Swiss women : “If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas,” . “Before you know it, we’ll have sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be Swiss any more.”
staten
A right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques in a referendum
being held in Switzerland today has received an unlikely boost from
radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male
power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women.
A “stop the minarets” campaign has provoked ferment in the land of
Heidi, where women are more likely than men to vote for the ban after
warnings from prominent feminists that Islam threatens their rights.
Forget about tranquil Alpine scenery and cowbells: one of the most
startling features of the referendum campaign has been a poster
showing a menacing woman in a burqa beside minarets rising from the
Swiss flag.
It seems to have struck a nerve in Langenthal, a small town near Bern
where Muslims plan to put up a minaret next to their prayer room in a
bleak former paint factory.
“If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas,” said
Julia Werner, a local housewife. “Before you know it, we’ll have
sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be
Swiss any more.”
[...]
A poll suggested the Swiss would narrowly reject a ban but the
feminist involvement is having an effect: according to one poll, 39%
of women were in favour of a ban, but only 31% of men.
Tatiana, a teacher who had previously voted for the left, was quoted
in a newspaper as saying she would vote for the minaret ban as she
could “no longer bear being mistreated and terrorised by boys who
believe women are worthless”.
Socialist politicians have been furious to see icons of the left
joining what is regarded as an anti-immigrant campaign by the populist
Swiss People’s party, the biggest group in parliament.
One of them, Julia Onken, warned that failure to ban minarets would be
“a signal of the state’s acceptance of the oppression of women”. She
has sent out 4,000 emails attacking Muslims who condone forced
marriage, honour killings and beating women.
Swiss business is horrified. There are fears of a reaction against
Swiss products similar to the one suffered by Denmark over the
publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad in 2005.
“The brand ‘Swiss’ must continue to represent values such as openness,
pluralism and freedom of religion,” said Hanspeter Rentsch, a member
of the board of Swatch, the watchmaker.
The government, for its part, is worried about reprisals plunging
Switzerland into the front line of the war against terror. Micheline
Calmy-Rey, the foreign minister, said a yes vote “could make
Switzerland a target for Islamic terrorism”.
With a Muslim population of 400,000 and some 150 mosques and prayer
rooms, the Swiss thought they had avoided the kind of tensions that
have arisen over Muslims’ rights in bigger neighbouring countries such
as France and Germany.
But there is no freedom of religion in Islam. Stop the nonsense.
I hope it passes, for their sake.