As a Swiss expat, I’m perturbed by yesterday’s vote to ban minarets in Switzerland (minarets are the towers on mosques). Everyone seems surprised by the vote, even the supporters of the ban. Polls predicted a defeat and the government advised a no vote, yet it ended up being approved by an large 57% majority. I sounds like a symbolic vote to me. Minarets are obviously not a big deal (only 4 have been built in all of Switzerland in the last 50 years). It seems Swiss people used this referendum to send a misguided message to their highly PC politicians to take their fears of radical Islam more seriously.
Categories
Toni.org 
3 replies on “As a Swiss expat, I’m perturbed by yest…”
The Times suggests feminists may have tipped the balance.
[…] A national ban on an architectural element seems silly but the vote to stop the construction of minarets in Switzerland is a real accomplishment. The people of a mature country have peacefully expressed a strong collective feeling against what they perceive as a grave threat. The tragedy is that they identified the threat as the Islamic religion. […]
I was surprised for the results not the voting itself and -like you- I do not think it was about the minarets themselves but the message behind such referendum. Anyway I've placed my point of view few days ago for this and honestly I am wondering where this world is going to!