Alternate take on the Swiss Ban on Minarets from Islamabad Blogger
…The request of the Turkish minister to pull out deposits from Swiss banks is not going to work. We can defeat extremists by convincing the people of Switzerland that Islam is not related to violence. Those who justify violence in the name of Islam are not our representatives. If we are able to defeat these elements, winning back the support of the masses in Western societies would not be very difficult. Unfortunately, those who believe in peace, non-violence and modernity in Muslim societies are unorganised and their voices are weak. Our support should be with the Swiss government, which still stands for human rights and freedom of religion, and those who rejected the extremists’ propaganda and voted against the ban.
Abu Noor Al-Irlandee 6:52 pm on December 9, 2009 Permalink |
Muslim Matters posted a piece questioning the wisdom of calls for a boycott.
Umar Lee didn’t like it.
Buzz 7:14 pm on December 9, 2009 Permalink |
Another case of both sides of the debate talking past each other without the least interest in the facts.
The rush to make this a Muslim oppression issue or a Muslim Ivasion issue obscures all the important points of this ban. The piece I linked above gets it.
Buzz 7:28 pm on December 9, 2009 Permalink |
Actually, Tariq Ramadan, as quoted from the MM post also gets it.
Instead of victimization, maybe Swiss Muslims and Muslims in general should ask what grievances their fellow citizens have. What is the root of distrust and can it be resolved.
If Swiss Muslims brought a ton of benefit to Switzerland’s social economic structure, you can bet more than 44% would have supported Minarets. Maybe Swiss Muslim Immigrants are bringing all that much to the table. How much can you impose on a society. How far can tolerance be stretched with no benefits.
Obviously Muslims immigrants in America are on a different footing. I would have to check. I suspect Muslims here do not drain the economy.
In bad economic times, these conflicts are unavoidable.
Hicham Maged 4:16 am on December 10, 2009 Permalink |
I enjoyed reading this article and I agree with you. Actually from my point of view, neither banning nor boycotting can solve the problems which this vote show.