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[Dwarf]

Or: How a law was accepted which violates our own constitution.

Today, a law was passed in Switzerland which forbids the errecting of minarets.
The Swiss People's Party, being the christian conservative short-minded SOBs they are, supported the initiative with posters like this:

"Stop: Yes for the Minaret ban"
Note the minarets surroudning our holy but foreigner-stained country like rocket silos (Which they surely are - camouflaged rocket silos)

Whereas in our constitution is clearly stated:
Art. 15 Freedom of religion and conscience
1 Freedom of religion and conscience is guaranteed.
2 Everyone has the right to choose freely their religion or their philosophical convic-
tions, and to profess them alone or in community with others.
3 Everyone has the right to join or to belong to a religious community, and to follow
religious teachings.

Whilst the SPP is normally very agressive about people breaking our god-given and perfect constitutionary laws, they just sided with what is thought to be the most supported opinion of the country and support it heavily. With obviously xenophobic and narrow-minded arguments like:
"Minarets are a demonstration of power!" (Yeah, so Bin Laden and the evil Muslim peple use them as a base of propaganda, we know that, right? By that standard, I'll say that the pope is governing us)

and:
"When some countries forbid christian churches, we should forbid Muslim minarets too!"
(Of course, we should join the list of asshat fundamentalist countries!)

Also, they've released a flash game where you literally get to shoot minarets and muezzins.
The very same SPP has also got most of the Neo-Nazis, trusty hooligans ready to beat the shit out of anyone not Swiss by birth and heritage. (Also, just now, we've become a target for terrorism. Thanks, rigthist assholes)

People, I am very embarassed to live in this country. Politics are way too fucked up here. In a few years, I'll be out of Switzerland.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Switzerland just slid down the scale from anally-retentative xenophobic clockmakers to active mega-racists.

[ein]

Huzzah for super conservative christians in control of the government!
[/sarcasm]

[Leafsnail]

Ugh.  And they were trying to justify it in the name of feminism...

[redacted123]

-

[Cthulhu]

Sure is Conservative Means Anything We Find Objectionable in here.

[Leafsnail]

Well, the far right is commonly associated with this kind of intolerance.  Hence "Extreme conservatives".

[Dwarf]

Well, the far right is commonly associated with this kind of intolerance.  Hence "Extreme conservatives".

Most of the leading people have a quite shocking ideology. However, they like to use a 'central-to-right-conservative' attitude to disguise what can sometimes only be described as nationalism and xenophobia.

[Apostolic Nihilist]

It's too bad they only banned minarets. I'd love to see a country ban all forms of religious building if only to observe the effects.
Would people freak out or would most just continue on as usual?
I'm not really sure how it is in other parts of the world, but over here most people are astoundingly apathetic about religion in general. They may be protestants/catholics/muslims/etc but it seems like religion isn't a major part of many people's lives.
I mean, the most apathetic of religion (teens, young adults) are usually the most politically active.

There are always outliers, but I think it'd be interesting to see how the majority of the population would react.

[Armok]

Funny coincidence.

[Footkerchief]

Just wondering, how often do people see minarets in the US? I'm not trying to relate the US to these guys but I'm just interested.

You can find them in most big cities.

[G-Flex]

Switzerland just slid down the scale from anally-retentative xenophobic clockmakers to active mega-racists.

Your irony is showing.

Seriously though, the Swiss GOVERNMENT is speaking out against this ban. It's kind of funny, and by "funny" I also mean "terrible".



Honestly though, the thread title is a little bad. I mean, I live in the US, and we have a lot of xenophobic bullshit going on too, but I still wouldn't like to see a thread linking to one of the more ridiculous arch-conservative protests labeled "UNITED STATES: THE CHRISTIAN-CONSERVATIVE SHITHOLE".

[John Hopoate]

Do you guys want to have a serious, honest discussion or is this going to be another PC circlejerk about "racism"? Many people in Europe are wary because Muslim immigrants have caused so many problems, they make up something like 5% of the Dutch population yet about 50% of the prison population, in France the situation is just as bad, not to mention Islamic terrorism and the huge internal security expenditures that go with it.

It's not about racism, in Australia we have more Buddhists than Muslims and I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Buddhists, nor have I ever heard Buddhists claiming to be discriminated against, despite the fact that most of them are East Asians. Switzerland has historically been a fine example of how multiculturalism can work but you'd be deluded to think that some cultures aren't more desirable than others.

[Dwarf]

Switzerland just slid down the scale from anally-retentative xenophobic clockmakers to active mega-racists.

Your irony is showing.

Seriously though, the Swiss GOVERNMENT is speaking out against this ban. It's kind of funny, and by "funny" I also mean "terrible".



Honestly though, the thread title is a little bad. I mean, I live in the US, and we have a lot of xenophobic bullshit going on too, but I still wouldn't like to see a thread linking to one of the more ridiculous arch-conservative protests labeled "UNITED STATES: THE CHRISTIAN-CONSERVATIVE SHITHOLE".

Since the people voted for this law (in our semi-direct democracy), one could say that the bigger part of the Swiss population are exactly what the thread title suggests.

[G-Flex]

Switzerland has historically been a fine example of how multiculturalism can work but you'd be deluded to think that some cultures aren't more desirable than others.

Yes, and arbtirarily refusing a religious group to build common structures of theirs (while apparently defying the Swiss constitution and, arguably, international law Switzerland ostensibly abides by) is going to make them so much more tolerant of Western ideals and society, and show the more moderate Muslims so much support.

Since the people voted for this law (in our semi-direct democracy), one could say that the bigger part of the Swiss population are exactly what the thread title suggests.

The problem with voting directly on issues is that people are easily swayed and convinced and shaken up. People can get misguided onto bandwagons pretty easily, and that applies to just about any nation. They all have issues like that, and will tend to engage in seriously stupid kneejerk reactions as a result. It's more a problem with direct democracy than with anything, although I agree that there are actual cultural issues here.

Stupid groupthink like this tends to take relatively small social problems and inflate them to gigantic proportions to make them look worse than they otherwise would. Of course, making them more obvious can be a good thing, because then it's easier to point them out and fix them.

I guess what I'm saying here is that, given direct voting on issues like that, most societies would engage in idiotic kneejerk reactions given the right circumstances and a bit of cultural conflict.