fear of EURABIA
In a vote that displayed a widespread anxiety about Islam and undermined the country’s reputation for religious tolerance, the Swiss on Sunday overwhelmingly imposed a national ban on the construction of minarets, in a referendum drawn up by the far right and opposed by the government. Earlier this month, France considered whether to ban Muslim women from wearing full-face veils. Of 150 mosques or prayer rooms in Switzerland, only 4 have minarets, and only 2 more minarets were planned and none are used for the call to prayer because of strict noise-pollution rules. The vote in favor of the ban is a surprise in a country that prides itself on integrating immigrants, and where about a fifth of the population are foreigners. There are about 400,000 Muslims in a population of some 7.5 million people. Close to 90 percent of Muslims in Switzerland are from Kosovo and Turkey. Albanians have migrated to Switzerland since 1960s, many of them migrated from Kosovo. 45 000 albanians migrated to Switzerland from Macedonia. Once the war had reached Kosovo, ethnic Albanians were added to the list of nationals qualifying for refugee status. Since it was impossible to tell Kosovar Albanians from the rest, gangsters took advantage of the situation and spread quickly throughout Europe, first going to Albanian communities in Germany and Switzerland and taking over the heroin trade there. People's Party leader Walter Wobman said the group will now fight to ban the burqa as well as to institute a law against forced marriage. They said that the minarets were not architectural features with religious characteristics, but symbolised a political-religious claim to power, which challenges fundamental rights. The Swiss government feared a yes vote would spark a backlash, and Swiss diplomats have quietly been reassuring leaders in Muslim countries that the government opposed the referendum. About 7%, or 14.5 billion Swiss francs ($14.4 billion), of Swiss exports go to Muslim countries. Wait, that's not all, swiss leaders now call for ban on separate Jewish and Muslim cemeteries as well.
So, Europeans have no problem with recognizing new Muslim states all over the Balkans (Bosnia, Kosovo...) but when it is about Muslims at home, then it's a different story. Serbia, for example, has been defending Europe and christianity from Islam since 14th century. Serbs were portraited as fascists while fighting their own "war on terror" and Al-Qaeda in Kosovo. They were severely punished for it, but islamophobia is now ok in 21st century Europe.
What happened to democracy, freedom of religion and human rights?
