In two weeks, the Swiss will be called to vote in a referendum proposed by the Swiss People's Party and the Federal Democratic Union, to add an amendment to the Constitution whereby the construction of minarets is banned. The issue was blown up beyond proportion: In fact, it started as a dispute over building a minaret in the village of Wangen in the district of Olten that took place between residents of Turkish origin, who want to build a minaret for their local mosque, and the owners of the houses that lie next to the mosque, and who objected to what they believe will ruin their neighborhood's general landscape. However, it now became a national issue in which political parties and forces became involved, after the two parties that launched the initiative rejected a judicial decision that allowed the building of the minaret. The dispute over the right to build minarets brings to mind the debates that took place in France and elsewhere in Europe regarding the Hijab, emigration, the suburbs, and the cartoons offensive to the Prophet. As such, it is understandable that a referendum on minarets stems from the problematic relations between, on one hand, the ever growing Arab and Muslim communities, and which are thus increasingly demanding for “their rights” to enjoy their special cultural and social traits, and on the other, the societies that see these communities and their demands, and even the physical appearance of their individuals, as a threat to their stability and traditional values. This is especially valid when it took centuries of turmoil for these societies to establish these values, and thus they would see the above demands as a move to amend the laws and regulations governing the relations among individuals, groups and the state. Unlike the French state's official support for the campaign to ban the Hijab in schools as a religious symbol that contradicts the secularism of educational institutions, in addition to the current effort to ban the Niqab [the veil], the Federal Council in Switzerland supported the right of Muslims to build minarets, despite the objections submitted by those who took the initiative and said that the minaret was not an essential part of Islamic places of worship. In fact, they based this latter view on passages from the Quran and the Hadith, which did not mention minarets as an element of proper belief. Moreover, public opinion polls have shown that more than 40 percent of the Swiss do not mind erecting minarets in Switzerland, without ignoring the fact that many remain undecided. Regardless of the exploitation by the Swiss right of this issue which placed it as an integral part of the Islamic menace that threatens the European identity and heritage, while making the usual accusations about the spread of crime in immigrant circles, especially Arabs and Muslims; regardless of this, it is justified to pose another question about Arab and Muslim communities in Europe and elsewhere, namely about their disputes with the communities in which they live. In short, how much readiness [among them] is there for acknowledging the limits of their submission to the laws and customs that were set down by people of a different religion, values and view of the world as a whole? In fact, the European right, in both its conservative and extremist populist wings (parties that are in a coalition in the European People's Party) will not spare any occasion to exploit any disputes over the minaret or the Hijab to promote its political agenda for its own reasons, rather than taking on matters that truly affect European voters. But the same question addressed to immigrants should also be posed to anyone who generalizes the accusations of racism, caving in to the Zionist lobby, and who believes in the Crusader-Jewish conspiracy against Arabs and Muslims against Europeans, with every movement on the ground that justifies it, or what is concocted by sick, racist imaginations. In other words, perhaps it is time for our communities to look at the quality of “exports” (such as the Niqab, for example) that it proposes to Western countries, and to look calmly and carefully at prioritizing things based on their interests and needs, and not fiery speeches.
