Swiss ban on minarets

From the Telegraph:

Voters in Switzerland appeared to have backed a call to ban minarets from mosques, according to early exit poll results.

Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.”
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Campaigners demanded the referendum to halt “political Islamisation” by amending the Swiss constitution to add a clause stating “the construction of minarets is prohibited”.
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“This minaret is a symbol of conquest and power which marks the will to introduce Sharia law as has happened in some other European cities. We will not accept that,” said Ulrich Schueler, an SVP politician and leader of the “stop” minaret campaign.

No. Nope. Nuh-uh. Ain’t no way that this could possibly go wrong.

This is pretty much exactly the sort of thing a lot of Americans would like to see happen. And it’s pretty much exactly the sort of thing that the Constitution  (especially the First Amendment) prohibits. However, there *might* be some ways around it:

1) Figure out how the minaret violates local building codes.

2) Declare the minaret to be a public nuisance or offensive or a threat to the peace/incitement to violence.  Imagine if someone proposed to build a large building in the shape of a naked woman, or a giant swastika; there would be an outcry and someone would probably figure a way to halt the process through legal channels.

Such efforts would have to be on a case-by-case basis, and would mostly fail, I’m sure. There is, of course, a third option:

3) Another 9/11, or more effectively, a *nuclear* 9/11.

I have little doubt that in the days after a successful nuclear/radiological terror attack on an American city, one place I would not want to be is anywhere near an obvious mosque. Hell, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a Buddhist, Sikh or Hindu temple, either… some people when they get sufficiently tweaked kinda lose focus.

Interestingly, the Telegraph ends the article with a quote from a Swiss Muslim leader… who goes ahead and gives a good reason as to why Muslims are increasingly less popular:

Muslims have rejected the argument that a minaret symbolises Muslim power. Mutalip Karaademi, leader of Langenthal’s Muslim community and of Albanian origin, accused Mr Schueler of telling “dirty lies”.
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“They call us terrorists. They call us Taliban, so many labels all wrong. They insult us. We love this country, almost more than our own. Our children were born here.”

Ummm… excuse me? You love Switzerland “almost more than your own” country?   Ummm… what’s your country again that you love so much… and why aren’t you there?

If this vote passes and Switzerland bans minarets, the chances are good that Swiss people will die at the hands of Islamist nutjobs. Which will only make the desire to rid Switzerland of minarets even stronger.

I’ll get the popcorn.