November 30, 2009
By Arsalan Iftikhar
True/Slant Contributor
First of all: Yes, it was indeed a slap in the face to Swiss (and European) Muslims that a recent ‘popular referendum’ vote backed primarily by right-wing nationalist parties was approved by 57.5 percent of the population Sunday; forcing the government to “declare illegal the building of any new [mosque] minarets” in Switzerland.
According to reports, the ‘referendum’ does “not affect the country’s four existing minarets”.
So much for being a ‘neutral’ country, Switzerland…Well done…
Secondly; let us also remember that the sociopolitical concept of a ‘popular referendum’ is where you allow the general population to vote on what becomes enacted as law, even though they may have no idea (or little regard) for what could very possibly be the infringing of basic human or constitutional rights.
For example; had ’slavery’ or ‘inter-racial marriage’ been put to the ‘popular referendum’ vote here in the United States, you can bet your sweet little Swiss watch that we could very well have seen blacks being regarded as 3/5ths of a human being and slavery go well into the 20th century here in America.
Continue Reading Arsalan’s November 2009 Column Here…
