Sebastien Bozon/AFP-Getty Images
As the Wire covers
here, the
Swiss minaret ban has been blasted as fearful, bigoted, and self-defeating. But whether as a rhetorical aside or an impassioned rebuttal, there are also those defending the Swiss majority. Here are the most compelling arguments for why the ban might be justified--or at least why the ban's attackers might be overstating their case:
- Minarets 'Redundant' in Switzerland The Telegraph's Melanie McDonagh
points out--en route to an argument about referendums--that minarets
"couldn't be used to call the faithful to prayer because noise
regulations, this being Switzerland, don't permit it." That means, she
argues, that "small Islamic
communities all over Switzerland just wanted to make their presence
felt. On the skyline."
- Bad Decision, But Back Off Matt Barganier calls the ban "wrong and dumb" but doesn't appreciate Andrew Sullivan's "Nazi jab" about the referendum results. "One very wrong, very dumb thing the Swiss have not done," Barganier writes, "is launch any
wars of aggression against Muslim peoples, or anyone else, for that
matter." He calls Sullivan's remark "cringe-worthy."
- Bad Decision: Did Too Little The Wall Street Journal
decides that the ban "does too much and too little at once." The
editors' explanation: "Too much because it becomes a
very visible and easily exploited symbol of supposed European
intolerance. But it accomplishes too little because it seeks merely to
hide from view the problems that gave rise to the fear of the minaret
in the first place." The fear, they write, " is "not without cause."
They mention terrorism, "honor killings, child brides and the like."
- Stands Up for Women, Gays Roger Simon
at Pajamas Media latches onto the role of Swiss feminists in the
anti-minaret campaign, calling it "no surprise." Islamic texts, he
says, are "an assault on women," to "anyone with eyes open." He rejects
"fuddy-duddy complaints
that Judaism and Christianity have also had their bouts of misogyny and
homophobia ...
those two religions long ago began to reform themselves in those areas
in many of their branches," he argues. "Don't believe me ... next time
you
want to have a gay pride parade, want to hold it in Tel Aviv or Cairo?
Or how about Riyadh?"
