Swiss Minarets Poem by gershon hepner

Re minarets, some think the Swiss
are very seriously remiss,
believing that they should allow
these towers to be right now,
enabling Muslims all to gather
in mosques and tell the Swiss they’d rather
give up a lifestyle they condemn
and worshipALlah, just like them.

The Islamists are planning to
make every Christian, Hindu, Jew
turn to their prophet, who’s Mohammed,
and follow laws that run the gamet
from prohibition of cartoons
and miniskirts and hair saloons
where men can shave their beards to praying
five times a days, their imams saying
that they intend to change the Swiss,
complaining at the Swiss who diss
the way they’re causing havoc in
their country. It is not a sin
to stand up for your rights although
it’s hard to go against the flow
of PC nonsense that’s the jam
on toast we’re made of by Islam.

Because I love Swiss chocolate
I feel compelled to mock a lot
of people who support a ban
on facts which long have hit the fan
The votes that all the Swiss are countin’
won’t keep Mohammed from their mountain,
but since their voters gave him hell,
let’s wish them well. Like William Tell,
they’re fighting for their freedom. We
should too, if we love liberty.
For those who don’t, in my kiosk
I’ll sell you, if you want, a mosque.

Nick Cumming-Bruce writes about the Swiss ban on minarets (“Swiss Ban on Minaret Building Meets Widespread Criticism, ” NYT, December 1,2009) :
Switzerland’s political leaders faced a chorus of criticism at home and abroad on Monday over a ban on the construction of minarets that passed overwhelmingly by referendum on Sunday. The ban has propelled the country to the forefront of a European debate on how far countries should go to assimilate Muslim immigrants and Islamic culture. Government ministers trying to contain the fallout voiced shock and disappointment with the result, which the Swiss establishment newspaper Le Temps called a “brutal sign of hostility” to Muslims that was “inspired by fear, fantasy and ignorance.”The country’s justice minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, said that the vote was not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture, but that it reflected fears among the population. With support for the ban from 57.5 percent of voters, however, ministers were forced to admit they had failed to quell popular anxieties about the impact of what right-wing parties have portrayed as “creeping Islamization.” Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf acknowledged that the vote was “undeniably a reflection of the fears and uncertainties that exist among the population — concerns that Islamic fundamentalist ideas could lead to the establishment of parallel societies.”
Outside Switzerland, criticism was harsh. “I am a bit shocked by this decision, ” France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said in an interview with RTL radio, calling it “an expression of intolerance.” He added: “I hope the Swiss come back on this decision.” Sweden’s foreign minister, Carl Bildt, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, described the vote as “an expression of quite a bit of prejudice and maybe even fear.”Muslim communities in Switzerland reacted cautiously. “We were a bit shocked; we hadn’t expected this result, ” Abdel Majri, the president of the League of Swiss Muslims, said in an interview. “This is another step toward Islamophobia in Switzerland and Europe in general.”

12/2/09