What exactly is offensive about long, skinny towers?  Fucking hypocrites should look at the building at the center of every town before they start banning architectural tastes.

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I understand their uneasiness with the growth of Islam.  However, banning architecture is just silly, accomplishes nothing other than increased tension between Muslims and non-Muslims, and worst of all, misses the opportunity to deal with the real problem - Islam, the set of ideas, the actual religious teachings of Islam.  It is those teachings that need to be addressed in public discourse.  But it is easier to ban architectural designs than to actual question and challenge religious ideas.  After years of discussion on this subject, I keep returning to Sam Harris’ thesis in TEoF - that we need to practice conversational intolerance of anything that is not reasonable.

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What a disgrace for the Swiss people. I understand why so many people are uneasy with Islam, but this type of thing is not just ethically unjust (and it’s pretty cowardly as well), it’s strategically counter-productive. This is exactly the sort of thing that will raise tensions further and create solidarity amongst Muslims while justifying their mistrust of “The West”.

- J. M. Gore

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I’m swiss and I have to say today I’m ashamed of my country :(
here is another articel on the german scienceblogs (but the article is in english):
http://www.scienceblogs.de/zoonpolitikon/2009/11/a-majority-of-swiss-voters-are-bigots.php

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Try applying for planning permission to construct a building that looked like a minaret and see how far you get.

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