The Swiss and the Muslims
I bear witness that there is no deity worthy to be worshipped but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
by Victor Grossman
The Swiss, known for cheese, Alps, watches, chocolate, and secret bank
accounts, at least two of which are full of holes, have now added a sixth
important product: intolerance. 57.5 percent of its 8 million population,
or of those who went to the polls, voted to forbid minarets next to Muslim
mosques.
As nearly everyone agreed, the minarets themselves were not so important.
The 400,000 Muslims living in Switzerland now have only four minarets.
Their architecture disturbs almost no one, nor do muezzins call loudly over
the rooftops five times a day. The minarets are symbols, and while few who
voted for the ban said so openly, what many thought was: "There are too many
damned furriners in our Christian republic anyway. We can't even understand
their foreign lingo. Keep 'em out!"
Several sad ironies are involved. One is linguistic. Switzerland has four
official languages to begin with, which should breed tolerance, especially
since German-speaking Swiss, and it is they who voted most frequently
against the minarets, have a folksy dialect which sounds rather quaint to
people in Germany but is so difficult to understand that Swiss films shown
there require sub-titles. Variety in cultures is a good thing, intelligent
people generally believe, but it involves tolerance toward other people's
cultures.
Another ironic note is more tragic. Christianity is no constitutional
requirement in Switzerland; religious freedom is supposed to be the rule.
But it was Swiss authorities equally determined to keep their country
Christian who turned away Jewish refugees from neighboring Germany during
the Hitler years, resulting in death to many or most of them.
This shameful episode, though most other countries at that time were equally
guilty, makes the decision by over half of Swiss voters especially
disturbing, and not only because it was a victory for the far-right Swiss
People's Party. Like cheese and watches, such intolerance promises to be an
export product whose political effects recall the crippling medical effects
of thalidomide. And far too many in other countries are all too willing to
buy this poison.
Among those rejoicing were the Berlusconi backers in Italy. A leader of the
government party Lega Nord fantasized for the media: "Flying high above a
Europe now almost fully Islamized is the flag of courageous Switzerland,
which wishes to remain Christian."
The daughter of that old racist Jean-Marie Le Pen, who now heads his Front
National in France, expressed her warm satisfaction. Geert Wilders, the
handsome blond, and rabid Dutch filmmaker currently building a party based
on Islamophobia, said: "We need a referendum like that in the Netherlands!"
His brother-in-arms in the Danish People's Party echoed his sentiments. In
Austria, England, Spain, and elsewhere there were fanatic nationalists,
racists, and neo-fascists, both the jackbooted thugs and the suave, elegant
wheeler-dealers, to welcome this smoke signal from the Alps. They are the
extremists, of course, rarely with anything like majorities. But their
numbers are often tending upward.
Many German politicians were undoubtedly horrified. Others, thinking of
German history or counting the growing numbers of Muslim voters in urban
centers, were careful and quiet. Few were exuberant. But some, while not
explicitly approving the referendum results, betrayed their inner thoughts.
Referring to Swiss voters, Wolfgang Bosbach, a key leader of Angela Merkel's
Christian Democratic Union, said: "Their worries must be taken seriously!"
He was quickly slapped down, but his message got through even the thickest
shaven skulls.
Muslimphobia is not unknown in Germany. In one borough of Berlin enraged
demonstrations, egged on by a Christian Democratic candidate, opposed
building a mosque and modest minaret. Now completed and in use, it causes
no troubles to anyone. A menacing rally in Cologne against a new mosque was
prevented by a counterdemonstration of almost all parties, unions, and
religious groups, but its sponsors did manage to form a new local party and
win city council seats for their unholy crusade. The list of those warning
against the fictional monster of Islamization, recalling "Yellow Peril"
campaigns on the US West Coast, contained a few surprisingly prominent
names.
If unemployment figures in Germany grow worse and social assistance is
further cut by the new government, part of any angry protests can be
misdirected, not against those guilty of the misery, the banks,
corporations, and politicians obliged to them, indeed, their whole system,
but instead, as so often in history, against those who are suffering even
more. Eighty years ago it was the Jews who were blamed, discriminated
against, and then murdered. The Jewish community today, although its size
has increased in recent years, is hardly large or conspicuous enough to
serve this purpose sufficiently. It is still on the neo-Nazi list, but the
main attacks, usually verbal thus far, are directed against Muslim
communities, which include about 2 million people of Turkish descent, but
also many Kurds, Africans, and Arabs from Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and
other areas.
This problem for immigrants is clearly international, involving long-lasting
pressures of northern and western economies and cultures on those of the
south and east. Experience in many countries indicates that large immigrant
groups usually can integrate into their host country but the process often
lasts two or three generations. Until then their differing appearance and
culture, and the results of poverty and oppression, are all too often
utilized to prevent unity among poor people and working people.
Even if the referendum vote should be reversed by the Swiss Supreme Court or
the European Court of Human Rights, to which all European countries belong,
even Switzerland, the 57.5 percent result of those who bothered to vote has
done damage enough to any Swiss reputation for tolerance, while encouraging
the most dangerous elements of political life in all Europe.
Victor Grossman, American journalist and author, is a resident of East
Berlin for many years. He is the author of Crossing the River: A Memoir of
the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany (University of
Massachusetts Press, 2003).
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/grossman021209.html