(December 1, 2009 at 11:20 pm)padraic Wrote: We already have laws about excessive noise, and a fat lot of good they do.
BUT,noise is only one aspect,I'm far more concerned about property values. (OK ,the value of MY property)
I have no doubt there are lot of Swiss bigots who relished the chance to stick it to the Muslims. However,I see the issue as a civil and social one,not one of religious freedom. I guess we may need to agree to differ.
Padraic has a great point here, one that is somewhat hard to see. We tolerate many christian organizations and jewish ones especially because their "footprint" on a community is rather small. Small as in doesn't generate too much noise in daily operation, for the most part are not connected to extremist groups and rarely generate controversy. Compare that to an ideal mosque, which includes that incredibly loud and annoying call to prayer, bringing with it disruption to the community. Since a minarets only purpose in a mosque to sound the call to prayer, banning the call to prayer is the effective action of the Swiss referendum. But since overtly banning a critical aspect of Islam is rather difficult, even if justified, the SVP pulled a fancy stunt to get what they wanted through an alternative means.
That said, fuck that call to prayer. Tell them to get watches or cell phone texts or something.
