Would Americans vote to ban minarets?

Posted By Joshua Keating Monday, November 30, 2009 - 7:17 PM Share

The concensus on this weekend's Swiss minaret ban seems to be that it "heralds a new surge in populist, anti-immigrant sentiment," and contradicts Switzerland's images as "a place where peace, democracy and human rights are valued above all else." There are a few problems with this narrative.

First, the "famously tolerant" Swiss didn't just suddenly become paranoid xenophobes last weekend. The Swiss People's Party, the primary sponsors of this referendum, succeeding in essentially banning non-European unskilled immigration drastically increasing requirements for asylum speakers in through a referendum in 2006 and won a national election the following year on the strength of highly enlightened policy ideas like this one.

Second, despite the international shock and hand-wringing over the Swiss vote, I'm not sure that citizens of other Western countries would vote that differently if given the chance. The German media is already ruminating about this question. More than anything, the Swiss decision made me think about the survey data collected in Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson's recent FP piece, written in the wake of the Ft. Hood shooting:

According to a 2006 Gallup poll, a third of Americans admire "nothing" about the Muslim world. Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslims. A July 2007 Newsweek survey indicated that 46 percent of Americans think that the United States is accepting too many Muslim immigrants, 32 percent consider American Muslims less loyal to the United States than they are to Islam, 28 percent believe that the Koran condones violence, 41 percent are convinced that Islamic culture "glorifies suicide," 54 percent are "worried" about Islamic jihadists in the U.S., and 52 percent support FBI surveillance of mosques.

In light of these attitudes -- and ignoring whether the courts would strike such a law down as unconstitutional -- is it absurd to think that a well-organized, well-funded ballot initiative to ban minarets would have a chance of passing in many U.S. states?

I don't mean to suggest that Americans are either more or less anti-Islamic or xenophobic than the Swiss, but I do think there's someting to Tyler Cowen's argument that, "Sooner or later an open referendum process will get even a very smart, well-educated country into trouble."

SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:EUROPE, ISLAM
 

BURNINGCHROME

3:05 AM ET

December 1, 2009

False choice!

The premise that dislike of Muslims (not withstanding right or wrong) is xenophobia is inherently flawed.

Islam is not a nationality or a race, it is an ideology and most Americans well understand that. Attitudes towards Muslims (again not withstanding right or wrong) are based on perceptions of Muslims and is not an indicator of general hostility to foreigners or Xenophobia.

I doubt a survey of immigrant's attitudes towards Muslims would be that different from the general population.

The vote to ban of minarets in Switzerland is quite specific. There has been a sizeable influx of Buddhists and Hindus yet no one has considered to vote against temple structures, or parts there of.

 

NAZIA

11:26 AM ET

December 1, 2009

Symbol of religiousness a threat

It would be better for developed countries to avoid such situation which would further agitate the religious sentiments of a specific groups that is being target without any logical observation.It is strong human instinct more you would try to impose restrictions on a group, more polarization would be observed in settled areas.
The group of militant that has been pasted on Islamic societies were backed and forced by western forces into war regions.Major contributor is this mess is US where mostly christian leadership planted these Islamic fanatics against communist flag carrier.Now situation is turning around as religious concepts are being bulldozed by forces of secularism.So it is occurring naturally and if management would try to impose it , it might counter react with volatile feed back.

 

BLUE13326

12:50 PM ET

December 1, 2009

I doubt most Americans know

I doubt most Americans know what minarets are, much less having seen them, so I doubt such a referendum would have much support. But, on your broader point, that Americans, like much of the West, would support restrictive policies toward Muslims, you're probably right. It's too bad, but then again, since our liberal intelligentsia is so taken with the idea of 'blowback' in relation to our policies, perhaps we can view this as something similar in response to the hatred and intolerance that's been flowing from the Muslim world. If this prompts the long overdue introspection of Muslims it would provide a great service.

And, in my nomination for most ironic statement of the decade, we get this gem from a Muslim in Turkey:

'Cavid Aksin, an Istanbul metalworker, was angered that the referendum coincided with the end of one of the most important religious feasts in the Muslim calendar. "I think Turkey should have a referendum on whether to close down its churches," he said.'

Ummm...yeah, didn't they like, kind of tear down those churches a long long time ago...

 

GRASHNAK

1:37 PM ET

December 1, 2009

Um, actually

Turkey has a small but thriving Christian population and numerous churches. So I'm not sure what your point was there.

 

JACK HAROUTUN

5:34 PM ET

December 1, 2009

Before WWI Turkey's Christian

Before WWI Turkey's Christian population was around 48 percent. Today that figure is right around 1 percent. So I'm not sure what your talking about but the Christian "problem" in Turkey was taken care of long ago. While there are remnants of a once thriving Christian population, this can hardly be called thriving today if even alive. I might characterize it as being on life support.

 

DRWXRXRX

1:40 PM ET

December 2, 2009

"very smart, well-educated country"?

"Sooner or later an open referendum process will get even a very smart, well-educated country into trouble."

The excerpt from Simon and Stevenson should prove that the US is not a smart, well-educated country.

 

JACKIE

9:53 AM ET

December 4, 2009

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