Swiss ban minarets

From the AP:

GENEVA — A top Swiss official said Monday that voter approval of a ban on minarets next to mosques could be struck down in court, as critics at home and abroad swiftly condemned the vote, saying it undermined the country's secular image.

The Swiss, normally a sensible people, have passed by 57% a ban on minarets next to mosques!  One wonders what this normally sober people were on.

Consider that Swill mosques do NOT broadcast call to prayer from loud speakers instead choosing to have a man sing the call in the courtyard of the mosque.  Note as well that it is a violation of noise laws to broadcast the call by speakers as is comon in much of the Islamic world.

Why then this ban on an architectural symbol of Islam?  If there is a concern for the secular nature of Swiss government OK, ban minarets.  Oh, also ban church bell towers and all other religious architectural symbols.

It seems that Muslims now represent 4% of the Swiss population.  It also is reported that the vote split rural and urban with urban voters generally opposing the ban.  It would seem that at least in rural Switzerland we have reached the point where our fear of a faith overrides all common sense.  It rather brings to mind other cases where religious fear overrode common sense and morality.  Can anyone remember the holocaust or the Swiss role in financing the Second World Way?

Common sense suggest that the Swiss should be shamed.