stephanie
10-13-2007, 09:52 PM
We better wake up here...
A minaret planned for a Swiss village has prompted the latest of several disputes over new places of worship
Ian Traynor in Wangen, Switzerland
Thursday October 11, 2007
The Guardian
A protest against plans to build a mosque in Cologne, Germany. Photograph: Henning Kaiser/AFP
North of Berne in an idyllic Alpine valley cowbells tinkle, a church steeple rises, and windowboxes tumble with geraniums. It has always been like this.
But down by the railway station the 21st century is rudely intruding and the villagers of Wangen are upset.
"It's the noise, and all the cars. You should see it on a Friday night," complains Roland Kissling, a perfume buyer for a local cosmetics company. "I've got nothing against mosques, or even against minarets. But in the city. Not in this village. It's just not right. There's going to be trouble."
The target of Mr Kissling's ire is a nondescript house belonging to the region's Turkish immigrant community. The basement is a prayer room where hundreds of Muslims gather every week for Friday rites.
And in a case that has gone all the way to Switzerland's supreme court, setting a keenly watched precedent, the Turks of Wangen have just won the right to erect a six-metre-high minaret.
"We'll build it by next year. We're still deciding what colour and what material," says Mustafa Karahan, the sole person authorised to speak for Wangen's Turkish Cultural Association. "We don't have any problems. It's the other side that has the problems. We're not saying anything else until the minaret is built."
If Ulrich Schlüer has his way the Wangen minaret will be toppled. An MP from the rightwing Swiss People's party (SVP), the country's strongest, Mr Schlüer has launched a crusade to keep his country culturally Christian.
"Unlike other religions," he argues, "Islam is not only a religion. It's an ideology aiming to create a different legal system. That's sharia. That's a big problem and in a proper democracy it has to be tackled. If the politicians don't, the people will."
Switzerland's direct democracy rules require referendums if there is enough public support. Mr Schlüer has launched a petition demanding a new clause in the Swiss constitution stating: "The building of minarets in Switzerland is forbidden." He already has 40,000 signatures. If, as expected, he reaches 100,000 by this time next year a referendum is automatically triggered.
"We've got nothing against prayer rooms or mosques for the Muslims," he insists. "But a minaret is different. It's got nothing to do with religion. It's a symbol of political power."
In a country with more than 300,000 Muslims, mainly immigrants from the Balkans, there are only three minarets in Switzerland. Wangen would be the fourth and the first outside the cities.
Backlash
The native backlash has begun. And not just in Switzerland. "It seems our experience here is resonating across Europe," says a Swiss official in Berne.
"Culture clashes" over Muslim religious buildings have erupted in Italy, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.
"Christian fundamentalists are behind this," says Reinhard Schulze, professor of Islamic studies at Berne University. "And there's also a lot of money coming in from the Gulf states."
From London's docklands to the rolling hills of Tuscany, from southern Austria to Amsterdam and Cologne, the issue of Islamic architecture and its impact on citadels of "western civilisation" is increasingly contentious.
The far right is making capital from Islamophobia by focusing on the visible symbols of Islam in Europe. In Switzerland it is the far-right SVP that is setting the terms of the debate.
"This is mainly about Swiss politics," says Prof Schulze, "a conflict between the right and the left to decide who runs the country ... Islam [is] a pretext."
Next door in Austria the far right leader Jörg Haider is also calling for a ban in his province of Carinthia, even though there are few Muslims and no known plans for mosques. "Carinthia," he said, "will be a pioneer in the battle against radical Islam for the protection of our dominant western culture."
In Italy the mayors of Bologna and Genoa last month cancelled or delayed planning permission for mosques after a vociferous campaign by the far-right Northern League, one of whose leaders, Roberto Calderoli, threatened to stage a "day of pork" to offend Muslims and to take pigs to "defile" the site of the proposed mosque in Bologna.
