Monday, December 28, 2009
Swiss rolled, by Richard Martineau
Richard Martineau
Journal de Montréal
02/12/2009 06h54
After a controversial referendum, the Swiss have decided to ban construction of minarets. Personally, I think it's a bad way to fight against Islamism.
Banning the burqa? I would support this proposal without hesitation. Prohibit the wearing of headscarves in girls? 100% agree.
Denounce unreasonable accommodations that allow religious fundamentalists to practice gender segregation? Of course. Rage against the radical imams who preach hatred in their mosques? Certainly. And firmly.
But banning minarets, the aim is not political Islam. It would take religion at full strength, it is served to all Muslims that they will not know anything about them.
TWO TYPES OF VICTIMS
In my opinion, those who criticize the choice of Swiss are right to be indignant.
That said ... There are 1.5 million Christians in Saudi Arabia. Not only are these Christians have no right to build towers, but they were not even allowed to build churches and pray in public!
ANY non-Muslim religious practice is allowed in public in Saudi Arabia, and Catholic priests are routinely harassed or jailed.
Now, you read editorials denouncing racism, xenophobia and intolerance of the Saudis?
No.
Yet the religious persecution during which there is much worse than what is currently happening in Switzerland!
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK
Amazing how the West is quick to criticize but slow to condemn the atrocities committed by the other regions of the globe.
When it comes time to self-flagellation, we're here! But when it comes to attacking the racism and intolerance of others, we lower our eyes and turn away their eyes.
To punish the Swiss have voted Yes in the referendum antiminarets some Muslim businessmen threaten to boycott products from Switzerland and withdraw their assets in the country.
Christians around the world have they wielded such economic threat to the Saudis? No, on the contrary, it has never done much business with them! They are our allies, our partners!
That's the main difference between Muslims and Christians.
When they receive a slap, Muslims replicate. While Christians ask forgiveness and offer the other cheek ...
RADIO SILENCE
Currently, journalists and political analysts SWISS publish open letters in SWISS newspapers to criticize the referendum result SWITZERLAND.
They climbed the barricades to defend the religious freedom of their fellow Muslims.
They are where the Saudi Muslims who defend the rights of Christians persecuted in their country?
Nowhere.
What happened in Switzerland may be distressing. But there was a vote. A referendum. A democratic process. People have been entitled to the chapter, they were able to discuss, share, discuss.
While in most Muslim countries, democracy is a dead letter.
Intolerance, daily. And silent accomplice.
A VIEW OF THE SPIRIT?
A word on language, in conclusion.
Recently, in La Presse, André Pratte wrote that the erosion of French in Montreal is a figment of the imagination.
I do not know where is Mr. Pratte, but I invite him to follow me for a week. Almost everyday, I stumble to Anglophones who totally fuck with my language.
I'll give examples in the coming days. Story to show you that Mr. Pratte is taking his ideas to reality.
Link
Labels: Islam, Religion and fanaticism, Richard Martineau, Switzerland
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Tintin in Helvetii, by Joseph Facal
When the media-political tribe is unanimous, I instinctively distrust. After verification, the reality is always more complicated.
The pollsters did not see it coming: In a referendum, 57.5% of Swiss have voted for the ban on building new minarets.
A minaret is the tower top which called on Muslims to prayer five times a day. There is no requirement that a mosque has one.
Outside Switzerland, the reactions were immediately fuse: a vote "hateful," "shameful", a "return of fascism." Nothing less.
Switzerland seems indeed very ill. There are only four minarets on mosques 200. A municipal regulation would probably have sufficed. The placards equating the minarets of the missiles were profoundly dishonest. The Muslims have reason to feel unfairly targeted? Yes.
The minarets were obviously a pretext. The referendum has expressed discomfort with a majority that sees a religious community grew exponentially strongly assert the public square. Similarly, in Quebec, the reasonable accommodation crisis was not really about women in pantyhose doing gymnastics.
For the Swiss political scientist Michael Hermann, a high score also means that voting xenophobic right wing added a vote secular feminist left. The Islamist ideologue Tariq Ramadan has also given a tremendous impetus to the camp's ban Assuming that the minaret was an affirmation of identity and political and not a religious requirement.
Switzerland has only 7.8 million inhabitants, like Quebec. In 1970, there were 16 000 Muslims in Switzerland. In 1980 the number had increased to 57 000. Today is 400 000. The question arises: can we integrate such volume so quickly, without a small company feel hustled?
