Free Republic

Opinion polls in Europe show that the Swiss referendum would have also won in France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria. The no to the minaret is a no to the increasing (and never satisfied) Islamist demands. The European population thinks differently and wants its leaders to reaffirm its identity. The no to the minarets is an invitation to true dialogue. Paris (AsiaNews) - The outcome of the Swiss referendum has aroused a wave of inquiries and questions Snip... Typically politicians have reacted negatively, criticizing this vote. Instead, people in Europe have been in favour of the outcome. Some sites...

European papers are dismayed by Switzerland's popular vote to ban the building of minarets. Some fear it will backfire, sending the wrong signal to the Muslim world and setting a precedent for other parts of Europe. Several papers criticise the type of democracy practised in Switzerland, which allows ordinary people rather than elected representatives to decide on such matters. However, one popular Swiss tabloid defends the ban as a starting point for a debate on tolerance.

The WSJ calls the Swiss Minaret ban stupid, but, in my opinion, that doesn't go far enough. The ban is not only stupid; it is anti-libertarian. It is a commonly known fact that Europe is struggling with its Muslim immigrants, many of whom come from Muslim countries. These Muslim immigrants have incredible difficulties integrating into society. In Germany, Turkish immigrants still don't speak German by the third generation. Many Germans will tell you in private conversations that foreigners refuse to adapt to the European way of life and many Germans associate this refusal with Islam itself. Such expressions of opinion...

November 30, 2009 Europe unites to deplore Swiss ban on minarets Charles Bremner in Paris The Swiss and European establishment united today in deploring yesterday's decision by Swiss voters to outlaw the construction of minarets but conservative leaders warned that the referendum showed genuine fear over Islam on the continent. Swiss officials, media and business leaders voiced shame over a vote that they say will stigmatise the country's 400,000 Muslims and stain Switzerland's name in the Muslim world. In contrast, hard right leaders in France, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands hailed what they depicted as a triumph for the people...

Early results indicated Sunday afternoon that voters in Switzerland had approved a law that would prohibit construction of minarets atop mosques in the country. The measure was decided in a referendum conducted Sunday.

Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.” According to the respected gfs.bern polling institute an estimated 59 per cent of voters backed the ban. A majority of cantons were also in support of the initiative. “A majority have voted for a nationwide ban on the construction of minarets,” said the institute’s director Claude Longchamp, speaking on Swiss Radio DRS.

Switzerland appears to have backed minaret ban Voters in Switzerland appeared to have backed a call to ban minarets from mosques, according to early exit poll results. By Alexandra Williams in Geneva and Bruno Waterfield Published: 10:16AM GMT 29 Nov 2009 Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.” According to the respected gfs.bern polling institute an estimated 59 per cent of voters backed the ban. A majority of cantons were also in support of the initiative. “A majority have voted...

Switzerland's biggest city, Zurich, has allowed the use of a controversial poster which urges a ban on the building of minarets in the country. The poster shows a woman dressed in a burka in front of missile-shaped minarets standing on a Swiss flag. But Zurich city council said campaign posters were protected by free speech. The advert is being used by the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) ahead of next month's referendum on whether to ban the building of new minarets.....

BOSTON – A crowd of hundreds of local Muslims inaugurated a large new mosque last week in Roxbury Crossing. The 68,000 sq foot Islamic Cultural Center in the heart of Boston, designed by Dr. Sami Angawi, and pioneered by board member Dr. Walid Fitaihi, Dr. Osama Kandeel and others, celebrated its inauguration with the historic attendance of the first Muslim in the United States Congress, Keith Ellison, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. This new Islamic cultural center in America is tremendously significant as it resides 5 minutes from the heart of downtown Boston and less than...

Far right groups in Switzerland have collected enough signatures to force a nationwide referendum on banning minarets, the distinctive towers of Islamic architecture. In what is being seen as a sign of growing Islamophobia in Europe, more than 100,000 Swiss citizens signed a petition to halt the construction of minarets. Under Switzerland's direct democracy rules, that level of support is enough to trigger a referendum. The Swiss interior ministry today confirmed a vote would take place, without setting a date. The petition was launched by Ulrich Schlüer an MP from the controversial Swiss People's party, which was accused of racist...

- Top Islamic Proselytizer As soon as I heard about the Muslim women in hijabs being excluded from sitting behind Barack Obama at a Michigan rally, I knew what you probably knew: that CAIR and ADC and MPAC and ISNA, the alphabet soup of terrorist-sympathizing, pan-HAMAS/Hezbollah Islamofascist grievance theater, would milk the story like there's no tomorrow. It was ripe fodder for their PR branch of the jihad against America and the West. Now, I've come to learn that one of the hijab-encrusted, rejected whiners, Hebba Aref, was an official of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), in charge of proselytizing....

