A Minaret-Free Land?

In a rather surprising development, 57.5% of Swiss voters approved a constitutional ban on the construction of minarets in their country. Although speculation exists that it will be overturned by a Swiss court or the mis-named "European Court of Human Rights," for now, there will be no more minaret-capped mosques in Switzerland.

It is interesting to see that Europeans are starting to awaken to the presence—the very uncomfortable presence—of Islam in their midst. Switzerland's Muslim population is about 6% of its total.

This sentence was telling:

Sunday's results stood in stark contrast to opinion polls, last taken 10 days ago, that showed 37 percent supporting the proposal. Experts said before the vote that they feared Swiss had pretended during the polling that they opposed the ban because they didn't want to appear intolerant.

There are many people in this world who don't "want to appear intolerant" toward Islam because they fear the repercussions. To stand in opposition to Islam is to invite violence and jihad into one's midst.

One more reason to appreciate the secret ballot.