No, precisely because it incorporates more. Therefore, the cycle is unemployment, poverty, exclusion, discrimination, anger, crime. The Washington Post on April 29, 2008 reported that in France, for example, between 60 and 70% of the prison population is Muslim, composed mostly of children of immigrants.
Turkey is a Muslim country that has most harshly criticized Switzerland. Did you know that until 2003 it was forbidden to build places of worship for non-Muslims? As Turkey now wants to join the European Union, it has repealed the ban and it has become more subtle.
In Ankara, the municipal regulation now requires that places of worship have a minimum area of 2500 square meters. In a country 99% Muslim, other religions are necessarily poor. They have therefore not afford to build so large or if they have, the city told them that there is not enough space for such big projects.
The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, has already written that the minarets were the "bayonets" of Islam. It's reassuring.
In all Western societies, the poor integration of immigrants and the fatal multiculturalist ideology fueling a real identity problem. To deny or reduce it to an indictment against the majority, ensuring that when this unease is expressed, it will come out all wrong.
Link
Labels: Arab World, Islam, Joseph Facal, Religion and fanaticism, Switzerland, Turkey
Muslims should learn to build bridges with others instead of claiming the minarets, by Raheel Raza from the MCC
When the church bells ring in Saudi Arabia, the minarets will rise up in Europe.
TORONTO -
The Swiss have said no to mosques with minarets in a referendum that has just taken place. Nearly 58% of voters were against the minarets. In certain regions of the sequence, the proportion reached 70%! Leaders of the Muslim world have condemned the referendum as usual and have proposed a boycott of Swiss products. Are we going to stop eating cheese and Swiss chocolate or stop buying Swiss watches are renowned for their accuracy?
The referendum is indeed an important occasion for Muslims to seek to understand the deeper meaning of the Swiss rejected it as a warning to undertake major internal changes. Tariq Ramadan, a popular preacher who has recently visited Canada, spoke eloquently of the beauty of Islam, but he always forgets to mention the internal problems that beset the Muslim communities in the West, particularly in Europe: problems that slides under the carpet when addressing large audiences.
And therein lies the problem. Yes, Islam is a beautiful message for me and many Muslims. But it is not as good to many people and that is what we must learn to recognize and accept. The beauty of Islam must be demonstrated in our daily interactions with others, and not aggressively projecting our religion or we cover the face.
We have become people who plan aggressively "Muslimness" and we are the only religious group to use constant religious references with non-Muslims who have no idea what we mean. In so doing, we demonstrate a lack of vision and we continue to show intolerance towards "the other", while making unreasonable demands.
In Canada, they say that "he who sows the wind reaps the storm". Well in Europe, the tide is turning so quickly that if Muslims do not wake up, they will be swept into an abyss from which they are responsible.
The solution is simple.
It is difficult for Muslims to understand and accept that Islam is not the only faith that its message is not the only cause. Islam is the last, the youngest of the three Abrahamic monotheistic religions, yet Muslims are the most spoiled and those who behave the worst. Muslims can only advance if they do not seek out to other religious groups.
Muslims must also understand that criticism of their actions, their behavior is not Islamophobia (a term often used indiscriminately). Islamophobia is the "fear of Islam." Yes, the fear of Islam and Muslims and we do nothing to mitigate or eliminate this fear. Our impulse to defend Muslims, whatever they do is train to discredit us. We are not the guardians of our faith. Our only obligation is to learn to live in peace and harmony with all others, what we do very poorly. For example, it is rare that Muslims take time to discuss how treaties are non-Muslims in Islamic countries. If Muslims could practice their religion in the West and were treated as third class citizens, they would know better what discrimination and harassment mean really. We love to scream at "racism" at every opportunity, but they are silent when others are abused. Thus, in Switzerland, the minarets banned. Does this have any consequences for Islam? No. The first mosques had no minarets. They were added to many mosques after the death of the prophet, when Islam was becoming a political regime. But what is more important from a spiritual point of view is that the Creator does not live in domes or minarets, but in our hearts. Before starting to build minarets, first learn to build bridges with others.
Raheel Raza was one of three panelists for the public lecture organized by Point ROCKING October 2, 2008 in Montreal entitled Political Islam threatens our freedoms is also a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), the only Muslim lobby Canadian which is not sponsored by foreign interests or by one or other of the countries of North Africa, Middle East, Persian Gulf countries or the Muslim world in general.
