In a blatant display of racial and religious intolerance Switzerland has placed a ban on the construction of mosque minarets. After an 18-month long campaign by the far right Swiss People's party, over 57 percent of the Swiss voters supported the move in a referendum. The Swiss government and business leaders had been opposed to the ban, arguing it would be harmful to the country's image abroad and disastrous for the Swiss economy.
They could have done better than that and asked the voters to act as civilised people, and show respect for human rights, of which the right to worship is an important part. The minaret, like a church spire, is a distinctive feature of mosque architecture. Surely, the Swiss people or any of the other Christian-dominated, Western countries would not like to see a Muslim country banning a church spire or arched windows, which make Christian places of worship stand out among all other buildings.
In fact, given their past practice, they would be issuing self-righteous statements to condemn such an act as reflective of bigotry and Muslim narrow-mindedness. It is pertinent to recall here that in 2000, EU member countries imposed diplomatic sanctions on Austria after it elected the right-wing Australian Freedom party to form a coalition government because its leader, Jorg Haider, had made anti-Semitic remarks at some earlier point in his political career. He was forced to resign from the coalition government.
Another example is that of China, when a decade ago it banned Falun Gong - a new system of beliefs - after its followers marched on the Communist Party headquarters. Leaders of Western governments reacted strongly to the ban as curtailment of religious freedom, although it involved anti-government political activism, raising a chorus of condemnation against the Chinese government and accusing it of suppressing a key human right.
No expression of disgust has so far emanated from London, Paris, Berlin, or Washington over what has happened in Switzerland. So far, only the UN Human Rights Commission has said the ban on minarets is violative of the UN rights charter. It is hoped that EU member nations and the US will act with the same sense of commitment to religious freedom, as they have been expressing in other instances, to keep Switzerland from subjecting its largest religious minority (0.4 million of country's eight million population) to persecution.