More on Minarets

Criticism about the recent ban on minarets in Switzerland from scholars who live in a country that doesn’t allow churches or synagogues. Yeah, that’s who I turn to for opinions on religious tolerance and liberty.

Riyadh: Several prominent Saudi Islamic scholars and preachers lambasted the recent Swiss referendum to impose ban on the construction of mosque minarets in the country.

I’m sure they did. But they didn’t lambaste the marriage of adult men to nine-year-old girls, I bet.

Speaking to Gulf News, they said that this is another evidence of the West’s antagonism towards Islam and such moves detail the serious initiatives being undertaken for holding dialogue among followers of various religions in different parts of the world.

Any churches or synagogues there in Riyadh yet? Didn’t think so.

Shaikh Abdul Mohsen Al Shahri, an eminent scholar in Islamic jurisprudence, said that the Swiss referendum was part of a new hostile campaign unleashed against Islam and Muslims in the West. “This is a clear evidence of the racial and religious segregation still prevails in the West, especially in a country, which boasts of an exemplary model of democratic ideals,” he said adding that this serves as a severe blow to the so called secular image of Switzerland.

As opposed to a country that is run as an Islamic monarchy that institutionalizes racial and religious segregation. A ban on Islamic minarets is somehow a “severe blow to the so called secular image of Switzerland”? In fact, the ban is just the opposite. The ban is a bolstering of secularism in Switzerland. If anything, it is a blow to religious liberty in Switzerland, which is what concerns me about the ban, but the ban certainly is not a weakening of secularism.

On his part, Shaikh Murshid Al Motairi, a noted Saudi preacher, underlined the need for launching a massive campaign to withdraw investments of Muslim countries from Swiss banks and halt going to Switzerland for holiday making.

Like that’s going to happen. The Muslims with money are going to stop becoming secularized and pull out their banking, investments, and holidays from Switzerland. Not a chance.

According to banking sources, the volume of Arab investments in Swiss banks amounted to more than $400 billion.

Which won’t change anytime in the near future.

This makes up more than 10 per cent of the total banking deposits to the tune of $3.7 trillion. Naif Al Otaibi, a mosque imam in Riyadh, told Gulf News that Switzerland is now opening a new chapter of confrontation between religions and civilizations. “This is high time to kick start a campaign calling for a boycott of Swiss products and withdraw money from Swiss banks,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Prof. Ekmeliddin Ihsanoglu voiced disappointment and concern over the Swiss public referendum to ban building of minarets in the mosques in Switzerland.

The Secretary General of OIC, which groups 57 Muslim countries, qualified the ban as an unfortunate development that would tarnish the image of Switzerland as a country upholding respect for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights.

A lessening of diversity and freedom of religion, yes. A weakening of human rights, no. There is no fundamental human right to build minarets. Maybe Saudi Arabia could show some leadership on this issue and permit the construction of churches and synagogues?

He described this as the latest example of growing anti-Islamic incitements in Europe by the extremist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic, racist, scare-mongering ultra-right politicians who reign over common sense, wisdom and universal values.

The anti-Islam sentiments are not limited to extremists or the ultra-right. Secularists see the threat of Islam, and secularists are just as often centrists and leftists as they are right-wing extremists. Secularists are probably more likely to be leftists and centrists than they are to be rightists, so the right-wing fundamentalism of Islam has more in common with the right-wing of Christianity and the right-wing of Judaism than it does with centrist, moderate, and leftist secularists.

The Swiss should go further and ban all construction of religious buildings to see what would happen then. I suspect the right-wing Christians would team up with the right-wing Muslims.

The Chief of OIC, which represents about 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, expressed his deep regret that at a time when the Muslim world and Muslim societies around the world have been engaged in a struggle to fight extremism, the Western societies are being hostage to extremists who exploit Islam as a scapegoat and a springboard to develop their own political agenda which in turn contributes to polarization and fragmentation in the societies.

Islamic proselytizing has brought this upon Islam. The secular West is pushing back against aggressive religions of all types, including the Big Three monotheisms.

He stated that this move also highlighted the need for promoting genuine dialogue at the grass-roots level to alleviate all misunderstandings and misinformation that lead to intolerance and misconceptions.

Start with the apropos adage of “physician, heal thyself,” and maybe we’ll talk.

Source.

Tags: Islam, Swiss ban minarets

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 7:27 pm and is filed under religious liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment below, or trackback from your own site.