The Swiss Ban

P.S three people inspired me to write this post : Tarek Ramadan, Tarek Amr and Ahmed Shokier

I do not understand why the Swiss hold a poll to determine whether to have or ban the mosques minarets as according my knowledge Switzerland  does not allow the Azan and it only has four minarets in the whole country !!?? Why to have this poll in the first place.

Already there is huge misunderstanding here , Muslims do not need minarets to practice their religion , in fact  we can pray anywhere in this earth without Mosques ; this ban and any other future ban on the number of Mosques will not affect Islam or weaken it. The problem here is about the rights of the Muslim Swiss who should practice their religion freely as the rest of the citizens in this country and to show their symbols with no fear as they want . I know despite the symbolism of the ban it will not really affect Islam or Muslims despite it makes them alienated in the society

FYI Islam is the second religion in the country and Muslims citizens have contributed there a lot since 1950s when the political regimes in the Middle East forced the opponents , the rich and also the scientists to seek a safe asylum in Europe. UN , Arab League and human rights organizations worldwide have condemned the ban but what use now after the vote ; the vote that should not be there in the first place !!??

The misunderstanding here is that his campaign was not against a kind of building style , Islam and Mosque can blend so easily in to other cultures , you can visit mosques in different parts of the Islamic world and see by your own eyes how the Islamic style blended magnificently in to the native architecture ; our old Mosques in old Cairo are different than those Morocco and different than those in Iran and Indonesia. The campaign was against Islam itself. The misunderstanding is more about the perception in the minds of the Swiss; the perception that led to fear from everything Islamic , even if this fear was illogic. When a lady wearing a black Niqab poster is hanging through out the country like a scary poster with minarets portrayed as rockets then we have to think carefully about this campaign. These posters by the way reminds me with the Nazi posters against the Jewish community. It seems that the neutral nation is losing its neutrality

We should not be surprised from this act , I once read that Jewish synagogues were very rare and unwelcomed in Switzerland before the WWII ; I do not know how accurate this is but this may indicate some kind of hidden religious radicalism !!??

I read also there is a concern from the Jews side on this increasing fear from Muslims ; after all they saw a lot  there. I understand their fear comes from the fact the radical right Christian wing is gaining power in Europe  and it dislikes Muslims as well as Jews like the BNP and Jean Marie Le-pen in France.

This poll’s results are a manifestation of Islamophobia and I fear that this manifestation will spread fear and hate more across Europe especially with the rise of the radical right wing parties in Europe specially in the north.

What makes me angry and sad is the statements of the Swiss foreign minister who said that she is alarmed on her country’s safety after the vote ; in other more clear words she fears that some radical Muslims would bomb themselves in her country !!?? Is not this more insulting !!?? She considered Muslims as crazy maniacs who will go mad after the vote ; well we are sad but we are not angry nor mad. You know I felt more insulted by her statement than the ban because according to her statements the majority of Muslims are dangerous on her country !! At least this is what I got from her statement.

For sure there are calls to boycott Swiss goods and services ; the most strongest call came from Turkey : Boycott the Swiss banks !!

Imagine if all Muslims including rich Arab Muslims decided to withdraw their money from the Swiss banks especially the secret accounts !!? I can’t imagine this because most of the rich Arab Muslims with secret accounts are dictators who are not that devoted Muslims in the first place.

This was something unexpected from a country like Switzerland with the highest levels of freedom from the top first world country.

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