not rewarded.
Posted by: Lynn at November 30, 2009 02:05 PM
Lynn, I thought Nancy lived in Washington DC CCCP, Baltimore and San Fran Sicko?
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at November 30, 2009 08:52 PM
Yes I was surprised too, I am pleaaed but it
sure showed me there still are enough people
in Switzerland that will ssy no to Muslims.
Thank God.
There are a lot of liberals there that's for
sure.
Posted by: Wild Thing at December 1, 2009 12:15 AM
