Were the Swiss right to ban minarets?

1 Comment

  • Hubert I Flomenhoft - 14 years ago

    The action to ban minarets on mosques in Switzerland or any other western nation has nothing to do with religion, it concerns culture. Mosques are already a departure from western architecture which affects the aesthetics of a community. However, they are places of worship and cannot be banned. There can be controls over the style of architecture, however. Minarets are a futher departure and is explicitly an eastern style. Many Muslims adapt to the countries where they settle, but there is a general trend for Muslims from the Middle East or Africa to maintain their original culture and not adapt. The minaret is a symbol of this trend and should not be allowed in the west. Another example of this principle is when the Mormons wanted to put up a huge spire with the Angel Moroni on top on a new church in Belmont, Massachusetts, some years ago, in violation of existing codes. It created quite a controversy with "religious intolerance" being injected into the issue. But it was an architectural matter and it was settled by a compromise which allowed a much smaller spire, although one that exceeded the maximum height of the building code.

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