Link
Labels: Canada, Europe, Islam, Religion and fanaticism, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland
Hurray the Swiss, by Jacques Brassard
What a fabulous democracy than Switzerland! No, but you realize! The Swiss, in a proportion of 57.5%, have decided to ban the construction of new minarets (the towers of mosques in the top of which the muezzin calls to prayer) on Swiss territory. And this, in a referendum, the result of a popular initiative. As Jacques Demers say: "Chapeau! Swiss!"
I open a parenthesis on the referendum process of popular initiative. It doe's not exist here. In Quebec, only the National Assembly, on proposal of the Government, can trigger a referendum. During some discussion on democracy in Quebec, some players have already proposed to make it possible, as in Switzerland and in several U.S. states, the referendum initiative. The trigger might be, for example, a petition containing a specified number of signatures. I must confess that I was not at the time, very hot to go in this direction. However, I am announcing that I changed my mind. Quebec should adopt such a procedure. "The Swiss show us, writes Marc Lebuis in his excellent site, tipping point, something that Quebecers could do to counter their disconnection Ave political leadership, institutional and academic Quebec: claim right to hold referendums in order to remove the hands of our decision makers the power to make major decisions affecting seriously the fate of Quebec. All this is not just Islam as such, but also reform education, the course Ethics and Religious Culture, immigration policies and the principle of accommodation." According to you, the results are they similar to those of the Swiss referendum on minarets? Personally, I am convinced. And I am also certain that the reaction of our Želite right-thinking, multiculturalists, nerd-progressive preachers of "living together" flatten ventriste would be the same as that of the European oligarchies slavishly Islamophile and viciously Christianophobia: full of indignation contempt for the people considered ignorant, intolerant and racist. This divorce between the people and Želite is a widespread phenomenon in the West.
But is it a crime so heinous that the Swiss have committed? Nonsense! The minaret is not an essential element of the mosque. That of Jerusalem, for example, has none. Therefore, writes Barbara Kay, National Post, "Switzerland does not mosques, which are the site of activity and religious practice. She banished that is perfectly understood in Islamic countries as a symbol of cultural domination." Multiply the minarets in the West to civilization Judeo-Christian roots, is, for Muslims, a demonstration of their willingness to impose a conqueror, not only ostentatious religious symbols (minaret burka) but, more seriously, values contrary to ours. This is called the stealth jihad is a process of Islamization of Western societies. In Paris, for example, there are now streets are blocked at the hour of prayer to allow hundreds of Muslims to spread their mats and prostrate themselves. In Paris!
The most shocking in all this is to see Muslim leaders offended and cry to the oppression and discrimination on the grounds that freedom of religion and worship is shamefully flouted. There is something deeply repugnant in this attitude when we know that in the Muslim world, freedom of worship, often legally and practically does not exist. "In Muslim countries, writes Pierre-Andre Taguieff, Christians are particularly discriminated against and persecuted when they have not been expelled. In some Muslim countries in the name of Islam perpetrated massacres of civilians, targeted as Christians." He continues: "In Muslim countries that religious freedoms are the least respected: Judaism and Christianity are housed in the same boat. When Islam is state religion, intolerance is institutionalized violence against non-Muslims allowed, even encouraged, totalitarianism or watching reign."
Everywhere in the Muslim world, Christians are persecuted and often killed, their churches burned, their priests murdered. In Nigeria, there are hundreds of Christians were killed. In Pakistan too, the Islamists opened fire on worshipers gathered and burned their places of worship. In Iraq, the Christian community is endangered. And in the West face of this persecution, only silence and indifference. The "good conscience" who resent the Swiss vote on minarets (Foglia as, for example), they have never outraged the massacre of Christians in the Muslim world? The progressive self-righteous and well-talkies were they ever shocked the inferior status of Christians in Muslim countries (they are dhimmis, that is to say, inferior beings that have fewer rights than Muslims )? Do you? Why worry about those silly believers arrears? After all, they are only "cathos," as Ms. Bazzo disdainfully calls, the incarnation of the Quebec goche bon chic bon genre. Where, even worse, they are only remnants of the Age of Darkness, as the Copts in Egypt. So, sleep in our media and intellectual Želite is no upset because they were persecuted because they were bullied and because the murders.
But banning the construction of minarets, then there really any crime, regardless ignomonie, what meanness! Pour nos zélites frileuses et poltronnes, c'est du racisme, du sectarisme, du fascisme. For our Želite timid and cowardly, it's racism, bigotry, fascism. However, the Swiss vote does not affect the freedom of religion of Muslims, the minaret is not essential to a mosque. But we must understand and decode the message many of Helvetian. What Swiss reject, through the prohibition of construction of minarets, Islam is also a retrograde, primitive, hostile to the fundamental rights of the individual, anti-democratic and committed to a code of law (Sharia) incompatible with the founding values of the West.
