(July 18, 2010 at 6:52 pm)Tiberius Wrote: As for minarets, I'm find with people putting them on buildings, and certainly during the day I don't see why they can't have a call to prayer, as long as it doesn't start annoying residents by being too loud or going on for too long. We have church bells in my country, but I don't complain when I hear them. As a matter of fact, I quite like the sound of church bells, and the songs that are sung out of minarets can be nice too. I don't have to be a member of the religion to enjoy certain parts of it.
Clearly you've never had several Muslims on campus holler gibberish right in your ear (I was tabling for my secular club and they have a tendency to "pass" innocuously by). Occasional noise I am fine with. It is the routine loud noise for no reason that annoys me.
(July 18, 2010 at 6:52 pm)Tiberius Wrote: Finally, onto smoking bans. There shouldn't be any enforced by government; they should be the responsibility of whoever is running the establishment. Hospitals don't need laws written by government when they can simply put up signs and enforce the rules themselves; same with anyone who owns a pub.
Government is merely an organization, originally, propped up by us to enforce common beliefs and customs. I prefer a government to mandate all hospitals have no smoking zones than letting each hospital (and thus each administrator) come up with something. Standards are nice.
