Now I am not really a fan of religion, but the idea of banning minarets in Switzerland as proposed by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) just seems downright silly.
Or is it?
All kinds of religions have oppressed gay people since their conceptions, so is it really an unreasonable idea to ban not only minarets, but all built public religious symbols?
The SVP managed to gather the more than 100,000 signatures on a petition required for the question to be put to a national referendum. Is this Islamophobia? Probably. Does Islamophobia help the fight against homophobia? Probably. How does a government reconcile the two issues? Very carefully.
Read more about the Swiss situation here.
Friday, July 11, 2008
No minarets in Switzerland?
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2 comments:
Ergh. Islamophobia is not useful for combatting homophobia. Quite the opposite, in my opinion.
The people who are sponsoring the anti-minaret measure appear to have a classic case of "our way is the only good way," and are indulging themselves in the usual strategies of people who are agitating for a monoculture. Fear-mongering, stereotyping a diverse group as being best-represented by its worst elements (gender-relations among Muslims include as wide a spectrum as we see among Christians, from what I understand), promoting assimilation over acculturation (wearing the hijab is not an expression of hostility toward the West; cultural assimilation should not be the goal of Western society), etc. If these Islamophobes succeed, the fight against homophobia won't be advanced one jot, and worse, the usual strategies and phobias used to attack queers will have gained that much more strength.
As queers, we should be standing against Islamophobia, and calling out Islamophobes on both their phobias and their strategies. Where Islam and homophobia intersect, we should stand against the expressed homophobia, and not against Muslims-as-a-group.
Wedge strategies are much beloved by the white Christian heteropatriarchy, and for good reason. I say that we should stop falling for it.
Sanguinity's reply to g-poc's devil's advocacy is nothing short of brilliant. Sanguinity's promotion of assimilation over acculturation confronts the problem of intolerance without advocating intolerance. This is the paradigm shift required for a better world. Thanks to you both!
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