Swiss vote to ban minarets

[off2bed]

Minarets are Muslim phalluses, and now in Switzerland they've been chopped off.

GENEVA - Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.

"The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls," the sponsors said. They noted that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared mosques to Islam's military barracks and called "the minarets our bayonets."

Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich, said, "Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore."

Good! Now they know how they make us feel.

The usual suspects whined and wrung their pallid, soft little hands lamenting the lack of Political Correctness.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34191036...d_news-europe/

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by off2bed

Minarets are Muslim phalluses, and now in Switzerland they've been chopped off.


Good! Now they know how they make us feel.

The usual suspects whined and wrung their pallid, soft little hands lamenting the lack of Political Correctness.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34191036...d_news-europe/

I'm guessing a subway bomb will make even Swiss trains run late. I hope there's no violent backlash from this.

[off2bed]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

I'm guessing a subway bomb will make even Swiss trains run late. I hope there's no violent backlash from this.

And if the Muslims do get violent over this?

[busybody]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

I'm guessing a subway bomb will make even Swiss trains run late. I hope there's no violent backlash from this.

why should there be?

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by off2bed

And if the Muslims do get violent over this?

The Swiss will eradicate them with robot-like precision and then continue to enjoy great chocolate and cheese with holes in it.

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by busybody

why should there be?

There shouldn't.

[Bert Notorius]

I love the Swiss.

[busybody]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

There shouldn't.

then why did you say this?

I'm guessing a subway bomb will make even Swiss trains run late. I hope there's no violent backlash from this.

would you say this about ANY OTHER GROUP that loses a vote?

doesnt saying what YOU said

in effect say

YOU BELIEVE MUSLIMS ARE VIOLENT?

[off2bed]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

The Swiss will eradicate them with robot-like precision and then continue to enjoy great chocolate and cheese with holes in it.

LOL! The neutral Swiss, yeah.

Maybe they'll confiscate their bank accounts too.

[Freya]

Originally Posted by busybody

then why did you say this?

I'm guessing a subway bomb will make even Swiss trains run late. I hope there's no violent backlash from this.

would you say this about ANY OTHER GROUP that loses a vote?

doesnt saying what YOU said

in effect say

YOU BELIEVE MUSLIMS ARE VIOLENT?

LOL

Hi BB. Troublemaker.

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by busybody

then why did you say this?

I'm guessing a subway bomb will make even Swiss trains run late. I hope there's no violent backlash from this.

would you say this about ANY OTHER GROUP that loses a vote?

doesnt saying what YOU said

in effect say

YOU BELIEVE MUSLIMS ARE VIOLENT?

Don't be an asshole. Everyone on the planet knows there is a violent radical element to Islam. That element tends to react violently to these sorts of things.

Originally Posted by off2bed

LOL! The neutral Swiss, yeah.

Maybe they'll confiscate their bank accounts too.

And place an embargo on exporting cuckoo clocks to Muslim countries.

[SeanH]

Another piece of shit stirring by a bunch of far right xenophobes cashing in on Islamophobia. You know how many minarets are in Switzerland? Four.

[Bert Notorius]

The Swiss have stringent building codes. Before a building is built, they make a model out of sticks and everyone stands around and looks at it for like a year to see if it blocks anyone's view of the mountains. Sticking a Christmas ornament on top of a building is just not logical and hard to see around.

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by SeanH

Another piece of shit stirring by a bunch of far right xenophobes cashing in on Islamophobia. You know how many minarets are in Switzerland? Four.

That's one per acre, then, innit?

[off2bed]

Originally Posted by SeanH

Another piece of shit stirring by a bunch of far right xenophobes cashing in on Islamophobia. You know how many minarets are in Switzerland? Four.

Nobody gives a shit what you think of the Swiss.

[TurdFergeson]

Yet, Swiss banks have zero problems holding Saudi Royal, Iran, etc money.

[busybody]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

Don't be an asshole. Everyone on the planet knows there is a violent radical element to Islam. That element tends to react violently to these sorts of things.


.

who else would react violently

WORLDWIDE?

[busybody]

Originally Posted by Freya

LOL

Hi BB. Troublemaker.

Hello, to one of my very favorite women on LIT!

Hope all is great!

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by busybody

who else would react violently

WORLDWIDE?

I don't know. Why?

[Cade Is Here]

Originally Posted by off2bed

Minarets are Muslim phalluses, and now in Switzerland they've been chopped off.


Good! Now they know how they make us feel.

The usual suspects whined and wrung their pallid, soft little hands lamenting the lack of Political Correctness.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34191036...d_news-europe/

But obama is a muslim!!!

[busybody]

interestingly enough

A right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques in a referendum being held in Switzerland today has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women.

A “stop the minarets” campaign has provoked ferment in the land of Heidi, where women are more likely than men to vote for the ban after warnings from prominent feminists that Islam threatens their rights.

Forget about tranquil Alpine scenery and cowbells: one of the most startling features of the referendum campaign has been a poster showing a menacing woman in a burqa beside minarets rising from the Swiss flag.

It seems to have struck a nerve in Langenthal, a small town near Bern where Muslims plan to put up a minaret next to their prayer room in a bleak former paint factory.

