Today Switzerland went to the polls on a referendum proposed by the Swiss People Party (SVP), the poll was a proposal to ban the building of minarets. The result was 57% in favour of this proposal, something which the Swiss government advised against, and now in their words:-
“The Federal Council (government) respects this decision. Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted,”
This is a big thing, Switzerland has for many years been one of the worlds most tolerant governments, but today something changed, Switzerland became a country in which the freedom to express ones religion has been curtailed, just like in France with the headscarf ban.
We Brits might content ourselves by saying that we leave in a highly tolerant society, where churches are happy sitting next to mosques, synagogues and temples, but looking on twitter, and reading the various UK news forums, its quite upsetting how many people here in the UK agree with this ban. No doubt some of tomorrows papers will run articles praising Switzerland for taking a stand against Islamic extremism and Sharia law.
Speaking of Sharia law, what’s the problem, I mean here in the North East we have a Rabbinical court practising Talmudic law. Now its not that the Jewish community has been able to remove itself from the British legal system, they have simply chosen to have a way of dealing with civil matters in a religious court, and in all fairness this takes many case that would otherwise clog up the legal system, and in many cases the decisions are fair, or course both litigants have to be Jewish and both agree to deal with it through the Rabbinical court, and that’s shiny.
And that’s how Sharia courts work here in the UK, but some people here in the UK claim its like the Muslim community here want a parallel legal system, ok some a small minority do,but then again,there is a small minority in this country calling out for the Bible to become the main source of law in this country! And in all fairness when it comes to the religious divorce issue, yes there are some problems in both the Rabbinical Courts and the Sharia Courts, but these are no worse than the troubleshot can become an issue when trying to get an annulment from the Catholic Church!
But this vote further shows how this continent has become so afraid of Islam, that we do silly things like this, we have become so fearful of terrorism that we have put every well-integrated Muslim in the same basket as al-Qaeda fanatics. And I feel that Europe as a continent is losing the right to express our concern at other countries over religious freedom and free speech.
Right now in Iran, seven Baha’is who belong to an informal body known as the Friends (Yaran), a group of people who tried their best to look after the needs of this community, are sitting in the notorious Evin prison, were they have been held for 18 months now on charges of espionage. These charges are ridiculous and trumped up, because the Iranian legal system sees Baha’is as heretics, they are horribly persecuted and many have been executed or have simply been disappeared since the1979 Islamic revolution.
Anyway what’s my point, well almost every Western nation, including the UK, France and Switzerland have all condemned the Iranian government for their flagrant abuse of human rights, and denial of free speech and religious freedom. But are we not doing the same thing to our Islamic communities, I hope not, and I truly hope that somehow this ban is lifted,and sooner rather than later.
God Bless
Michael
