Minarets in Switzerland

[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.