The Islamic world received the Swiss people's decision to ban building minarets over mosques with denial and a great refusal for the voting results. Switzerland is one of the nations that is considered a symbol of welfare, civilization and tolerance. So what lies behind this vote, a vote which seems to contradict the Swiss tendency for openness towards others? The result of this voting is dangerous so we have to find out why the Swiss people have reached this stage; we have to use our minds, leave behind angry reactions and irritations that although it could relieve our anger for some time, would not help us to understand the Swiss people’s mentality, a mentality which the country has imparted on its people through decades, through a high level of freedom in all aspects of life. So this citizen became the main partner in shaping the direction of his country, and not only a spectator to the ongoing events, as the Arabs in our countries do, by expressing their views of refusals or support on the content by clapping our hands and praise or destruction and rage!
The Swiss people – thirty years of living amongst them have made me capable of identifying their characteristics – these people own a high capability of self control and use of their minds. They are always away of being mingled with emotions what it was as reacting according to his thinking. So the reaction of this citizen, even if sometimes not objective as usual, is never affected by emotions. If anyone thinks that emotions could move this citizen, he will by using emotions certainly fail, as this citizen will feel that you assign no value to his thinking, so he will immediately refuse your “idiotic” style of influencing him.
I cannot describe the Swiss citizen as religious, but using any religious slogans in his practical or daily life is foreign to his nature; so no one can ask you about your religion or discuss the nature of your faith, however idiotic or idle your faith is: the most important issue is not to harm others with your belief in any way that could harm the safety and peace of the society. What unites the people in Switzerland are the common values such as perseverance in their wok and obeying the laws: the Swiss citizen respects the authority by all means as a result of the respect offered to him by the authority and making high value for his needs and abilities.
The unique democratic system in Switzerland supports the characteristic of their people to a large extent, or it is to say the system gave a full support to this characteristic to depend on the de-centralization in running all the state's affairs beginning from the village, the city and the governorate or the,"canton", that is run by seven representatives in the local affairs elected by the free voting; the Swiss state consists of seven ministers who are from four of the main political parties; they rotate annually to change the president of the federal council, so in most cases the Swiss citizen does not know the president of his country: names are not his main interest but the task and perfection is his main issue for all the state's affairs.
Following from the respect offered by the Swiss system to his people, we find that the constitution allows any group of people with a specific ideology to make a signatures campaign to change the constitution of the country. This group collects the signatures of those in favour of them, at least 100,000 and if they manage to do so, the state is obliged to present their initiative to the people to vote on it; the state then is to proceed with the voting results, whatever it was, as following the will of the people. The state's decision is here not compulsory.
So the dangerous issue in the last voting to ban building minarets over mosques is that it is the will of the people confirming in depth what I have mentioned about the characteristic of the Swiss citizen. And I add that this citizen is a good alert reader without the illness of,“ forgetting"; he is an observer of international incidents that, even if without relation to the stability of his country, could influence him on some issues related to his country. The Swiss people did not forget the views of agony done by a terrorist group raised with a religious ideology in some neighbouring countries. They did not forget the Manhattan battle on September 11th 2001, which made Swiss citizens wonder and inquire about how some people celebrate the killing of innocents. Why their some happiness with fear, among some of those whose religion is the same as those who carried out those bloody attacks over the cities of the free world?
The accident of Marwa el-Shirbini made the Swiss citizen think of the reasons that made some people and also some Egyptians change a sad accident of a woman's death to political strikes and accusations of the religion of the departed lady? It could also appear on the surface that the Swiss people forgot the Luxor massacre in 1997 where 56 tourists, including 36 Swiss tourists, were killed, killed and cut horribly, but the Result now tells that the Swiss people did not forget and will not forget, as massacres are not to be forgotten throughout the history of the nations of people and their communities.
The Swiss citizen follows quietly with focus on the status of the freedom of faith in the neighbouring countries where the citizens willing to build minarets over mosques in Switzerland are the majority while they stop their fellow countrymen from other religions or beliefs to practice their rights, but to hinder them and get their rights lost by the Urfi sessions for reconciliation to achieve a broken protection to their societies , fall to the depth in the well of extremism and the illiteracy prevailed in medieval ages.
The Swiss decision for banning building minarets over mosque is an issue where we can number its motives under one title: "the violations of the Muslims' rights." It is more than being included in hysterical phrase in depth, but the decision is the outcome of the influence over the Swiss citizen with a number of international events. It is wonderful to see that the Swiss state understands the reasons behind the vote of the majority for the ban of building minarets over mosques, even though the state announced that this ban is not the proper way to face Muslim extremists.
But the Swiss people's decision alerts us to re-think our policies towards us and others. It is not enough to refuse and deny, to support or praise, without the deep understanding of the real reasons that lead others evaluate us in a way that angers us, while we claim that it is not the right evaluation.
