The news media is buzzing with reports and opinions about the ban of minarets in Switzerland.
While perusing some of the articles, what has surprised me the most is that I've noticed a personal prejudice about Switzerland - I've always imagined the country to be completely intolerant of non-Swiss. I'm not sure why, perhaps because I've heard so many rumors that it is prohibitively expensive to live or even visit there? Who knows why? Fact is I've never been to Switzerland, and I only know a handful of Swiss people. Though they are friendly and nice, the number is hardly enough to represent an accurate sampling of the Swiss population!
I thought about this because several articles discuss how minarets potentially represent religion, and the minaret ban represents religious intolerance.
I'm not an expert on the matter, but I kind of feel that might be stretching it. Could it in reality simply be a matter of architecture?
In my home state of Massachusetts there are height limits on buildings in certain towns. For example, the town of Belmont had to make a special exception for an LDS Temple to be built.
In my hometown of Hingham, many historic houses must be painted their original colors, and on main street, residents are not allowed to use colored lights!
First of all let me thank you for your neutral attitude towards the issue of the Swiss Minarets, and I guess this is due to the lack of bridge communication between the Islamic communities and other international communities.
Given that I am a Muslim-Egyptian Architect, who lived in the Netherlands for almost one year, If you may allow, I would give you my point of view.
The Mosque Minaret is a part of the historical Mosques built mainly for two reasons:
1. To deliver the voice of the Adhan (call for prayer) to all Muslim houses in the city, when the Moazen (man calling for Adhan) stands on the top and calls loudly with recognized religious words.
2. to create a relatively high point in the city skyline where it is easily recognized to be the center of the city (religious, physical, urban, social... center) where any Muslim can use it as a landmark to reach the mosque or even find his/her way through the rapidly growing Islamic city.
Considering the fact that Switzerland is not a Muslim country (yes with the total religious political meaning), and with no licence to call for Adhan loudly in public, in addition to the fact that skyscrapers and other high buildings would easily cover the hight of any Minaret in the city and hence not used for way-finding; I can reach my conclusion:
1. It will not make any difference for Prayer rituals to ban the Minarets or keep it as long as Muslims perform their prayers freely in the Mosques.
2. On the other hand, its shameful from the Swiss-govern. to try to restrict certain religious architectural figures and allow others based on some fake evidence. Switzerland is not a religious-ruled country (Pope ruling) so why are they banning religion and encourage another, as long as all of their citizens are equal in rights and duties in front of the Swiss law. Or else why wouldn't we say in Egypt that we will go through a law to ban Church minaret based on the fact that we are a Muslim-majority with Islamic laws country. We will not do that of course since we believe in religious diversity and freedom to perform own rituals and prayers.