Minarets in Switzerland

[Tuckervill]

(Tom, do you know who/what organization puts up those anti-illegals bulletin boards outside of Conway all the time? Have you noticed them? Someone with bucks to spend I guess.)

I really just can't fathom anyone making minarets an issue in my part of the world (they would complain about SOMETHING, but it wouldn't be architecture). We have many many churches and other places of worship around here. I happen to think some of them are hideously ostentatious to the point of obscene. But, I'm trying to imagine if someone started a petition to keep a mosque out based on the existence of minarets. Wouldn't they know that eventually someone would try to put limits on THEIR freedom to build their place of worship?

Perhaps it is because there are FEWER religious people in Switzerland, not more, and so the non-religious don't have a dog in the fight?

Karen

[Tuckervill]

I'm pretty sure my town doesn't have a Sikh temple. Or a mosque. Or a Jewish temple. I don't even think there is a UU congregation. But there must be some nearby (Fayetteville), near the campus. I have seen some people in traditional dress from other cultures.

Karen

[crazycanuck]

COntact Alpinerabbit she lives there! You're just getting an American perspective here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8388776.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ne...ts_nh_ht.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womansho...9_48_fri.shtml

[Tuckervill]

Yes, I was hoping someone who had at least been there could speak up. This is the most geographically diverse place I know.

I've never been off this continent. I would just like to understand this from a personal angle.

Karen

[OakLeaf]

But, I'm trying to imagine if someone started a petition to keep a mosque out based on the existence of minarets. Wouldn't they know that eventually someone would try to put limits on THEIR freedom to build their place of worship?

Uh..... no. Sorry to be blunt, but bigots by definition can't or won't see beyond the end of their own noses.

Every time our newspaper runs a feature about a Hindu or Muslim holiday celebration, for instance, the reader comments are just appalling. I mean, the unvarnished racism of the reader comments is *always* appalling, but specifically in the context of religion, public attitudes are no different in the USA than what we're seeing from Switzerland.

W/R/T Tom's comment - I don't think you can paint all of Europe with the same brush concerning constitutional protections, but you certainly have a point. Another thing to remember is that secularism in Europe is very, very different from what it is in the USA. Where we're more about "freedom to," they take more of a "freedom from" religion approach.