Are Minarets a Threat to Swiss Democracy?

It all very well in criticising the Swiss vote to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland, but Christians in some Muslim-majority countries face severe restrictions on the building and repair of churches. In countries such as Saudi Arabia and the Maldives there are no church buildings at all. In a number of other countries, there are church buildings for foreigners but none for the indigenous Christians themselves. In Egypt there has been a huge outcry against the Swiss decision, which concerned only minarets, not mosques themselves. But Egypt is a country where it is normally extremely difficult for Christians to get permission to build new churches or even repair the existing ones. Christians are forced to travel long distances to worship or must meet in secret in their homes due to an insufficient number of church buildings. Furthermore, recent months have seen a spate of attacks on church buildings.

In Turkey, the leader of a church with a bell tower was approached by three people who threatened him, saying « Switzerland is banning minarets and we will ban bell towers to you. You will demolish the bell tower by next Friday. »

Finally on an Islamist terrorist internet forum there was the following comment, « Switzerland is a fragile country which has always kept away from the conflict arena, but now is like other heretic countries in Europe and is placing itself at the top of the list of the sheep to be slaughtered by the Mujahideen ».

Hi Bruce,
I am not familiar with the problems Egypt and other countries you mentioned but name me one country that is not a dictatorship supported by the US, UK and the West. We support them by money and arms, use their natural resources and leave them to rot. Because the people can’t do anything against the tyrants, their anger is channeled to other areas. Religion is one of them, especially with the recent west provocation.

In your own quote you mentioned « terrorist » does that mean they are representative of Islam???

BNP in the UK would like all ethnic minorities out (black, Indian, Chinese…), does that represent the UK’s view? I don’t think so. So please stop quoting the terrorists.

Now back to the main issue;

In Europe we are proud of democracy and want to spread it to the Muslim world. Yet when it comes to Islam we want to ban this ban that… The Swiss banned the minarets, the French banned the head scarf, will the UK ban the Jewish kippah or the Turban so that we are all integrated? do we need to be dressed the same to be integrated? Mr Craig thinks the niqab is the problem. Does he know the meaning of cultural integration in a society? I don’t think so. I think all of Europe is struggling with the culture integration. They are missing the values and the many common points between the Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I think a luck of understanding of each others religion is the cause of the divide.

What is worrying is that « I think » the Swiss party is against the existence of Islam in Switzerland and they are using the minarets as a starting point. They are afraid that Islam will expand and will threaten their existance. And clearly Mr Craig shares the Swiss view despite what he said. Apparently, for him the history is Judeo-Christain only. There is no place for Islam from what he said. This is where « ignorance » is a problem. Mr Craig needs to read the history and educate himself before going on public interviews representing Christianity. He should know that the Prophet Abraham (May God’s Peace be Upon Him) started preaching for one God well before any religion, then came Judaism, then Christianity and finally Islam. All three came from the middle east. Also, he should know that before the Romans Europe didn’t have a defined religion. So if he is talking about the UK he should say the history is Myths or no religion!

I think humanity is always falling in the same trap; using religion for our own agenda.