I really have nothing against Switzerland. They’re a generally peace loving people, pioneers in wonderful things like the Red Cross and cheese, but I’m disappointed with their recent national ban on minarets. The ban was first proposed by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party in 2007. The motion was not put to vote till recently, and the results were announced on November the 29th 2009. Switzerland practices a form of direct democracy (way to go Switzerland!) and it turns out that from the 53% of the population that turned out to vote, 57.5% of voters approved the proposal. This is one case where the population can’t shift all the blame to the government and pretend to be as indignant as the next guy. (The guy with full facial hair, rudely pushing around his fully veiled wife, perchance hiding a weapon of mass destruction under his cap.)

This is what the Swiss people want. They feel threatened by the visibility of minorities, and see the minaret as a symbol of muslim political power. (Which it is, by the way, but it is also functionally a vantage point from which the muezzin makes his call to prayer, and aesthetically rather a beautiful piece of architecture, if not a little phallic.) I imagine that the minaret represents to them all the violence of fundamentalists, the freeloading tendencies of immigrants, and, might I go as far as to say, the possibility that Christianity is in peril. Uh oh.

Don’t cringe yet, I’m taking this a step further. Could it be that the white man is growing a tad insecure? I do not want to make an association between race and religion without acknowledging all the white muslims in the world . I know you exist, but you will never be a stereotype, or at least not for another 100 years or so.

I’m also going to say it at the risk of sounding racist, which I am most certainly not much. White folks are lovable and beautiful, but it is also true that many white folks (like all folks) think that they are better than other people. Why do they think this? They think this because not many years ago there was an English empire, and also because before that there were Aryans, and because since the dawn of civilization (which in many minds is a time around the Renaissance, not Mesopotamia) the poor white man has had the burden of disciplining all the other monkeys. And what’s more, the most economically and (thus) politically powerful countries in the world are mostly white populations (either practicing or not practicing Christianity.)

Coloured balls have recently appeared in the international arena. Arabs flew planes into the WTC towers in New York; random acts of terrorism attributed to non-white muslims have occurred in England, India, Iraq, Iran, and many more countries. Fundamentalist Islamists are perceived as a force to be reckoned with, or at least a violent group of troublemakers causing destruction wherever they go. Furthermore, China is being heralded as an emerging economic superpower, and China, India, Pakistan and N.Korea have tested nuclear missiles. These instances are either attempts to seize power or demonstrate power and thanks to global media, they have been seen.

Forget the perception of modern history, race is still a prominent determinant in the understanding of current events (For example: BLACK president elected in the USA.) Muslims are still perceived as a non-white race, and race holds an unfortunately decisive place in the minds of human beings. It incorrigibly affects our perception of ‘others.’ As long as this persists, the Swiss have every right to feel insecure.

To give you a clearer picture of what’s what, there were protests in Switzerland almost immediately after the results came out, and dissent was voiced in many other presumably white countries. Also, the Vatican denounced the ban as violating religious freedom, as did the Roman Catholic bishops in Switzerland. The French have also condemned it, but at the same time France is considering a ban on the veil, and similar bans are being encouraged in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Reactions are mixed, as they always will be in a plural global platform (which is exactly how it should be.)

I said earlier that minarets are symbols of power. I want to clarify that they have evolved into this conception through being a symbol of a rising people. Undoubtedly, Muslims in Switzerland will feel a mixture of pride and resentment when they encounter the 4 minarets that are already standing. These minarets will become revered and guarded testaments to the presence of Islam. The Swiss made a move to maintain their culture, but it was ill-advised, too simple to be anything but counter-productive. If they are looking to protect their people, they would have done better to ban McDonald’s (which, by the way, has its European headquarters in Geneva.)

Little Birdies:

Christian Science Monitor

Europe News

Euro News