I have mixed feelings about the Swiss ban on minarets, much as I do about the French plans to ban some of the Islamic-style dress for women. I should first lay my own prejudice, or perhaps just preconceptions, down. First and foremost, I hold a belief that cultures are dynamic and ever changing and that any attempt to stagnate this change is futile at best and dangerous at worst. This prejudice leads me to conclude that the ban on minarets is a silly attempt by people who have decided that they don’t like the “foreign” influences this architectural style style represents.  This narrow minded way of thinking is an attempt to stagnate culture.

But there are two things that soften my view on this. Firstly, it was a decision that was decided by referendum. There is something I respect about the Swiss democracy that allows it to hold votes on laws that would be constitutionally impossible or banned by sort of EU-style trade agreement in most other western democracy. Much like I applaud the French who, though I may disagree with their position that a government should impose a dress code on its citizens, at least have an open enough society that people can say what they think. There is something insidious about the British chattering classes that made it almost impossible to discuss issues or race, or religion or discrimination publicly unless you have an update degree is sociology and keep abreast of the latest terms that do not cause offence. As a result plenty of prejudices fester beneath the surface in this country, never to be discussed. I’d hazard a guess that if the UK held a referendum, there would be a similar result (at least if everyone voted), but the chattering classes will never allow that to happen.

The second softener of this view is a question I have in my mind regarding how a culture is formed and changed. I’ve excepted that cultures fluctuate, they change with time and the personalities involved, but to suggest that this change is entirely organic and cannot be plotted or influenced in anyway is to deny the powerful affect that people like the Spice Girls, for example, have exuded simply because someone cleverly planned them that way.

There is a lot I like about Islam, but its current distinction between private and public life of men and women is not an influence I’d like to welcome into our society. Indeed, the multi-cultural approach of the UK seems a bit a flawed because it does not address how cultural clashes are to be resolved, and it breeds a false sense of hope in people if they sincerely believe that British society will accept the idea that only men can share in public life and that a woman’s life and family life is completely private. They will also be disappointed if they believe that “causing offence” is going to be removed from humour of the land that gave us Punch and Judy, and The Viz.

Multiculturalism will work in so far as British society will continue to be happy to adopt good ideas from foreign cultures, whether that be the Hindi invention of shampoo and pijamas (both derivatives from Hindi words) or the concept of karma, or tea, or chutney, or sugar or Jamaican patties or pasta or tomatoes, but these will only be accepted if they become part of British society much like a curry or a plate of spaghetti has become a staple of the British diet.

Minarets could well become part of British society, indeed, so too could Islam, but only if they both integrate themselves into British society and laws to stop either would be a shame, but laws that both protect our rights to be free citizens regardless of our gender are needed and perhaps at this junction in their history, a law banning Minarets is the only way to way protect those rights. I can’t imagine such a law would work in the UK, but then the British culture is steeped in the many cultures it has assimilated over years of Celtic rule, Anglo-Saxon invasion, Norman conquest, protestant refugees, escaping Jews, and the citizens of former colonies who have found there way here.

But maybe that is something the Swiss have done for the beneffit of  Europe and the Muslim:  by passing the law they have made it clear that while they are willing to accept people praticing their own religions, if they want to start to push religion on the society they are in they will meet with resistance.