radioactiveman said:
Apparently only 5 mosques out of around 160 in Switzerland have minarets and the vast majority have now applied for them. I can see how that might concern some people. As for the muslims, noise regulations mean that they can't have a muezzin wailing from it anyway - so why do they need a minaret?
Switzerland has a about three times the level of Muslims in its population than the UK. It very different human terrain.
Swiss Muslims are mostly urbanized Turks and folk from the former Yugoslavia. Half are under 25 and seem to be fond of their blow, beer and bratwurst. Only 15% actively practice their faith. They are not radicalized though you will find young Albanians rather over represented in the Yougo wings of Swiss jails.
Burkas were not exactly a common sight until this got plastered up:
Several Swiss cities promptly banned it.
There are 150-200 Mosques mainly in warehouses and old buildings. There are only four working minarets, one is 40 years old. The fifth is a 19th century folly built by a chocolatier. You of course need planning permission to build a minaret or indeed an ambitious window box. There have been only a couple of applications that I've heard of one in the village of Wangen another in Langenthal. These days a good speaker system is what most European Mosques use for the call to prayer the minaret is just a symbol.
Terrifying isn't it.
As for the public nuisance argument this is the country where the Churches insist on vigorous bell ringing just after dawn on a Sunday.
The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities came out loudly against the ban knowing full well the Swiss right is filled with latent anti-Semitism. Really this is about the shrewd SVPs vote seeking populism and then distantly about intimidating Switzerland's very large foreign population, most Swiss towns are 40% Auslander. This one seems to have been swung by the easily frightened and ladies, who poll as much more Islamophobic than Swiss men, the feminists also favored a ban.
Given that Serbs are viewed with a great deal of suspicion I was a little surprised to see that a Serbian Orthodox church went up in
Belp recently.
Langenthal also has a recently constructed Sikh
temple. I recall there being some unease about this but then the locals saw all the Mercs rolling up to it and realized they stumbled onto a commercial opportunity.
