In an unexpected development Swiss people imposed a national ban on the construction of minarets, the prayer towers of mosques, voting overwhelmingly in a referendum. The referendum was passed with a clear majority of 57.5 percent of the voters in 22 of Switzerland's 26 cantons. Out of a population of 7.5 million there are about 4, 00,000 Muslims in Switzerland who have some 150 mosques or prayer rooms. A very aggressive campaign was launched in support of ban with posters depicting a Swiss flag sprouting black, missile-shaped minarets alongside a woman shrouded in a niqab, a head-to-toe veil that shows only the eyes, highlighting the deep-rooted fears that Muslim immigration would lead to an erosion of Swiss values. The decision of the tiny Switzerland to take the bull of Islamism by horns has surprised many nations across the world.
The overwhelming support for the ban in referendum has resulted in an intense debate over the issue of religious freedom and growing Muslim stridency in Europe. It is significant to note the statement of Former Muslim United founder Nonie Darwish who remarked: "...many Muslim groups are denouncing the ban as oppression to freedom of religion. However, such Muslim groups will be more credible if they first denounced the oppression of religious minorities in Muslim countries who make it illegal to practice any religion other than Islam. Muslim groups who claim that they are oppressed in Europe should be the first to stand up and yell "not in the name of my religion" when Churches are burned in Muslim countries. But instead all we hear from Muslim groups is "I am a victim" and "I am offended" while the blood of non-Muslims is being shed in the name of Sharia...." In this regard discussions are already taking place as how churches all over Turkey are being closed. Why? For want of worshippers, of course, because like much of the Muslim world EU-candidate Turkey has made itself extremely inhospitable to non-Muslims of all stripes. Why not, then, insist that a moratorium be put on mosque-building in non-Muslim lands until the Muslim countries stop persecuting non-Muslims in their countries? In Pakistan and Bangladesh persecution of Hindu-Buddhist-Christian minorities is still going on but it has not yet resulted into strong condemnation from the international community. While the two biggest democracies of the world US and India dither to meet the challenge of radical Islam, the display of guts by small nations like Israel and Switzerland is something remarkable.
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