Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa: Ban on Swiss Minaret Insults Muslims Around the World

Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa is quoted overly reacting against a proposal by Swiss people to ban minarets in Switzerland by a referendum since 2000. Islamic minarets, according to Answers.com are "... tall slender tower attached to a mosque, having one or more projecting balconies from which a muezzin summons the people to prayer."

In the Middle East, minarets are mounted with large speakers that are used calling Muslims to pray five times from dawn 'till the last prayer at night after sundown. During prayer time, echoes from the minarets is heard all over cities and desert wherever people are. In a small area, you can find 5 minarets or more almost every corner of streets. You can just imagine the blasting noise around. Are the Swiss people ready to hear "Allahu Akhbar" shouted 5 times a day within their communities? I doubt it.

Egypt mufti says Swiss minaret ban insults Muslims (Thanks to AFP)

CAIRO — Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa denounced a vote to ban new minarets in Switzerland on Sunday as an "insult" to Muslims across the world, while calling on Muslims not to be provoked by the move.

Whereas in the Middle East, Church bells and crosses are banned. Catholic Churches in Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE and Qatar, Catholic Churches were advised not to put any cross on top of their churches or to mount bells. And Christians are never insulted. We simply abide according to avoid Muslims sensitivities.

A solid majority of Swiss voters chose in a referendum to ban the construction of new minarets, the towers attached to mosques from which the call to prayers is announced.

"This proposal...is not considered just an attack on freedom of beliefs, but also an attempt to insult the feelings of the Muslim community in and outside Switzerland," Gomaa, the Egyptian government's official interpreter of Islamic law, told the state-run news agency MENA.

And Catholic Churches and other Christian communities in the Middle East do not enjoy freedom of worship as much as Muslims living in Christian dominated cities such as Switzerland.

He encouraged Switzerland's 400,000-strong Muslim community to use "dialogue" and legal means to contest the ban, which he described as "provocative behaviour."

Catholics and other Christians are not allowed to encourage Christians to contest government religious decisions in the Middle East.

The rightist Swiss People's Party (SVP) -- Switzerland's biggest party -- had forced the referendum after collecting a mandatory 100,000 signatures from eligible voters within 18 months.

Gomaa also called on Muslims not to be affected "by this provocation," adding that Islam "considers humanity a single family."

In reality, Islam considers Muslims as one humanity and other faiths second.

Egypt is the most populous Arab country and was at the forefront of a backlash against Denmark in 2006 after a Danish newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.

Muslims are quick to criticize Western government of their decision to ban minarets but they do not see right within their communities in the Middle East that Christians are treated second class citizens BANNING CHRISTIANS TO PUT UP CROSSES ON TOP OF THEIR CHURCHES not even a bell to ring during Sundays.

At JihadWatch.org, similarly, Susanp's reaction resounds that of my observation:

"That must be why they forbid religious freedom in the KSA but demand it in the U.S. and Europe. I will never understand why we tolerate those *** hypocrites."

Muslims should be thankful they are still allowed to migrate to non-islamic countries considering the security threats they pose, not to mention the endless problems they create with incessant, outrageous demands and fraudulent accusations against their host nations. The indigenous Christians in the Middle East, who were there long before the *** advent of islam and the first *** muslim, are treated like second-class (or worse) citizens but muslims want to invade our countries and impose their *** culture, religion, and political system on us. This is a welcome set-back for islamic imperialism and I don't think less of the Swiss people, I applaud them!

Another reaction from Islamization Watch from BBC:

"[Muslims] are seen as not just resistant to integration, but determined to impose their values on the Christian or post-Christian societies of the West.