Originally posted by Wheatfield I was listening to an interview on CBC last night on my way back to work. I don't know who was being interviewed, other than he was a Swiss government representative.
What he said was that at the moment there are only 3 minarets (I don't know if he meant in all of Switzerland or just his city), but that there were numerous mosques.
It seems that minaret and mosque are not necessarily the same thing, and building mosques is not something they want to prevent.
He seemed to think that what was happening in Switzerland was the development of "parallel cultures" within the country, especially in the Muslim community, and that the government wanted to discourage that.
I can see his point in that it is probably in everyone's best interest if there is a level of cultural integration (the melting pot theory of the USA vs the cultural mosaic of Canada for example), though I don't know if this is the right way to go about it, since the optic is one of racism and religious intolerance.
Democratic "rights" allow you to choose your leaders, not tell them how to do their job. Constitutional "rights" enable you to practice your religion and interests as long as they dont harm others.
Mixing the two up can be perilous. Politicians can be pretty dumb at times but the machinery and an awareness of consequences keeps them in check somewhat.
Changing a constitution is most countries is incredibly difficult and so it should be. Its the one thing that prevents politicians using fear to wind up the mob and exert "tyranny by majority" to remove peoples rights.
The poor Swiss government are now having to make the best out of a bad job by explaining to a sceptical world that the majority of swiss are not islamophobic. At least in Canada, the US and the UK there is only a vague suspicion that that may true, but little damning evidence to back it up.
I am not sure whether a melting pot or cultural mosiac or multiculturalism or whatever euphemism you wish use for "enforced tolerance" actually works, but you can keep the lid on the pot more or less as long as you can maintain a semblance of normality and harmony while "media managing" the brushfires. When the veneer is stripped away or when fear is used to manipulate the population then it is unlikely any good will emerge.
Last edited by *isteve; 12-01-2009 at 08:58 AM.