Taj Hargey is the Imam of the congregation of Summertown, Oxford. This is called a "moderate Muslim", a rare species that would probably declare the species endangered. "When European Muslims, he writes, unthinkingly endorse this perverted theology by claiming compliance with a Sharia medieval character, justifying the honor killings, stoning and forced marriage, defending the uniqueness of 'Islam and the formation of separate communities, they cause fear and exacerbate hostility towards Muslims. When European Muslims are praised as little Koranic doctrines that wearing niqap, they exclude themselves from ALL OF THE COMPANY." These words of the comforting hand of a Muslim imam. The problem is that the imams of the milling are scarce and Islamic communities in the West are largely dominated by radical Islam and jihad and are therefore involved and compromised in the war deliver the Islamo-fascists against Western civilization. And will not believe it's different in Quebec and Canada. At home, the Muslims are refractory to integration into the host society. And with immigration levels adopted by the State of Quebec, the situation will only get worse.
JACQUES BRASSARDPublié on the blog of former minister Jacques Brassard Parti Québécois
http://blogjacquesbrassard.blogspot.com/
Labels: Canada, Islam, Jacques Brassard, Québec, Religion and fanaticism, Switzerland
Friday, December 04, 2009
Surveys show that Europeans are tired "of minarets", by Noemie Cournoyer
Europeans have had enough "of minarets"
Polls indicate that the French, Belgians, Dutchmen, Spaniards and Germans have the feeling of being in disagreement with the majority of elites and media. Instead of listening to the wisdom of majorities, one of the foundations of the democratic spirit, the elites are trying to show that people are intolerant, xenophobic and racist as was the case in Quebec with Bouchard-Taylor.
We prefer to call to analysts, academics and non-elected officials of our governments, the UN or worse, the OIC, the bloc of Islamic countries which persecute their several religious minorities and prohibit building places of worship other than mosques. Several of these countries will even prohibit the mere maintenance of places of worship exist. Representatives of these Islamic countries have absolutely no lesson to give to the world on human rights, including freedom of worship and conscience.
The readers of Le Monde, Le Figaro, L'Express, Le Soir, Spiegel, 20minutos, DN Globo ... are tere xenophobic from extreme right, racist and intolerant?
Some media representatives and unelected public service in Quebec and Canada they will again call on these experts or spokespersons of the academic or cultural communities?
Several commentators on the print and electronic media give voice to people who say they are "frightened by the radical positions" of Swiss. They denounce what they consider to be "a lot of falsehoods and amalgam".
The Government of Quebec (or Canada) Will it appeal to these specialists in public communication, experts pluralism citizen, management controversies and religious rhetoric in reconfiguring space contemporary audiences to reinterpret the results of polls yet clear and votes of citizens to block the wishes of the majority?
Probably Richard Martineau, who gave the best explanation to understand this 1 which is actually happening in Europe in his column: The return of the beast, published in the Journal de Montreal June 25, 2009:
"The traditional parties have their hole, close the mouth and dare not deal with issues a little bit difficult, for fear of being cheated in the mud.
What happens then to voters who feel uncomfortable LEGITIMATE against the rise of radical Islam? For citizens who wonder whether their country can afford to absorb all the immigrants it receives? For people experiencing problems with the unreasonable demands of certain groups?"
Link
Labels: Europe, Islam, Noémie Cournoyer, Religion and fanaticism, Switzerland
The Swiss are lying polls! An overwhelming majority (57%) of the "people" said no to the construction of minarets, by Francis Chartrand
The Swiss are prohibiting the construction of minarets
Source: Le Progrès.fr, November 30 2009
(...)
Commentators have universally described the result of "huge surprise" contradicting the polls that predicted during the campaign rejecting the proposal of the populist right by 53% of voters. However, the 26 cantons of Switzerland, only four cantons (Basel-City and the French-speaking cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Neuchatel) have rejected the proposal supported by the UDC party of the populist right and the small Christian party right UDF.
Despite a common front of the Government, other parties and representatives of all religious communities in Switzerland, the UDC has managed to convince.
He hammered it was not to deprive the Muslim places of worship but to refuse the minarets as "visible symbol of a claim of political and religious power, which undermines the fundamental rights". To prevail, the proponents of the ban were not in the shade, with posters showing a woman completely veiled by a burqa before the Swiss flag-covered minarets, whose stylized figure evoked missiles. Declaring "assume" the result, Yvan Perrin, Vice-President of the UDC, acknowledged that "a fit of temper Muslim countries is possible."
