Muslims are being discriminated against in the West under the umbrella of democracy. Switzerland’s recent referendum on a ban on minarets is just one small example. Architecturally, minarets enhance a landscape. Certainly, the Spanish thought so. Before the Moors left Seville to make way for the Christian conquistadores in 1248 they wanted to destroy their venerated La Giralda minaret to ensure their enemies could not enjoy its beauty. But King Alfonso X warned them not to remove a single stone under pain of being put to the sword.
But let’s not be deliberately obtuse. Those Swiss voters who decided to reject new minarets didn’t do so from a sense of personal aestheticism or a feeling of being culturally swamped, since there are only four existing minarets in the entire country. This wasn’t a vote against ornate towers; it was one against a powerful symbol of Islam.
Those who defend this decision say Swiss residents should have the right to exclude unusual structures from their land and praise the democratic fashion in which it was taken. Yet if the same constituency were to take offense at, say, the Stars of David adorning the country’s many synagogues it is highly unlikely that such a referendum would be allowed. And even if it were, Switzerland would be taken to task by the court of world opinion.
Others, who include Christian and Jewish leaders, are appalled at such an attack on religious freedom in a country that purports to be a bastion of democracy. And, indeed, Switzerland’s stereotypical reputation as a benign chocolate-loving, clock-making, banking heartland that prides itself on its neutrality has forever been eroded.
In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published disgusting anti-Islamic cartoons obviously meant to fuel bigotry but the Danish government refused to take a stand preferring to hang on to one of democracy’s main pillars free expression. Yet, if those cartoons had, for example, been anti-Semitic, there is little doubt the government would have stepped in citing the country’s legislation prohibiting acts or expressions of a blasphemous or discriminatory nature.
Likewise, the French ban on head scarves in public schools couched under a law barring visible religious symbols was designed primarily to discourage Muslim schoolgirls from wearing what its proponents mistakenly declared “a symbol of female repression.” However, the ban served only to keep some devout students at home and to fuel Muslim anger that widened the rift between the French government and the country’s five-million-plus Muslim population.
The above examples are well-known, but you may not realize that the country which gave birth to democracy Greece has consistently blocked or delayed the construction of new mosques. Its capital Athens has been devoid of a single operating mosque since it became independent of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century. In 2003, Saudi Arabia agreed to fund the building of a mosque near Athens Airport ahead of the 2004 Olympics, which was initially approved by the government but was later thwarted by local residents.
Then in 2007, the government unveiled a bill sanctioning a mosque to be built on land owned by the Greek Navy along with a Muslim cemetery. But, since the authorities have been dragging their heels, losing documentation, and tying up the proposal in a barrage of red tape, which means 300,000 Muslims — mainly from Albania, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and North Africa — are forced to pray together in disused factories, offices, basements or the upper floors of coffee shops.
During May this year, a basement that was used by Muslims as a place of worship was drenched with gasoline and fired. That same month witnessed a protest march by Muslims, furious that a Greek policeman had entered a Syrian-owned coffee shop and allegedly desecrated a customer’s Qur’an.
Only in the northeastern province of Thrace, where there is a large Muslim minority of 120,000 and a wealth of historic Ottoman architecture, are mosques prevalent. Without wishing to let Greece off the hook, I should point out that people’s antipathy toward mosques isn’t so much religiously-oriented as resentful hangover from three-centuries of Ottoman occupation as well as Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974, which caused the island to be split.
Nevertheless, such Islamophobic attitudes are to be condemned unconditionally. There will always be uneducated, ignorant, bigots or xenophobes around and the fear of others because they are a different skin color or hold to unfamiliar beliefs is part of the human condition to some extent. But there is no excuse for governments, which fan the flames of those attitudes or concerns. Democracy is based on certain ideals, values and freedoms of which the freedom of all citizens to worship is integral. The authorities should have no right to impinge upon religious sensitivities by imposing architectural or dress codes that pander to base xenophobic instincts or to give bigots carte blanche to mock the religious beliefs of others.
Whether Judeo-Christian Europe likes it or not, Muslims make up a quarter of the world’s population while Islam is the planet’s fastest-growing religion. Alienating 1.5 billion Muslims, who feel increasingly under siege, is the wrong way to go.
Particularly nauseating from my perspective is the way that some democracies are out to export this system of governance in a one-size-fits-all fashion for their own ends. A classic example is the internationally monitored 2006 Palestinian elections that swept Hamas to victory. Then as soon as the US and Britain had congratulated the Palestinian people on their fair and free ballot, they proceeded to punish them for making the wrong choice. Conversely, the result of the recent elections in Afghanistan that were found to be deeply flawed has been accepted by Washington and London because they gave “their man” an opportunity to stay on.
Lastly, Muslim commentators should not make excuses for bigots or feel that Muslims should go the extra mile in an effort to be understood. The responsibility for this mess can be laid at the feet of one individual George W. Bush, whose “war on terror” in response to the actions of 19 murderers cast suspicion on Muslims everywhere.
Muslims have been victims for far too long. They’ve been profiled, locked up and tortured. Their religion has been denigrated and there are more foreign troops on Muslim lands today than there were during the Crusades. Instead of treating Muslims with suspicion Europeans should take the path of tolerance.
The Swiss businessman Guillaume Morand, a non-Muslim, was so appalled at his compatriots’ decision that he has built a minaret on his company’s roof. Bravo! If only there were more good people like him I wouldn’t be writing this column.