While the far right makes the running, their noisy campaign is being supported more quietly by mainstream politicians and some Christian leaders. And on the left pro-secularist and anti-clericalist sentiment is also frequently ambivalent about Islamic building projects.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne has voiced his unease over a large new mosque being built for the city's 120,000 Muslims in the Rhineland Roman Catholic stronghold. A similar scheme in Munich has also faced local protests.
read the rest....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2188274,00.html
A minaret planned for a Swiss village has prompted the latest of several disputes over new places of worship
Ian Traynor in Wangen, Switzerland
Thursday October 11, 2007
The Guardian
A protest against plans to build a mosque in Cologne, Germany. Photograph: Henning Kaiser/AFP
North of Berne in an idyllic Alpine valley cowbells tinkle, a church steeple rises, and windowboxes tumble with geraniums. It has always been like this.
But down by the railway station the 21st century is rudely intruding and the villagers of Wangen are upset.
"It's the noise, and all the cars. You should see it on a Friday night," complains Roland Kissling, a perfume buyer for a local cosmetics company. "I've got nothing against mosques, or even against minarets. But in the city. Not in this village. It's just not right. There's going to be trouble."
The target of Mr Kissling's ire is a nondescript house belonging to the region's Turkish immigrant community. The basement is a prayer room where hundreds of Muslims gather every week for Friday rites.
And in a case that has gone all the way to Switzerland's supreme court, setting a keenly watched precedent, the Turks of Wangen have just won the right to erect a six-metre-high minaret.
"We'll build it by next year. We're still deciding what colour and what material," says Mustafa Karahan, the sole person authorised to speak for Wangen's Turkish Cultural Association. "We don't have any problems. It's the other side that has the problems. We're not saying anything else until the minaret is built."
If Ulrich Schlüer has his way the Wangen minaret will be toppled. An MP from the rightwing Swiss People's party (SVP), the country's strongest, Mr Schlüer has launched a crusade to keep his country culturally Christian.
"Unlike other religions," he argues, "Islam is not only a religion. It's an ideology aiming to create a different legal system. That's sharia. That's a big problem and in a proper democracy it has to be tackled. If the politicians don't, the people will."
Switzerland's direct democracy rules require referendums if there is enough public support. Mr Schlüer has launched a petition demanding a new clause in the Swiss constitution stating: "The building of minarets in Switzerland is forbidden." He already has 40,000 signatures. If, as expected, he reaches 100,000 by this time next year a referendum is automatically triggered.
"We've got nothing against prayer rooms or mosques for the Muslims," he insists. "But a minaret is different. It's got nothing to do with religion. It's a symbol of political power."
In a country with more than 300,000 Muslims, mainly immigrants from the Balkans, there are only three minarets in Switzerland. Wangen would be the fourth and the first outside the cities.
Backlash
The native backlash has begun. And not just in Switzerland. "It seems our experience here is resonating across Europe," says a Swiss official in Berne.
"Culture clashes" over Muslim religious buildings have erupted in Italy, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.
"Christian fundamentalists are behind this," says Reinhard Schulze, professor of Islamic studies at Berne University. "And there's also a lot of money coming in from the Gulf states."
From London's docklands to the rolling hills of Tuscany, from southern Austria to Amsterdam and Cologne, the issue of Islamic architecture and its impact on citadels of "western civilisation" is increasingly contentious.
The far right is making capital from Islamophobia by focusing on the visible symbols of Islam in Europe. In Switzerland it is the far-right SVP that is setting the terms of the debate.
"This is mainly about Swiss politics," says Prof Schulze, "a conflict between the right and the left to decide who runs the country ... Islam [is] a pretext."
Next door in Austria the far right leader Jörg Haider is also calling for a ban in his province of Carinthia, even though there are few Muslims and no known plans for mosques. "Carinthia," he said, "will be a pioneer in the battle against radical Islam for the protection of our dominant western culture."
In Italy the mayors of Bologna and Genoa last month cancelled or delayed planning permission for mosques after a vociferous campaign by the far-right Northern League, one of whose leaders, Roberto Calderoli, threatened to stage a "day of pork" to offend Muslims and to take pigs to "defile" the site of the proposed mosque in Bologna.
While the far right makes the running, their noisy campaign is being supported more quietly by mainstream politicians and some Christian leaders. And on the left pro-secularist and anti-clericalist sentiment is also frequently ambivalent about Islamic building projects.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne has voiced his unease over a large new mosque being built for the city's 120,000 Muslims in the Rhineland Roman Catholic stronghold. A similar scheme in Munich has also faced local protests.
read the rest....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2188274,00.html