Democracy – The Right to Oppress?

Switzerland recently passed a law, which disallows the building minarets. This law was then backed up by a referendum where more than 57 percent of the voters backed that law.

Read the full article from the BBC here.

Today is the day that democracy truly lost its innocence. Its powers, meant to go good, were used for something terrible; it gave the majority the right to oppress. The Swiss handsomely demonstrated how democracy in the hands of a bunch of xenophones really can turn ugly.

In Holland and in Europe we have laws that have been in place that are there to protect the minorities with their own beliefs against predation from others. The right to build a minaret is as strong as the right to build a church with a bell tower. In my opinion Switzerland as a country has waived it’s duty to protect the freedom of religion of its minorities and – to top it off – justify this by means of democratic vote.

Utilizing referenda is democratic but the bottom line is, that the majority will always overrule the minority, especially when fear for other cultures and religions come into play. If you look at it this way it’s very easy to imagine stripping minorities of all their rights and excusing intolerance with the assurance that your justification lies with the number of votes. Is it democracy? Yes. Is it civilized? Definitely not!

Thank you Switzerland, for showing me your true colour. At least I now know that the majority of your voters are a bunch of bigots.