Swiss debate over new minarets

The parliament, or Grand Council, of the Swiss canton of Ticino has rejected the call by the Swiss People's Party (SVP) and the right-wing populist Lega Dei Ticinesi for a ban on minaret construction. The liberal daily Corriere del Ticino comments: "The barbarity cultivated by Islamist extremism - and which is unfortunately legitimated by the all-too frequent silence of Islamic moderates - has had a retrograde effect on this debate. The rest is done by the unmoral attitudes of those who would like nothing better than to rip open the doors of the old continent for boundless hordes of imigrants, and who vilify those who call for legitimate rules and limits. It is to be feared that after the No of the Grand Council, public debate on a referendum on minaret construction will digress into a base scuffle. But in such a debate there will be no place for the principles and values that comprise our identity and serve as the fundament of an open and tolerant society. Yet these values must be heard, for they are diametrically opposed to those of closed and intolerant societies."

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