Minarets or no minarets let the voters decide. The polling in support or opposition of minarets building was held on Sunday. Prior to the final results a polling institution has estimated that ban is going to be supported by 59% of the voters. However government and churches claimed their all out support against the ban.
Prior to final results the estimate has come as a big slap on the face of Switzerland government that claimed on the basis of pre-poll opinions that a ban on minarets will be rejected by 53% of the voters. The director of gfs.bern commented to a French television that at the end it was not the building of minarets but the position of the Muslims was under question in Switzerland.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the justice minister of Swiss government strongly opposed the ban and she said that these kinds of things are like a proxy war. She further added that approval of ban on minarets will damage the image of Switzerland abroad and especially in the Muslim world.
Ulrich Schlur, from the Swiss People’s Party has claimed in support of ban that Islam is intolerant and they just want to out law their political symbol. The group has further warned that if not checked now the Muslims will repeat the same violence as they have done in other European States. The group has added that they are acting on public concern about the growing Muslim influence in the country.
Despite the stance right winged parties taken in the polls it should be clearly kept in mind that minarets are a kind of architecture that was widely adopted by the Muslims for their mosques. The simple reason involved was to make it easy for the people to distinguish mosques from the rest of the residential area and secondly to provide an opening for the call to prayer in the absence of microphone and speaker systems. The minarets were also serving as the natural ventilators in olden times. Why the people in support of the ban have forgotten the minarets of Babylon? Many a centuries before the advent of Islam!
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