This vote is "expressing some concerns among the public about Islamist extremists" to be "taken seriously", said Minister of Police and Justice Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a defector of the UDC who opposed the ban. The Green Party is considering him an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for violating religious freedom.
Switzerland / minarets: the FN satisfy
Source: Le Figaro, November 29, 2009
The Vice-President of French National Front (FN, far right), Marine Le Pen, welcomed the outcome of the referendum banning the construction of minarets in Switzerland, asking "elites to deny the aspirations and fears of people Europeans ".
The Swiss have decided on Sunday in a referendum by an overwhelming majority (57.5% of voters) to prohibit the construction of minarets. "A very clear majority, the Swiss come to defy the polls, denying the massive construction of minarets in Switzerland, welcomed Ms. Le Pen said in a statement.
The polls predicted during the campaign rejecting the proposal of the populist right by 53% of voters. The head frontist noted that "Switzerland, as in France, the elites + + but were massively.
"These elites must stop denying the aspirations and fears of the European peoples who had no objection to religious freedom, reject conspicuous signs that want to impose politico-religious Muslims, often at the limits of provocation" " , she said. "As Nicolas Sarkozy reduced on these topics, his stock at a cynical electioneering," she called "the French who do not have the chance to say in a referendum to do so, massively during the regional elections next March.
Minarets banned in Switzerland: Political favorable reactions from ItalyROME, November 29, 2009 (AFP)
Source: LaCroix.com, November 29, 2009
Several Italian politicians, including a minister and a president of the region have responded positively to the outcome of Sunday referendum banning the construction of minarets in Switzerland, described as a "lesson in democracy." "Switzerland has sent us a clear yes to towers, not the minarets," said Minister of Administrative Simplification Roberto Calderoli (Northern League party populist anti-immigrant) to the Italian news agency Ansa.
"It would appear that the choice of the Swiss people is one part of the respect for freedom of religion, the other the need to curb the political and propaganda associated with Islam," he said. This "should make us think," he said.
For its part, Riccardo De Corato, deputy of the People of Freedom (right party of Silvio Berlusconi) and deputy mayor of Milan, said that "very democratic Switzerland today gave a lesson in Italy, particularly leftists who, if an initiative of this kind had occurred in Italy, have set up barricades and cried foul.
The MEP of the Lega Nord Matteo Salvini also referred to "a great lesson in democracy on the part of Switzerland. "Unfortunately in Italy we do not consult the people to know what he thinks of mosques and Islamic centers," he told the Ansa.
"I am satisfied + not + cons minarets in Switzerland, also said the president of the Veneto region (Veneto, north), Giancarlo Galan. Me too" I voted a hundred times' no, "he said .
The Swiss have decided on Sunday in a referendum by an overwhelming majority (57.5% of voters) to prohibit the construction of minarets.
The minarets banned in Switzerland by popular vote: the shock!
Source: France Info - November 29, 2009
The outcome of the vote is final: 57.5% of Swiss voters approved the ban on building new minarets, as proposed by the populist right.
A result which contradicts the polls, is "ashamed" to the intelligentsia and Swiss breath away its European neighbors, including France ...
"Switzerland is turning to the extreme right" response of Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler, France Invited guest. "It's a total insult to Muslims who live peacefully in Switzerland [...] This is something that makes me ashamed."
Switzerland does not want minarets A 57%, the Swiss electorate voted to ban them.
Source: Metrofrance.com, November 29, 2009
"The construction of minarets has been banned in Switzerland." The announcement fell on Sunday afternoon, four hours after the Swiss people voted, with 57.5% against the towers that adorn places of Muslim worship.
This vote was a huge surprise to commentators. During the campaign, polls predict left in effect the opposite result. Moreover, almost all political parties, business community and representatives of religious communities in Switzerland had a common front against the ban.
This vote is a victory for the Central Democratic Union (UDC) party of the populist right behind the referendum. The UDC has managed to convince that this was not to deprive the Muslim places of worship but to refuse the minarets as "symbol of a politico-religious claims of power." He had created controversy during the campaign, using posters covered minarets resembling missiles. This Sunday, the Greens announced consider an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights for violating religious freedom.
Meanwhile, the ban must be registered in the Swiss constitution. A text whose preamble proclaims the spirit of "openness to the world" the Swiss people ... "in the name of God Almighty."
Link
Labels: Francis Chartrand, Human rights, Religion and fanaticism, Switzerland
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]