Banning Minarets?

Switzerland has recently voted to ban any further construction of minarets in their country. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party proposed it because of the rising numbers of immigrants and the “Islamisation” of their country. Recently Europe has had a huge influx of immigrants from Middle Eastern countries, and since a lot of them are Muslim, there has been a culture clash between the mostly Christian Swiss and the Muslim immigrants.

Supporters of the ban say that the minaret is a political symbol that would help introduce sharia law into Switzerland. This idea is so completely absurd I can’t even wrap my mind around it. A minaret is a cultural symbol that comes from centuries of tradition- not some covert plan by the minority to take over the country! By banning the construction of minarets in their country they are keeping Muslims from celebrating their heritage.

In a region that already has shaky relations with Muslims, do they really want to ban one of their cultural traditions? Countries do things like this and then they wonder why there are so many terrorists. By banning the building of minarets in their country they are also saying that Muslims are not wanted in their country, despite the fact that it is a democratic country. The president of Zurich’s Association of Muslim Organizations said that "During this campaign in the last two weeks different mosques were attacked, which we never experienced in 40 years in Switzerland…” It’s obvious to me that this ban has nothing to do with politics but is more to do with prejudice, and it is helping to spread prejudice against Muslims throughout their country.

This ban treats Muslims in Switzerland like 2nd class citizens and should be repealed immediately before any more cultural traditions of Islam are banned.