A Sad Day

I am not Swiss, so I better be careful in what I say, but the following is mostly echoed by all the Swiss I know: the sadest aspect is that this decision is almost exclusively symbolical. People don't actually know what minaretts are — the towers, not the mosks, and banning them is hardly a barrier to the "increasing islamisation" against which we are told to protect ourselves. The SVP claims that those towers are symbols of Islam power. That's just bullshit. While I believe that there are many open questions yet for countries like Switzerland and many others when it comes to globalisation and cultural integration — such as the degree to which foreigners should be expected to abandon their culture when it clashes with the host's culture — symbolic moves on a religious level doesn't gain us anything. It's also sad to see that the Swiss voted against the weapons export ban, which was a left-wing initiative, thereby positioning itself pretty clearly on the right-hand side of things. That's hardly the best position from which to approach the necessarily increasing cross-cultural exchange. The SVP should be removed from the public screen. It is unacceptable how they taint the image of the Swiss nation and people with their radical views. Whether it's foreigners depicted as black sheep, or Islam women as dark messengers of evil, it should not be possible for them to associate such views with the Swiss population. They should be degraded to what they truly are: an association of radical freaks, and identified, respected, and treated as such.