Eine Minarettabstimmung für alles




Mein Kommentar zu Ross Douthat's Artikel "Europe's Minaret Moment"

I've read so many commentaries and discussions about what the strategy is behind the Swiss ban of minarets, as if it were an example of real policy-making. After hearing and reading hundreds of comments on the issue by my fellow Swiss voters, I have stopped trying to find an overarching rationale. Just one example: A large number of right-wingers (SVP) and feminists voted for the ban - two groups normally totally opposed on any issue.

Well, it's because with this vote, there wasn't really an issue. A few months ago, most Swiss wouldn't have been able to tell you how many, or if any, minarets existed in Switzerland, and most wouldn't have cared. Even the top politicians of the SVP couldn't bring themselves to support the ban openly, so sure were they that it didn't stand a chance. Through the work of some very industrious and well-organized groups on the right, which seized on fear (of outsiders, of economic troubles) and a vague resentment against the "elites", the tables gradually turned. An important moment came when said "elites" (i.e. the Government of several Swiss Cities) decided to forbid the public display of the infamous posters. This actually played perfectly into the proponents' hands.

In the end then, the Swiss voted in expression of their fears (which are understandable) and of their resentment of those in power (slightly less understandable, since they chose them democratically), somehow imagining that by implementing this simple new law (just one sentence: "It is forbidden to build minarets") all these different, complex problems and fears would somehow be amended.

For most of the people who voted "yes" to the ban, their vote had not much to do with Islam at all. (By the way, mosques are NOT forbidden, hence the proponents' argument that the ban "does not affect religious freedom" - go figure).