“If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas,” said Julia Werner, a local housewife. “Before you know it, we’ll have sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be Swiss any more.”

A spoof video game on the internet called Minaret Attack shows minarets popping up all over the idyllic Swiss countryside, after which a message proclaims: “Game over! Switzerland is covered in minarets. Vote to ban them on November 29.”

“It’s a dirty campaign,” said Mutalip Karaademi, an Albanian who leads Langenthal’s small Muslim community. “They’re trying to provoke us.”

A poll suggested the Swiss would narrowly reject a ban but the feminist involvement is having an effect: according to one poll, 39% of women were in favour of a ban, but only 31% of men.

Tatiana, a teacher who had previously voted for the left, was quoted in a newspaper as saying she would vote for the minaret ban as she could “no longer bear being mistreated and terrorised by boys who believe women are worthless”.

Socialist politicians have been furious to see icons of the left joining what is regarded as an anti-immigrant campaign by the populist Swiss People’s party, the biggest group in parliament.

One of them, Julia Onken, warned that failure to ban minarets would be “a signal of the state’s acceptance of the oppression of women”. She has sent out 4,000 emails attacking Muslims who condone forced marriage, honour killings and beating women.

Swiss business is horrified. There are fears of a reaction against Swiss products similar to the one suffered by Denmark over the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad in 2005.

“The brand ‘Swiss’ must continue to represent values such as openness, pluralism and freedom of religion,” said Hanspeter Rentsch, a member of the board of Swatch, the watchmaker.

The government, for its part, is worried about reprisals plunging Switzerland into the front line of the war against terror. Micheline Calmy-Rey, the foreign minister, said a yes vote “could make Switzerland a target for Islamic terrorism”.

With a Muslim population of 400,000 and some 150 mosques and prayer rooms, the Swiss thought they had avoided the kind of tensions that have arisen over Muslims’ rights in bigger neighbouring countries such as France and Germany.

That changed in 2006, however, when a Sikh temple, complete with a gleaming white crown, was inaugurated in Langenthal. Karaademi appears to have been struck with cupola envy.

“I said to myself: why not us?” he recalled last week, adding that he had applied for a permit to build what would be Switzerland’s fifth minaret and permission had been quickly granted.

Encouraged by this, Muslim communities all over the country began applying for permits to put up their own minarets, regardless of the fact that noise regulations prevent the towers from fulfilling their traditional function of calling the faithful to prayer.

People began to worry about minarets dominating the Swiss skyline.

“They felt threatened,” said Patrick Freudiger, a Conservative MP who likes to remember a comment by Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, who once described minarets as the “bayonets” of the Muslim faith. “Minarets are symbolic of a quest for political and religious power,” Freudiger said.

A similar battle has been raging in Germany over plans to build one of Europe’s biggest mosques in the shadow of Cologne cathedral. The Danes are also locked in debate over plans for two grand mosques in Copenhagen.

In an initiative that would please Switzerland’s antiminaret campaigners, an Italian town seized the headlines last week by putting up signs banning women from wearing the burqa in public.

“If we ban the minarets, that won’t help communication between us,” said Thomas Ruefener, the mayor of Langenthal. “And immigration will continue all the same.”

Referendum or not, the arguments seem likely to continue. “In Switzerland,” said Hisham Maizer, president of the Swiss Federation of Islamic Organisations, “the debate about Islam is only just beginning.”

[busybody]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

I don't know. Why?

you dont know?

(but you knew enough to say you hope there wont be violence)

OK

dont worry

be happy

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by busybody

you dont know?

(but you knew enough to say you hope there wont be violence)

OK

dont worry

be happy

Yes, the world we live in has a minority of people who are capable of mind-boggling violence. Some percentage of those people are known as "Muslim extremists," and this is the sort of thing that sets them off.

What else didn't you understand?

[busybody]

Originally Posted by Peregrinator

Yes, the world we live in has a minority of people who are capable of mind-boggling violence. Some percentage of those people are known as "Muslim extremists," and this is the sort of thing that sets them off.

What else didn't you understand?

what is the percentage/

if you say "SOME PERCENTAGE", you must have some data to back it up

WHAT PERCENTAGE?

What other group has a PERCENTAGE? WHERE? WHEN HAS THIS BEEN MANIFESTED?

What would the reason for violence be? A vote in a democratic country?

[Peregrinator]

Originally Posted by busybody

what is the percentage/

if you say "SOME PERCENTAGE", you must have some data to back it up

WHAT PERCENTAGE?

What other group has a PERCENTAGE? WHERE? WHEN HAS THIS BEEN MANIFESTED?

What would the reason for violence be? A vote in a democratic country?

You're not this stupid. And this is boring.

I said "some" percentage because I know 0<X<100. You know this also. There, for example, Hindus who engage in terrorism. There are Tibetan separatists and "Maoist" rebels in Nepal. There are lots of different groups in Africa, some of which are Muslim, but many of which are not.

No, the reason for the violence would be an insane idea that such violence is somehow justified as a defense of, or war for, or just insult to Islam.

That's it now. You really have become boring.