So you ban the steeples where church bells are not needed?
Cannoli Send a noteboard - 02/12/2009 07:19:16 PM
Please note it was made after addressing the silly argument people make that in Muslim nations they don't allow Christian churches,
I do not like the argument that just because Muslims in Muslim nation won't allow it so we in the Judeo-Christian West with democracies and full respect for human rights shouldn't care because someone else is doing the same thing. We have respect for human rights. We have freedom of speech. We have democracy. And while I will not judge what the majority of Swiss voters have chosen to do in their nation, I will judge those of us who compare us to less enlightened societies. We are better than they are. At the moment.
Personally, I don't mind minarets. They are often beautiful architectural features that add to a skyline. Like the steeples of a Gothic Church. I think it would be better to allow minarets than not to. There could be architectural competitions to design them and the mosques. It would add to civic cohesion. But that is just my personal opinion on the matter.
However, if there is no call to prayer emanating from a minaret, then there is no functional purpose, other than an aesthetic one, for the minaret. And since I vehemently oppose any call to prayer in any non-Muslim nation, then ultimately, I think the decision is moot. Swiss Muslims don't have a call prayer. The minaret's function is to be the source of a call to prayer. If there is no call to prayer, then the minaret is not needed.
I do not like the argument that just because Muslims in Muslim nation won't allow it so we in the Judeo-Christian West with democracies and full respect for human rights shouldn't care because someone else is doing the same thing. We have respect for human rights. We have freedom of speech. We have democracy. And while I will not judge what the majority of Swiss voters have chosen to do in their nation, I will judge those of us who compare us to less enlightened societies. We are better than they are. At the moment.
Personally, I don't mind minarets. They are often beautiful architectural features that add to a skyline. Like the steeples of a Gothic Church. I think it would be better to allow minarets than not to. There could be architectural competitions to design them and the mosques. It would add to civic cohesion. But that is just my personal opinion on the matter.
However, if there is no call to prayer emanating from a minaret, then there is no functional purpose, other than an aesthetic one, for the minaret. And since I vehemently oppose any call to prayer in any non-Muslim nation, then ultimately, I think the decision is moot. Swiss Muslims don't have a call prayer. The minaret's function is to be the source of a call to prayer. If there is no call to prayer, then the minaret is not needed.
Pretty much the same thing, and historically, they annoy Muslims just as much as the call to prayer does the rest of us.
I don't disagree with your position, I would just like to point out a slight flaw in that logic.
Cannoli
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
It seems the Swiss ban on muslim minarets has passed rather quietly
- 02/12/2009 04:15:22 PM
606 Views
I mostly support the Swiss decision. As from my comment at Der Spiegel,
- 02/12/2009 05:54:11 PM
360 Views
Re: I mostly support the Swiss decision. As from my comment at Der Spiegel,
- 02/12/2009 06:23:09 PM
336 Views
I understand the first in Qatar was built in 2003.
- 02/12/2009 10:11:31 PM
315 Views
So you ban the steeples where church bells are not needed?
- 02/12/2009 07:19:16 PM
355 Views
I would take an equal line against steeples where there is no bell/or no bell allowed to be used.
- 02/12/2009 08:29:21 PM
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Does anyone know the legal effect of this referendum?
- 02/12/2009 10:00:54 PM
334 Views
It's Switzerland. Their referendums are binding.
- 02/12/2009 10:07:52 PM
343 Views
Do the Swiss think they live in 5th-century BC Athens or something? 
- 02/12/2009 10:11:29 PM
335 Views
- 02/12/2009 10:11:29 PM
335 Views
Switzerland is odd in a great many ways.
- 02/12/2009 10:14:26 PM
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Actually, I think I meant the European Court of Human Rights, not the ECJ.
- 02/12/2009 10:16:38 PM
339 Views
Yeah, but does that one have any power?
- 02/12/2009 10:17:54 PM
348 Views
- 02/12/2009 10:17:54 PM
348 Views
ECHR Article 9 – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- 02/12/2009 10:52:35 PM
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I feel like I'm missing something in this debate
- 02/12/2009 11:21:03 PM
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The latter.
- 02/12/2009 11:22:49 PM
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Huh, that's bizarre
- 02/12/2009 11:39:03 PM
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It's coming from a party...
- 02/12/2009 11:42:49 PM
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sicherheit schaffen, that's great!
- 03/12/2009 12:00:00 AM
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I don't really see a problem with it
- 02/12/2009 10:09:55 PM
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They pretty much have.
- 02/12/2009 10:16:46 PM
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I would say it is a bit reactionary but i guess it depends on your definition of intolerance
- 03/12/2009 03:39:48 PM
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The Adhan can really get to you
- 02/12/2009 11:14:47 PM
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I think it seems kind of a silly waste of government power...
- 03/12/2009 12:27:29 AM
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It's not the government that did it. *NM*
- 03/12/2009 12:29:35 AM
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*re reads* Oh. I guess it's really power to the people over there
- 03/12/2009 12:35:59 AM
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