The Swiss vote…[recently] to ban the construction of minarets in their alpine country is rippling across Europe. The vote reflects a fear that some of the oldest Christian societies are becoming Islamicized, but is at odds with efforts to integrate the continent’s roughly 20 million Muslims.
Churches and mainstream political parties urged the Swiss to turn down the proposal, brought by the rightist Swiss People’s Party (SVP). But 57 percent of voters in Sunday’s referendum defied expectations that they would allow a new kind of religious symbol ”“ the tall, slender tower attached to a mosque ”“ to increasingly punctuate Europe’s skyline where steeples once reigned.
For those voters, says religion researcher Jean-François Mayer, minarets are a symbol of Islam and its potential rise in influence ”“ an issue around which many different concerns can crystallize, not just in Switzerland but across Europe. Using a tool not available in other countries, the referendum, Swiss voters sent a clear message.
Swiss Christians have a lively tradition of independence. Many Protestants are the home-grown variety that we know as Zwinglian. Geneva was famously the home of Calvin whom many Catholics (and perhaps some Lutherans) would cheerfully have sent down the chute. Less known is the fact that most Swiss Catholic bishops are not chosen by the Holy See directly but by a list of names selected by the cathedral canons and sent to the Pope. All in all, a people who make up their own mind and go their own way.
This raises interesting questions about the interplay of religious freedom and cultural identity. Perhaps Western countries could leverage the right to practice Islam for the the right to evangelize in Moslem countries.
Phil-
An interesting concept, as long as Christians have an ample supply of Evangelists and building materials to keep sending in. Neither would have a long life span in most moslem countries!
Would this not be a good time for Christians in Switzerland to show solidarity with other monotheists by voluntarily dismantling steeples and bell towers until this sort of nonsense is cleared away?