They toasted to progress in Europe’s capitals last week. On Tuesday, the Treaty of Lisbon went into effect, bringing the nations of the European Union one step closer to the unity the Continent’s elite has been working toward for over 50 years. But the treaty’s implementation fell just days after a milestone of a different sort: a referendum in Switzerland, long famous for religious tolerance, in which 57.5 percent of voters chose to ban the nation’s Muslims from building minarets. Switzerland isn’t an E.U. member state, but the minaret moment could have happened almost anywhere in Europe nowadays — in France, where officials have floated the possibility of banning the burka; in Britain, which elected two representatives of the fascistic, anti-Islamic British National Party to the European Parliament last spring; in Italy, where a bill introduced this year would ban mosque construction and restrict the Islamic call to prayer.
Note EU-Digest: Fortunately this is only one opinion. What needs to be addressed in the EU, howeve, is that freedom of religion, in the case of its Muslims citizens, does not mean liberty to use their places of worship to promote activities favorable to Shari Law - a law which does not fit in any modern secular society, and more so a law which is degenerating to women. The sanctity of the Mosques can also not be allowed to plan terrorist acts or to promote aggressive behavior against any other country. European governments must legislate zero tolerance laws on this issue and categorically not accept these kind of activities by any religion. The referendum in Switzerland showed that the European voter will take action in their own hands when Governments show weakness by not daring to stop what can only be described as provocative religious behavior in a secular environment.
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