Swiss minaret vote "was quite simply a reaction to the ever more shrill demands of Europe's Islamic leaders for special rights and special treatment"

"No, Mr Moossavi, this was not racism or fascism, it was a protest vote and a wake up call to Europe's Muslims to lower the tone."

And lowering the tone will resolve the problem of demographic transformation and Islamization?

Yes the Swizz are facsot racist than they vote show it. As Robert Spencer is than racist for being anti-islamist and hateing all muslim an I donot buy your bs about not hateing muslim.

Muslims will have a legitimate complaint about the Swiss vote against new minaret construction (the 4 minarets already built being allowed to remain) when the number of steeples in Saudi Arabia becomes greater than zero.

"Predictably, Moossavi paid no attention to the fact that there is no similar reaction in Europe against Hindus, Sikhs, or other immigrant communities."

Then I remembered this:

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/religion_in_switzerland/index/Some_religions_are_more_welcome_than_others.html?cid=42424

I wonder why some are welcomed and the muslims are not??????

The vote, Roy Brown says, was "merely symbolic" but the behavior of Muslims since that vote has confirmed and deepened the worst fears of those Swiss who voted in favor of the ban on minarets, and won them new support, and what's more, public opinion polls in several countries of Western Europe, including Great Britain and France, show that 3/4 of the populuation favor such a ban.

And if that ban was "merely symbolic" what it was symbolic of was fear and great and growing hostility --- justified fear of, and hostility toward, Islam and, naturally, those who take its texts to be holy, including such passages as Qur'an 9.5 and 9.29 and another hundred similar passages in the Qur'an, and hundreds of Hadith, and dozens of important incidents in the life of Muhammad, details of the life of someone regarded by Muslims as the Perfect Man, al-insan al-kamil, but details that horrify most non-Muslims.

I have no doubt that in voting to ban the minaret, the Swiss were voting to limit, or perhaps even ban, mosques (which all over Europe, in any case, need to be monitored by the security services night and day, at great cost), and they were certainly voting to limit the number, and the power, of Muslims in Switzerland, as most French would now wish, after sad and instructive experience, to do in France, and most British would wish, after a similar self-education, to do the same in Great Britain, and in those two countries that elevated Tolerance to the level of an informal religion, the Netherlands and Denmark, the fear, dislike, and general unsettlement about Islam that can only grow, has become the main feature, practically the only thing many people can think about when they think about domestic politics, of public -- and even private -- life. That is the damage the large-scale presence of Muslims has done. It has disrupted, and will continue to disrupt unless that presence is deliberately decreased and kept small enough to be manageable, all of life for everyone, including those who do not dare to publicly state the truth.

Hugh mentions:

" I have no doubt that in voting to ban the minaret, the Swiss were voting to limit, or perhaps even ban, mosques (which all over Europe, in any case, need to be monitored by the security services night and day, at great cost), ....."

of course, not monitoring them will cost much more....

Notice a lack of Saudi largesse in the area of mosque building in Switzerland. In other Western countries, Saudi money is ladeled through shadow corp after shadow corp, and poured in the window of huge mosques that would put Oral Roberts to shame.
Notice (from video in linked new article) that most mosques are humble buildings, and old warehouses.

When the local Muslims are left to build on their own, they can't afford it, can't do it, must get corrupt politicians to get them funding, or rely on the Saudis. The Saudis, seeing that no minarets signifying dominance are forthcoming from the Swiss, have decided to tighten the purse strings there.

What a laudable method. I wish we'd thought of it. What does America have if not overwhelming, overburdening zoning laws?

It's just laundering: they zakat they collect doesn't go to pay off the mortgage of the old church, like it did in my neighborhood...we had a big fun mortgage burning party. They send their money to Hezb-allah and the like and in return, the Saudis et al send them rent money. How disgustingly paternalistic.

I can't imagine being a Muslim male and being proud to take my family to those slummy little holes you see around town where they go for "prayer".

Sorry Hugh, but I can't resist...

When I see you write: 'al-insan al-kamil' I think of the likes of 'defenderofislam' and their propensity to misspell or misappropriate ze Engleesh. What I see in the above quote reads as 'insane' and 'camel'. And for reasons that I can't quite figure out (yet) these 2 humble words offer an apt description of the 'flounder' of Islam. It's no wonder that almost everybody who knew him laughed at him. Who wouldn't laugh at al insan al kamel?

May we all enjoy a prosperous and safe New Year for 2010!