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Reply to comment

Matt Murrell

1 December 2009 - 9:19am

First off, a general point... Islam is not now, nor has it ever been a race. The Swiss decision to ban minarets can be regarded as bigoted, prejudiced or idiotic. But it cannot be regarded as racist.

Now...

The Swiss are very aggressive when it comes to keeping their country postcard-perfect, so why should this be any surprise?

If the Swiss want to pass laws banning constructions in general that conflict with some of their ideas about traditional Swiss culture, then they can. Although I'd still regard such laws as stupid. It's the specificness of this law that makes it suspect. As has been pointed out, there are four minarets in the entire country - and yet, apparently, a country-wide law is required to tackle this radical threat to the traditional Swiss way of life?

Also, can we put this "the people voted" guff to rest - if *some* people vote for an idiotic, illiberal measure then it still remains idiotic and illiberal.