Germans Say Muslims Must Show “Restraint” With Mosques
Following the Swiss referendum to ban mosques with minarets, Christian Democratic state interior ministers in Germany on Thursday recommended Muslims show “restraint” when building houses of worship.
“Naturally the Muslims in Germany have a right to build mosques. But they should make sure not to overwhelm the German population with them” Hessian Interior Minister and conservative Christian Democrat Volker Bouffier told daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (interview is in German so use an online translator if you need to!)
Large mosque minarets or domes that dominate the skyline will only create fears of Islamisation and fuel protests, Bouffier told the paper. The country’s state interior ministers discussed it during their regularly scheduled conference on Thursday and afterwards made an appeal to Muslim associations to avoid such structures, even if they are legal according to building regulations, in addition to “further intensifying the dialogue with Muslims in Germany”.
Attempts to prevent the construction of mosques in Germany have made national headlines in recent years. This November workers in Cologne broke ground on a large, futuristic mosque with 180-foot minarets after it drew protestors from across the continent. To avoid inflaming public sentiment against the project, the Ditib Turkish association, which organised the mosque’s construction, agreed to not broadcast the call to prayer to the neighbourhood from the minarets and to keep the building’s height the same as nearby structures.
In Berlin’s Pankow district the first mosque to be built in former East Germany opened in October 2008 after two petitions for a referendum failed. Meanwhile residents of Gelsenkirchen, Munich and Dortmund are collecting signatures to prevent mosque construction in their communities.
Following on from the political moves in Denmark to ban minarets there and similar efforts in Italy reported over on A Tangled Web (sorry no direct link, will fix that) it appears that this drive across Europe is gathering pace.
I dont know what minarets has to do with religion. Well!! one thing I ask the hardcore protestors who protest against these bans is..Why is certain religious monuments NOT EVEN ALLOWED in islamic countries.
is that not an irony?
Quite handy that the Swiss voted for their ban really, a clear warning to the Moslems but we in ‘EU’ are not to blame 😉 .
To be fair our local Islamic people are building a new mosque but it cannot go above the three story skyline ( incl. minaret ) so the main building is actually rather small and you can only see the minaret from certain directions.
Sorcerer, you are right, there is no need for minarets at all these days. Why? Because historically these minarets didn’t exist at all in Islam till centuries afterward. The purpose for them was since Islamic cities grew in populations and high buildings it was to guide people to where the mosques were. Now days you can easily find a any place of worship easily.
I think because Muslims grew accustom to having them they think they are necessary. It is the duty of the learned ones to educate the masses that they are not necessary at all. Like Blair said, “education, education, education” is the key to everything.
A good point, and they don’t have much to do with religion historically. It’s the political rather than any religious that use they are put to now which the Swiss and others are finding intimidating. The Turkish PM describing them as the “bayonets of Islam” played completely into the hands of those pointing out that all of the traffic in religious buildings is in one direction as you rightly note.
That would have been the less provocative way forward for the Swiss and others of course – to curtail the percieved dominance using planning laws. They would point out, quite rightly, that in the courts and in front of a favourable judge then planning restrictions and zoning would be overturned and trumped by religious expression and human rights.
Its interesting that so many of the things which we associate as being an essential part of religion are actually later addons for much more practical reasons.
Spires, as you say, were there for direction finding purposes and as such they have dwindled in use now…you might get a token raised point now on a newer church for the sake of tradition but the days of building massive spires has gone.