Minarets or missiles???

The recent national referendum on the ban on minarets in Switzerland is of great concern.

Over last few years, Muslims in west have seen increasing Islamophobia, especially in Europe. The law in France banning head scarfs, Dutch Danish cartoons and now a Swiss ban on minarets.

There are only 4% Muslims in Switzerland and only 4 minarets in the whole country. I am at a loss to explain how an ordinary Swiss feels threatened by their law abiding countrymen who are Muslims.

Comparing the minarets to missiles is fear mongering and ignorance. The ideals of humanity, equality and tolerance which Switzerland and other European countries have followed for years, could not withstand the wave of Islamophobia.

This is a discriminatory vote against a minority group and their right of freedom of religion. According to Swiss law the results of this referendum will become part of their constitution. What if in the future the majority votes to…

Culinaria manager Tom Collora, Jr. works the phones at the customer service counter on Sept. 15. Photo by Robert Cohen.

Today’s A1 story about a crucifix on display at the new downtown Schnucks, called Culinaria, is creating a lot of traffic on stltoday.com.

And I’m getting a ton of phone calls and e-mails from people supporting Tom Collora, the store’s manager. Many of those readers feel like Christianity is under attack in American society, and that newspapers are the voice of such a movement.

Many of the callers are angry - both at those who have complained about the crucifix, and at the newspaper for reporting the story.

Some have used language we wouldn’t be able to print in the newspaper. Two have said they were canceling their subscriptions. One suggested a large swatch of his fellow Americans “go back to their own countries.”

Many more have (calmly) made valid points about cherished, Constitutionally-protected American values, like…