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Swiss minarets ban is victory for intolerance and discrimination
December 1, 2009 2:05 PM
Commenting on the popular vote to change the constitution so as to ban the building of minarets in Switzerland, Sarah Ludford said:
"This vote is a victory for intolerance, discrimination, and restriction on freedom of religion and expression."
"It will surely, and rightly, fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights even though the Strasbourg Court has in my opinion taken some unjustified decisions supporting bans on the wearing by individuals of religious symbols."
"To compare this dismaying vote in Switzerland with the Liberal-led Danish government's refusal to ban the 'Prophet Muhammad' cartoons in
2005 is completely misplaced. That represented the upholding of liberal and democrat values of free speech."
"The lumping-together by the ban's proponents of an architectural feature, the minaret, with forced marriages and female 'circumcision' - genital mutilation - as threats from Islam is also absurd. There should and is nothing in human rights law to stop vigorous action to ban these latter two practices; quite the contrary in fact as they amount to gross abuses of fundamental rights whether perpetrated in the name of religion or not."
"A liberal society, which is what the European Convention binds us to, should be even-handed both in its support for freedoms and in its enforcement action against infringements."
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