Minaret Ban

I don't know how big a deal it is in the States, but recently Switzerland voted to ban building new minarets in their country. Frobes has a good article about it. I have a picture of a minaret above so you all know what I am talking about. It is the equivalent of a church bell tower. Except from the minaret you don't hear bells, but rather the "azan" or call to prayer.

So if you hadn't guessed already, I think this is a stupid idea, along with most of the Arab world, the UN, and many other level headed individuals. It is xenophobic, and another case study of how Islamophobia is still so prevalent in the world.

But to get of my soap box, I want to talk about something that struck me deeper, and that I care about more than all these superficial arguments. In the village I live in there is a bombed out church that is partly destroyed, with no remnant of any symbols of christianity. It is the leftovers of the french occupation. Everytime I drive by it, which is everyday, I think how silly it is. Why is the huge building there? What motivates people to build something like that in a country it doesn't belong?

I have this feeling that when religion attaches itself to the State and to people wanting to advance their religion through power symbols, it becomes there desire to put their marks on city skylines. Within any city here minarets dominate the city skyline. The same is true of cathedrals in europe. It is no surprise that when Islamic armies conquered Jerusalem, they built Al-Aqsa mosque on top of the site of the old Jewish temple. It was a sign that Islam was now in charge.

The same thing was done in Cordoba, Spain. When Christian armies came south and reclaimed what was then called Al- Andalusia, the took the great mosque of Cordoba and turned it into a cathedral. This was also done in Damascus, except converting a church into a mosque.

True religion is not concerned with imposing itself upon the city skyline. It is not concerned with being an architecural symbol in the center of the city. True religion is about using funds to take care of widows and orhpans in their distress instead of buying gawdy building materials. For the Jesus of the gospels, the only skyline he found important was on a cross on Golgotha. And for me this is the only symbol on a skyline that has had tue power.


salaam alikum