When Church Bells sound in Saudi Arabia, then Minarets can rise in Europe‏

الجمعة ٢٢ - نوفمبر - ٢٠٢٤ ٠٩:١٤ صباحاً

اضيف الخبر في يوم الثلاثاء ٠٨ - ديسمبر - ٢٠٠٩ ١٢:٠٠ صباحاً.

The comparison put forward in this article is a strange one, and even stranger is the justification manufactured for the minaret ban; it doesn't make much sense. The functional equivalent of a church bell is the call to the prayer to begin with, so the article/analysis is off to a misleading start... Secondly, there is the obvious fact that thousands of churches, complete with the towers, exist in the Muslim world, even in countries where Christian populations are demographically insignificant today. So Europe and the West has a lot of catching up to do in terms of diversifying their religious architectural landscape. Third, juxtaposing Saudi Arabia, a peculiar country with a political system and sect (Wahhabi hereditary kingdom), as if that was representative of the Muslim world, on the one hand, and "Europe", on the other, is unfair. The functional equivalent of Switzerland, a mountainous, relatively wealthy and developed Christian country, would not be Saudi Arabia. Why not choose Indonesia, Egypt, Syria or Senegal, all of which have vibrant Christian communities with hundreds of visible churches alongside mosques? They, and not Saudi Arabia, provide a more representative sample of the Muslim world--demographically, geographically, culturally, politically, historically, theologically.

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The selection bias in this article is mind boggling.

Nobody, and certainly not I, would object to the fact that many religious extremists exist among Muslims today--and unfortunately they appear to be more active and visible in the media today than Christian, Hindu, Jewish, etc. and other religious extremists. And surely they are intolerant of even sectarian/denominational diversity within Islam, let alone religious diversity at large. But they neither represent the prevailing opinion of the Muslims in the world, nor does their religious views shape public policy in the Muslim world, nor have they characterized Islamic history up until this point. To use some fanatic terrorists' view of Islam to justify the banning of religious -architectural- expression of a tiny, poor, disadvantaged religious minority in Western Europe is baffling for me.

Europe failed its first test and challenge of religious diversity, throughout the Middle Ages, up until the mid-20th century, by its periodic persecution of Jews, reaching its catastrophic peak with the Holocaust, showing shocking intolerance towards the only non-Christian minority that was permitted to live in Europe. Let's see to it that this time European states and societies better accommodate and really accept religious diversity, instead of resorting to stereotyping, fear mongering, and brazenly discriminatory legislation.

That being said, yes, there surely are many fanatics in Muslim countries; but that does not in any way justify the ban on minarets.

-Sener Akturk.

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