TheMissus,

Isn't having soemwhere where overt displays of religion are banned be an overt display of belief?

1) The Swiss can decide what they want in their own country.
2) In the last 60 years, how many churches have been constructed in the muslim countries? Zero!
3) In the last 60 years, how many mosques have been constructed in Europe? Thousands!
4) Every islamic commentator speaks about "discrimination"!
5) When in Rome, do as the Romans do! Are the muslims in Europe listening?

"The right wing extreme nationalist part, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) sponsored the national referendum calling for a complete ban on minarets, a clear attack on freedom of religious expression, something enshrined in the Swiss constitution." Paul Doolan

It is sad to see that Paul Doolan has scant regard for the rights of the Swiss and the democratic porcess. The Swiss People’s Party has grown to be the most popular political party in Switzerland.

The surprising thing is that Doolan (a political scientist) does not know that Islam is a political system and does not believe in the political process because once it comes to power it would crush all the other political and religious systems.

In fact all European countries should demolish all mosques and Islamic religious schools as they are threat to non-Muslims and finally "moderate" Muslims.

In Egypt the non-Muslims are persecuted, set on fire and their property confiscated. http://www.islam-watch.org/iw-new/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=252:egypt-mob-attacks-christian-man-for-visiting-muslim-brothel&catid=103:islam

Time to get tough with the Islamists and its sympathisers

Cool
Maybe they will take the logical next step and ban all church steeples as well.

Yes, democracy (in its various forms) is indeed the best and fairest political system, albeit there is no perfect democratic system.

Great system even for the simplistic left when it suits them, although not when a clear majority disagrees with them.

odo,

I have little doubt that a referendum on cutting back immigration would succeed in Australia. No doubt CJ Morgan would accuse Australians of being "racist" or "Islamo-phobic" (whatever THAT may mean) for wanting to restrict immigration.

But cutting back on immigration is a very different thing to discriminating against people already here. Whatever their views on immigration, I doubt most Australians would want to curtail the religious freedoms of people who are already settled in this country.

But I wonder how the Austrians, Belgians, Brits, Czechs, Danes, Dutch, French, Germans, Hungarians, Italians, Poles etc would vote on a minaret resolution. My guess is that in quite a few of those countries the vote would be to ban minaret construction.

TheMissus,

If there were general regulations regarding all religious building that would be a different matter. But this is aimed specifically at one religion.

As you know I have never made a secret of my disdain for contemporary Islam. I think contemporary Islam is BEYOND despicable.

But I think it wrong to single out one religion. To the extent that a state gets involved in religion at all it should treat all religions – indeed all belief systems – equally.

All that being said I must confess I find being subjected to a wailing "call to prayer" from a minaret quite grating on my nerves. By contrast I find the sound of church bells quite melodious.

Oh well, I suppose it's a matter of musical taste. The call to prayer should not be banned because of one individual's nerves.

Chris Lewis

Democracy is about more than majority rules. It is about due process, equal treatment under the law, the right to say things which are unpopular and so on. That is why countries like the US have constitutions that embed certain rights that cannot be overridden by a simple majority. Maybe they've carried rule by judge too far in the US; but I think on the whole it is better than majoritarianism.