Muslim Appeal on Swiss Minarets Rejected

From On Islam.net

OnIslam & News Agencies
Friday, 08 July 2011 12:39

A European court rejected appeals against a ban on the construction of new minarets in Switzerland.

GENEVA – A Muslim appeal against a ban imposed on the construction of new minarets in Switzerland was rejected on Friday, July 8, by the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the plaintiffs were not victims of an alleged human rights violation.

“The main complaint was that a disputed constitutional provision offended their religious beliefs,” the court statement cited by Swiss Info news agency said on Friday.

“However, they did not allege that it had had any practical effect on them.”

The lawsuit was first filed in December 2009 by a former spokesman for a Geneva mosque and several Swiss Muslim groups.

The Strasbourg-based court on Friday announced that the complaints by the applicants were not admissible as the plaintiffs failed to show how the ban had harmed their human rights.

The applicants could not prove either that they were indirect victims because none of them was planning on building a mosque with a minaret in Switzerland in the near future, it added.

The controversial ban was enforced through a referendum called for by the far-right Swiss People Party.

After 57 percent of the voters agreed on the proposal, article 72, paragraph 3 was introduced in the Federal Constitution to bar the construction of minarets nationwide.

According to the CIA Factbook, Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims, representing 5 percent of the country’s nearly eight million people.

There are nearly 160 mosques and prayer rooms in Switzerland, mainly in disused factories and warehouses.

Only four of them have minarets, none of them used to raise the Azan, the call to prayer, which is banned.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

6 Replies to “Muslim Appeal on Swiss Minarets Rejected”

  1. It’s with enormous delight that I can celebrate the news by posting my first comment at Vlad Tepes since my departure from Dar al-Mahoundistan…

  2. Three cheers and Bravo….good thing I didn’t read about this on the LRT in Edmonton, I mean Deadmonton and exclaim, oh Fccccccking great, because I would be approached by the swearing police and given a huge fine,,,this is how the mayor (who spends his Canada Day going to a mosque) instructs the police force to spend their time to make the city safe from all the murders many of whom live in enclaves….where soon there will be minerets for the bloodlust screamers to overpower the chapel bells, not that there are ever any bells heard ever anymore. Cities have within their powers to mandate these backward disgusting examples of so called religious freedom right out of existence with appropriate bylaws.

  3. Even if the court had gone against the minaret ban, it would have made no difference. In Switzerland the vote of the people is final and cannot be challenged. No Swiss politician or judge would querry it, as he would be thrown out of office. The people have voted, the people are right.

    And exactly how would the judges explain that they knew better then 7 million Swiss what was good for Switzerland. It would have brought the court to disrepute.

  4. Democracy is all about what the people want and not what some unelected court in another country wants.