Swiss People Vote For Bigotry

We normally think of Switzerland as a peaceful country -- one that seldom takes sides in other peoples and countries controversies or wars. But it looks like the ugly face of bigotry can live even in a country like Switzerland. The approval of a new referendum there proves this to be a fact.

This Swiss people have approved by a whopping 57% of the vote, a referendum that bans the building of minarets anywhere in the country. The country only has four minarets, even though the second largest religion in the country is Islam. And unless this new law is overturned by the Swiss Supreme Court, as Amnesty International believes it will be, there will never be another one built there.

The Swiss Justice Minister tried to calm the fears of Swiss muslims by saying the vote was "not a rejection of the muslim community, religion or culture." Those are hollow words. The vote was indeed a rejection of all three. In fact, the secretary general of Switzerland's largest political party said, "This was a vote against minarets as symbols of Islamic power."

Do the Swiss people know they have voted in favor of religious bigotry? Of course, they do. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. They weren't voting against an architectural style -- but against a religion. Last week, a Geneva mosque was vandalized for the third time in the weeks leading up to the vote.

I don't know that I can ever again have the same positive feelings about the Swiss that I've had in the past. Bigotry is an ugly and offensive thing wherever it happens.

Hopefully, our Constitution and religious freedom laws would prevent such a law being approved in this country, but I have little doubt that given the opportunity voters in America might well do the same thing.