OXFORD, England (AFP) - Famous for its university and quintessentially English "dreaming spires," the city of Oxford has been plunged into controversy over the sound of Muslim call to prayer from a local mosque. Those church spires have been joined by a minaret, with a loudspeaker on top which has triggered protests from locals concerned about the influx of a foreign culture. "I don't have any problem with Islam but don't force it on people," said Oxford University historian Allan Chapman, whose typically English house has a view of both the minaret and the nearby Church of Saint Mary and...

I mentioned last week that a local St. Louis radio station reported that a minaret (Islamic prayer tower) was being built — but that I was awaiting confirmation. Well now we have it from reader Zachary B., who has taken photos of it for us, as it’s fewer than six blocks from his house...

CRETEIL, France -- ...200 Muslim worshipers crowded into a former carpentry workshop here for noon prayers. The men knelt on red carpets in a first-floor hall, the women squeezed into the tiny office upstairs....But next June, Creteil's Muslims are scheduled to move into a new, $7.4 million mosque with room for more than 2,500 worshipers. The nearly finished building, with its 81-foot minaret, stands on a knoll overlooking the town's picturesque lake, within sight of city hall... The mosque will make Creteil something of an exception in Europe. From London to Cologne to Marseille, governments and residents are fighting the...

Oct. 19, 2006 15:39 | Updated Oct. 23, 2006 0:49 Spiraling out of control By KSENIA SVETLOVA From the veranda of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, the call for the Maghreb (evening) prayer permeates the warm Jerusalem fall air. A thousand different voices repeat the ancient formula from all across the town, although the loudest call without a doubt comes from Al-Aksa's four minarets. Soon, if the plan announced last week by Jordanian King Abdullah II becomes a reality, a fifth minaret will be added. The Hashemite monarch's announcement last week seems to have detonated a small bomb in...

Synagogue Planned For Temple Mount, Hashemites to Add Minaret 14:14 Oct 10, '06 / 18 Tishrei 5767 by Ezra HaLevi MK Uri Ariel (National Union) is drawing up plans to construct a synagogue on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site. Jordan's King Hussein plans to build a fifth minaret on the site as well. The synagogue would be build upon the Temple Mount, but in an area that is indisputably not within the areas that require immersion and other preparations, according to Jewish law. Ariel says that the synagogue would not change the Muslim status quo on the mount, which...

Israel Complacent - Muslims Seek to Strengthen Hold on Mount 15:11 Oct 12, '06 / 20 Tishrei 5767 by Yechiel Spira Israel is not expressing objections to the construction of a fifth Temple Mount minaret, in line with Jordanian plans. Jordan’s King Abdullah II announced plans this week to construct a fifth minaret on the Temple Mount, a move that would further increase the Islamic occupation of the site, the holiest site to the Jewish People. Ironically, shortly following the liberation of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six Day War, the Israeli government decided to return the...

Israel unopposed to building of 5th Temple Mount minaret , THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 11, 2006 Israel has not objected to Jordanian plans to construct a fifth minaret on the Temple Mount, and the Hashemite Kingdom is pressing ahead with plans to do so early next year, a senior Jordanian official said Wednesday. The minaret, which will be constructed on the eastern wall of the Temple Mount near the Golden Gate, will at 42 meters be the highest of the minarets on the Mount and the first to be built in more than 600 years, Dr. Raief Najim, vice chairman...

The Italian author Oriana Fallaci, who once wrote that Muslims "breed like rats", may be facing up to three years in prison after she vowed to blow up a mosque.Ms Fallaci, 75, who has cancer, is due to appear in court next week charged with the lesser offence of vilifying Islam, punishable with a £3,450 fine. But after her latest outburst in the New Yorker last week Muslim leaders are demanding that she be tried for inciting religious hatred, which carries a three-year jail term. The former journalist, who has said she will not attend Monday's hearing in Bergamo, told...

Where it's playing: The film will premiere at the American Film Renaissance’s Hollywood Film Festival on January 15, 2006 at 3PM. About the project: What the West Needs to Know Islam, violence, and the fate of the non-Muslim world. 95 mins Main Idea Virtually every major Western leader has over the past several years expressed the view that Islam is a peaceful religion and that those who commit violence in its name are fanatics who misinterpret its tenets. This claim, while widely circulated, rarely attracts serious public examination. Relying primarily on Islam’s own sources, this documentary demonstrates that Islam is...