A comment from Germany on the on the minaret ban in Switzerland

Submitted by Andreas Haas (Germany), Dec 3, 2009 at 22:36

In his article The Swiss Ban on Minarets: A Possible Turning Point David Pipes writes: "In all likelihood, the political establishment in Bern, which abominates the amendment, will find some way to overturn it." With the realities of the US constitution in mind this expectation may be understandable, but it will prove wrong. Those who represent the swiss people in their goverment are more or less forced to hold views that are in line with that law. Due to the fact that the minaret ban was made part of the constitution there is not much leeway for the political establishment in Switzerland. In case they take too much freedom it can happen, that their political careers finds an end. E.g. here you have an article about foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey being sharply criticized and requested to step back for regretting the vote with the peoples initiative when she was at the OSCE meeting in athens.

For that reason no resistance against the minaret ban should be expected from inside Switzerland. The only other players who have some saying are the European Court of Human Rights and corresponding bodies of the United Nations: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mrs. Navi Pillay though holds the view the minaret ban were against human rights, yet besides a rebuke by the Human Rights in the Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) reports every fourth year, her resentment will bear no fruits. As for the European Court of Human Rights it stated that is perplexed and knows not how to deal this case. It is well possible, it will not even condemn the outcome of the peoples initiative(!), as it already has problems to be respected after it's disputed sentence about crucifixes at public schools in Italy. City mayors in Italy did not care about it, but bought even new crucifixes instead and commanded them be put-up everywhere! They did this as to show their resistance "against the European Union" – event though the Strassbourgh court is actually under control of the European Council. Please find this article with links here: http://wp.me/pt2oW-mn

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