Swiss Minaret Ban

We often fail to consider the importance of Western philosophy to our daily lives. For those of us that live in countries where we are free to say, do, and vote as we please it forms the essential fabric of our daily lives. Human rights are the single greatest achievement of Western thought, but implementing is a hard battle that is far from over.

The chief enemies have been power struggles and intolerance. Both are well represented in this latest story.

Members of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently the largest party in the Swiss parliament, have launched a campaign to have the building of minarets banned.

They claim the minaret is not necessary for worship, but is rather a symbol of Islamic law, and as such incompatible with Switzerland's legal system.

Link

Now this is a clear violation of the Freedom of Religion as described in the European Convention on Human Rights, but after France got away with its headscarf ban, and it the crossfire caught yarmulkes and turbans as well it stands to reason that the neutered court in Strasbourg may actually let this continue.

I for one am rather tired of seeing xenophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry destroy our most important values, all so a few politicians can score brownie points.

Some feel we should simply wink at this is the face of greater atrocities occurring in the Islamic world, but no amount of wrongdoing on their part will excuse trashing our own civilization.

I'll be back with more on some of the route causes of this type of behavior.