A ‘prominent’ Turkish-German film director has said he will not bring his new film to Switzerland in protest against the referendum vote that banned the construction of minarets in that country. "This referendum conflicts with my understanding of humanism, tolerance and the belief that harmonious co-existence of peoples of differing backgrounds, races and religions must be possible," the film director said in an open letter. He made no mention of any open letter he bothered to write criticizing any laws or attitudes that conflict with his understanding of humanism etc. in Turkey, where a poll revealed that 59% believe that non-Mussulmanics should not even be permitted to hold meetings of any sort. For their part, the Swiss are delighted at this unexpected spinoff from their vote. Keeps a load of trendy mind-softening childish codswallop off their cinema screens.
And then there is Iran, which warned Switzerland on Saturday of “consequences” and urged Bern not to enforce the ban. The vote went “against the prestige of a country which claims to be an advocate of democracy and human rights,” the Foreign Minister apparently told his Swiss counterpart in a telephone call. Carefully studying his map of the world with a magnifying glass for some time, Frit finds no other Iran than the one where they are currently gunning down political protesters in the streets in unknown large numbers, where they regularly stone young women to death, hang homosexuals and keep their country united by making scapegoats of Jews in exactly the same way the Nazis did. Human rights?
Egyptians also have a lot to say. Egypt's grand mufti denounced the referendum result as an "insult" to Islam. Killing Coptic Christians in Egypt and treating them like animals was not mentioned. Neither was the aggravation they suffer if they try to build a church. As Cairo has at least 4,700 mosques with minarets and the authorities are currently striving to control the extraordinary brouhaha that results from thousands of muezzins all shouting a load of rubbish through loudhailers all at the same time, out of sync, 5 times a day, Frit would have thought the Egyptians would have some sympathy with the Swiss. But no.
Rack his brain as he might, Frit can think of not a single Mussulmanic land nor organization nor individual that is not guilty of the most gross hypocrisy in protesting the Swiss ban. In Frit’s view they should leave the Swiss alone and get on with answering those important questions they post on the Internet like “Is it valid to pray behind one who makes grammatical mistakes when he recites the Qur’aan?“
And then there is Iran, which warned Switzerland on Saturday of “consequences” and urged Bern not to enforce the ban. The vote went “against the prestige of a country which claims to be an advocate of democracy and human rights,” the Foreign Minister apparently told his Swiss counterpart in a telephone call. Carefully studying his map of the world with a magnifying glass for some time, Frit finds no other Iran than the one where they are currently gunning down political protesters in the streets in unknown large numbers, where they regularly stone young women to death, hang homosexuals and keep their country united by making scapegoats of Jews in exactly the same way the Nazis did. Human rights?
Egyptians also have a lot to say. Egypt's grand mufti denounced the referendum result as an "insult" to Islam. Killing Coptic Christians in Egypt and treating them like animals was not mentioned. Neither was the aggravation they suffer if they try to build a church. As Cairo has at least 4,700 mosques with minarets and the authorities are currently striving to control the extraordinary brouhaha that results from thousands of muezzins all shouting a load of rubbish through loudhailers all at the same time, out of sync, 5 times a day, Frit would have thought the Egyptians would have some sympathy with the Swiss. But no.
Rack his brain as he might, Frit can think of not a single Mussulmanic land nor organization nor individual that is not guilty of the most gross hypocrisy in protesting the Swiss ban. In Frit’s view they should leave the Swiss alone and get on with answering those important questions they post on the Internet like “Is it valid to pray behind one who makes grammatical mistakes when he recites the Qur’aan?“
